Protests cast cloud on Bahrain Grand Prix
Pro-democracy demonstrators set tires alight
The smell of burning rubber hung thick in the air as Formula One came to Bahrain on Sunday. Away from the Grand Prix circuit, though, it came not from high-performance cars, but piles of tires set alight by pro-democracy demonstrators. In the run-up to Sunday’s race, the blazes sent large palls of smoke across the city — intended as a message to visiting F1 fans that not everyone approved of the afternoon’s entertainment.
The message did not seem to get through, if a straw poll of fans buying last-minute tickets outside the circuit was anything to go by. “It’s a shame that people are trying to mix sports and politics,” said one British woman. “If they sent these protesters to Russia for a week, they would realize how nice life in Bahrain is,” scoffed a Russian fan.
The day passed in much the same fashion as others in the past week here have done, with the capital, Manama, under a heavy police presence as sporadic demonstrations took place. Or so The Telegraph understands: just after 4 p.m. local time police detained this newspaper’s correspondent, along with a Dutch colleague and our translator and driver. We had been driving through the Shiite neighbourhood of Sanabis and were told we were suspected of attending an “illegal demonstration.”
After half an hour at a police checkpoint we were taken to a police station while our press credentials were checked.
By the standards of Middle Eastern detentions, it was tame stuff. We were sat in the lobby, not in a cell and were allowed to use our mobile phones. However, for our translator, a local activist named Mohammed Hassan Sudaif, it was no doubt a rather more anxious affair. He had just been released from custody that morning, having been arrested and beaten up while accompanying journalists to a demonstration on Friday.
Three hours later we were all released, with no further explanation. Mohammed was not impressed. “This would not happen in a truly free country,” he said.