TEHRAN — Protests spread across Bahrain over the weekend as demonstrators demanded the release of detained Shia scholars and clerics, and security forces responded by arresting at least 25 people in raids and summonses.

Marchers filled streets in Sitra Island, Al-Hamala, Al-Markh and Iskan Ali, carrying portraits of jailed clerics and of Sheikh Isa Ahmed Qassim, the country’s senior Shia authority.

Organizers called it a “Day of Popular Anger.” The demand was simple: free every detainee, clerics first, and drop the cases.

On Sunday, a court postponed to Nov. 22 its verdict against 69 defendants, 60 of them clerics, accused of forming a “terrorist group” and “plotting against the constitutional order.”

56 are in custody, and 13 clerics are being tried in absentia. The World Organization Against Torture says the proceedings are marred by torture allegations, and rights groups told Alhurra that confessions were coerced.

Sheikh Qassim, stripped of his citizenship in 2016, urged supporters to back the defendants peacefully.

The security forces did not wait for the marches to end. On Nov. 8, they took Hajj Hassan Al-Muallima, head of the Sanabis matam, and administrator Hajj Ahmed Eid, plus Sayed Ali Ibrahim, Hussein Ali Mahdi, Hussein Mirza Al-Hilli and Saeed Mohammed Saeed, all summoned for questioning. In Abu Saiba, officers chased down Hassan Mohammed Jassim, Sadiq Jaafar Al-Mahari and Sayed Mohammed Hashim.

A barbershop raid in Bani Jamra netted Mohsen Isa Zaid and Reda Zakaria Adam, and home raids caught Mahmoud Saeed Al-Sheikh and Ali Mohsen Al-Muadhin.

The days before followed the same script. Ahmed Zain Al-Din and Abdulqader Al-Fatlawi disappeared into custody in Al-Qarya on Nov. 7.

Six men, among them Mohammed Hadi and Abbas Ali Abbas Al-Daqqaq, were summoned and held on Nov. 6. In Al-Daraz on Nov. 5, three Fateel men were arrested with Sayed Jaafar Al-Mahfoudh and Sayed Ali Al-Gharifi.

Bahrain has seen this before, at a smaller scale. Night raids on clerics’ homes began May 9, and the Americans for Democracy and Human Rights in Bahrain counts 53 clerics held.

Two Bahraini rights groups told AFP that more than 200 people, mostly Shia, had been detained since the Iran war began, and Reuters reported that 69 citizens of Iranian descent lost their nationality.

The template dates to 2011, when the Western-backed monarchy crushed a movement for an elected government with help from Saudi and Emirati troops. Saudi Arabia sent about 1,000 soldiers across the King Fahd Causeway in March 2011, and the United Arab Emirates sent roughly 500 security forces.

Bahrain’s ties to the West help explain why the crackdown draws so little pressure from abroad. The U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet is headquartered in Manama, and Washington has treated Bahrain as a major non-NATO ally since 2002.

In 2020, the kingdom signed the “Abraham Accords” and normalized relations with Israel, and in 2023 it signed a new security and military agreement with the United States.

Through all of this, the arrests of clerics, the revocations of citizenship, and the mass trials have continued, and rights groups say Western governments have not objected.