Qatari intelligence spied on Bahrain

Manama : Bahrain-based Al-Ayam newspaper today exposed the details of Qatar's hostile activities including several actual cases of espionage against the Kingdom of Bahrain.

In 1987, Qatar recruited S.M.A a military serviceman to spy and collect sensitive information about Bahrain's military readiness in Hawar islands. He was caught and sentenced to ten years in jail before and he was released under an Amiri pardon in 1993, according to Al Ayam daily.

In 1988, Qatar's intelligence recruited two Bahraini Interior Ministry personnel (M.M.M) and (M.S.M) and agreed with them in an Arab country to pass sensitive information to Qatar regarding Bahrain armed forces, its military formations, maneuvers, airbases, warplanes and weapons systems. Both spies were arrested and sentenced to five years in jail each.

In 1996, Qatari intelligence sent its officer (F.A) along with a Qatari woman (S.F) (wife of a Bahraini husband and resident of Bahrain at that time) who had been recruited by Qatar in 1993 to collect sensitive information. Their mission was mainly to collect military, economic, security and community-related information and also about the visits of Bahrain's leadership to Hawar islands, the relationship between the Government and Shiite population, the names of military officers and NCOs. Both members of the said Qatari espionage cell were arrested in October 1996 and sentenced to three years in jail each before both were released under an Amiri pardon in the same year and left from Bahrain to Qatar, the newspaper said.

Also in 1996, the Qatari intelligence agency recruited a military serviceman (S.A.R) who frequently travelled to Qatar to visit his auntie and children who lived in Qatar. He provided the Qatari intelligence agency with latest numbers of BDF recruits as he was working in the Records Section. He also received one of the Qatari intelligence elements and assisted him in photographing vital and sensitive installations. He was arrested in the same year and was sentenced to eight years in jail, his rank demoted and expelled from military service.

These are only some of the cases of Qatar's incessant infringements of Bahrain's national security as well as hostile and provocative acts in the past, according to the newspaper.