Bahrain press protest gag order on election case

MANAMA, Oct 15 (Reuters) Newspaper editors in Bahrain today urged the judiciary to lift a ban on reporting the case of a government adviser who was deported after alleging irregularities in planned general elections.

The adviser, British citizen Salah al-Bander, was sacked and deported to Britain in September for what a government minister said was an attempt to foment civil strife in the Gulf state.

An official at the government's foreign media office, who declined to be named, said the reporting ban was imposed earlier this month to ensure an impartial investigation into the case.

''We (editors in chief) believe the decision of the High Criminal Court to ban our press from reporting on the case morally harms society, the Bahraini press and the homeland in general,'' said the letter published in several newspapers and addressed to the Supreme Judiciary Council.

The case, dubbed ''Bandergate'', initially made headlines in the small island kingdom, which is due to hold parliamentary and municipal elections on November 25.

Bander's Bahraini wife, democracy activist Layla Rajab Zayed, said her husband's report alleged the government was paying people to undermine Shi'ite opposition parties.

Sectarian tensions often cast a shadow over politics in Bahrain, a US ally ruled by Sunni Muslims but which has a Shi'ite majority.

Bahrain's cabinet affairs minister has said that Bander, who is of Sudanese origin, was sacked for attempting to ''shake national unity'' and to break into a government database.

Opposition groups are due to take part in this year's election after boycotting a 2002 poll in protest at what they said was government interference in the make-up of parliament.

Shi'ite leaders and rights groups accuse the government of pro-Sunni gerrymandering and naturalising Sunni foreigners. Bahraini officials deny the claims.

REUTERS SY VV1711