Bahrain charges, then releases 4 United States journalists

The protests were quashed after Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates sent in reinforcements.

Prosecutors in Bahrain have charged four U.S. journalists with participating in an unlawful gathering, but released them pending further investigation.

It is not immediately clear whether they have been granted permission to leave Bahrain.

Only one of the four journalists has been identified so far, freelancer Anna Therese Day of Boise, Idaho.

Details of what the four are accused of doing also have been sparse.

A police armored vehicle splattered with paint bombs fires tear gas toward Bahraini anti-government protesters during clashes in Sitra, Bahrain, on Sunday, Feb. 14, 2016.

Bahrain is a small island nation with a predominantly Shiite population ruled by a Sunni minority.

The crackdown led to a three-month state of martial law and included a wave of repression and censorship that targeted cyber activists and online platforms used to organise demonstrations, such as Facebook.

Bahrain police said they dispersed the rioters in accordance with Bahraini law.

“At least some of the arrestees were in the country as members of the global media but had not registered with the concerned authority and were involved in illegal activities”, the statement said, without elaborating on what those activities were.

Jesse Ayala, a friend in NY, said Day and her crew “were not on an exclusive assignment” when they were arrested.

“The public prosecution stated that security authorities detained four USA nationals during the incident as a result of their involvement in the criminal acts, and that one of the individuals was concealing his face at the time of his arrest”, BNA said in the statement.

Bahrain requires worldwide journalists to obtain special media visas before entering Bahrain to work.

A local source who reported having met with the journalists following their release said that they were expected to be deported to Dubai within hours.

The Committee to Protect Journalists and other press-freedom organizations had demanded the immediate release of Day and her crew.