Bahrain continues to detain females

The Saudi-backed Bahraini regime admits that its security forces are still holding 20 women in detention for holding a protest against the Al Khalifa monarchy in Manama, Press TV reports Those still in the regime's detention are among the 45 females, who came under arrest in the capital on Saturday for chanting slogans against the ruling regime in a shopping mall. The protest had been formed against recent controversial parliamentary by-elections, which, according to Bahraini government's own website, were shunned by over 80 percent of the legitimate voters. Amnesty International on Monday said the females -- who included seven minors -- had been tortured and denied legal representation. "They were apprehended without arrest orders, interrogated without lawyers present and some of them reportedly tortured or otherwise ill-treated," the group said. Meanwhile, Bahrain's Military Prosecutor-General Yussef Fleilfal announced on Monday that the sheikhdom's military court had sentenced another 32 people to 15 years in prison for participating in pro-democracy demonstrations earlier this year. Bahrainis have been holding peaceful anti-government rallies since mid-February, demanding an end to the Al Khalifa's over-40-year-long rule over the Persian Gulf island. Scores of people have been killed and hundreds more arrested in a brutal Manama-ordered and Riyadh-backed crackdown in the country, which hosts a huge American military installation for the US Navy's Fifth Fleet in the Persian Gulf.