A former member of parliament in Bahrain has been detained on charges of financing militants, Reuters on Monday, August 24th reported citing state news agency BNA said late on SundayThe agency did not name the man but quoted the director of criminal investigations as saying he was held on Aug. 18 after returning from a trip to collect funds in Iran.
The Shi`ite group Al-Wefaq said in a statement it had not heard from one of its senior members, Sheikh Hassan Issa, since he was detained on Aug. 18, though it did not confirm he was the man mentioned in the report.
Bahrain says the opposition has a sectarian agenda and is backed by Shi’ite IranThe director of criminal investigation said the detainee had collected donations from various sources, including participants in rallies, to give to suspects being sought by the authorities as well as “a terrorist group” knowing about its activities.
The charges he was facing amounted to “financial terrorism”, the director was quoted as saying. “He said the name of the arrestee was mentioned in a number of terrorist cases, including the Sitra terrorist blast on July 28 that killed two policemen,” BNA said.
Issa was elected in the 2010 parliamentary poll but resigned a year later during the protests.
Al-Wefaq leader Sheikh Salman was sentenced in June to four years in jail after he was convicted of inciting unrest. Sharif, who was freed on June 19 after serving more than four years of a five-year sentence, had been charged with advocating the violent overthrow of the government. 
Sharif’s trial was set to start on Monday