Bahrain Mirror (Exclusive): Bahraini Follow-up Minister at the Royal Court Ahmed Attia Allah Al Khalifa started an aggressive feud with the Bahraini Prime Minister Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa thrusting the conflict between the Al-Khawalid's wing and Khalifa Bin Salman's wing into the public eye.

This came as a result of conversations between the Council of Ministers Assistant Undersecretary Ibrahim Al-Dosari and former MP Anas Bu Hindi, where Al-Dosari described Ahmed Attia Allah as a "dog".

A then new Twitter account under the name Na'eb Ta'eb (@Emp_Bahrain) spearheaded Attia Allah's attack on Khalifa's wing.

Other public figures joined in on this feud such as former President of Parliament Ahmad Al-Mulla, MPs Khalifa Al-Shaer and Jamal Bu Hassan, who joined Attia Allah after being attacked by Al-Dosari in his leaked conversations. Joining the PM's side was MP Aballah Bin Huwayel.

Immediately after these conversations were discovered (February 2018), the 2 MPs Khalid Al-Shaer and Jamal Bouhassan sued MPs Anas Bu Hendi and Ibrahim Al-Dosari.

The Khawalid utilized their influence to respond to the Prime Minister, and as such, the Minister of Justice Khalid bin Ali Al Khalifa removed Anas Bu Hendi from his post, and requested that the parliament lift his legal immunity, so that his trial may proceed.

A few days later, 5 MPs requested that a commission be created to investigate the ownership of a land on which Ibrahim Al-Dosari built a mall in Eastern Rifaa. MP Khalid Al-Shaer said that this land was originally reserved for a school and has a retail price of 7 million dinars. The parliament agreed on the formation of this commission which will investigate the issue if Al Reem Mall. During this time, Attia Allah's accounts kept attacking Khalifa Bin Salman and accusing him of usurping the land and granting it to Al-Dosari illegally.

These measures angered PM Khalifa Bin Salman who considered them as personal attacks, so he publicly attacked the Ministry of Interior's Cybercrime Department and said during his weekly council meeting that it was spreading sedition between the citizens, in the presence of Ibrahim Al-Dosari.

Later on, a journalist discovered that Khalifa Bin Salman had refused to meet up with the president of parliament Ahmad Al-Mulla because of the investigation commission which was to look into his ownership of the land.

Khalifa bin Salman increased his aggression by resorting to Saudi Arabia to help resolve the conflict. He later said that Gulf leaderships are looking into this issue and are not okay with what is happening pointing out to Saudi Arabia's support of him.

Khalifa said in a counterattack that the Parliamentary investigation commission was created illegally and denied having acquired any plot of land illegally, describing the news being circulated online as a pile of trash and warning that he is capable of ending this issue.

Shortly afterwards, some MPs announced that they would be leaving the investigation commission, and MP Khalid Al-Shaer ended the investigation by confirming that the land is legally owned, despite hinting on Twitter a day earlier that he was under pressure to finish the commission's job pledging to continue the investigation even if it cost him his life.

The parliament also refused to lift Anas Bu Hendi's immunity after Al-Shaer and Bu Hassan pulled their case against him back.

In a rather large retreat for the Khawalid, the Minister of Interior was allowed to take action against the owners of the Twitter account "Na'eb Ta'eb" and others who were behind the online attack on the prime minister. The Minister also announced that he is currently taking strict measures to address this digital chaos and unprecedented disorder from accounts claiming to be managed by the Royal office.

Authorities had arrested 6 people behind the account "Na'eb Ta'eb". The 6 people are media figure Muhamad Al-Shorouqi, Abdullah Youssef Al-Malood, Khalid Mohammad Mohammad, Rashid Saad Al-Dosari (who works for the Ministry's cybercrime department), Fahd Saleh Al-Shamry, and Ministry officer Abdulaziz Mohammad Matar.

As the feud seemed to end, the six were released quietly and the account's tweets were still there. Before arresting the son of former MP Mohammad Khalid over the charge of participating in running this account, after his father reported him, accounts aligned with the prime minister which were made to face the wing of Ahmed Attia Allah revealed that the Chief Editor Al-Watan newspaper Youssif Al-bin Khalil was in the same cell, helping them by reporting their news and offering technical support.

A tweet by the "Na'eb Ta'eb" account showed that Al-Bin Khalil was directly behind the account.

The general prosecution summoned Al-Bin Khalil to investigate the complaint against him submitted by MP Anas Bu Hendi accusing him of defamation and slander, after his paper had run an article under the title "The People of Sixth Southern [district] thank Minister of Justice for Removing Anas Bu Hendi from Post".

In October, Al-Bin Khalil was sentenced to a month with a bail of 100 dinars and suspension of the execution of the sentence. His verdict was replaced with a manual punishment.

In the end, Khalid Al-Shaer was also removed from post after he was barred from nominating himself again in the elections, in addition to former president of parliament Ahmad Al-Mulla. Meanwhile, people aligned with the prime minister put the final nail in the coffin of the Khawalid when they hacked "Na'eb Ta'eb" account and controlled its content to the favor of prince.

Arabic Version