Bahrain inquiry receives 5,200 complaints so far

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REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed

Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry says deadline for cases in Sept 30; final report on Oct 30

The Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI) said on Friday that it had so far received more than 5,200 complaints for investigation.

It said in a statement published by state news agency BPA that the final date for the submission of complaints would be September 30.

The final report is due to be submitted on October 30 to King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa and will be made public in its entirety, it added.

The Commission was established in late June and is mandated to investigate and report on the unrest that took place in Bahrain in February and March this year.

The island kingdom, a financial hub where nearly $9 billion in mutual funds is parked, was rocked by its worst public unrest since the 1990s.

Around 30 people died in a month of unrest which brought in Saudi troops, closed banks and shops and triggered capital flight.

Economic losses have been estimated at $2bn as a result of the uprisings and its impact on business.

Bahrain’s economy shrank by 1.4 percent quarter-on-quarter in the first three months of 2011 as unrest hit businesses in the tourism sector, its first quarterly contraction since the global financial crisis in late 2008, data showed earlier this month.

The small non-OPEC oil exporter saw its real gross domestic product growing by a sharply revised 0.2 percent in the final three months of 2010 compared with the previous quarter, the data from the Central Informatics Organisation showed.

On an annual basis, GDP growth slowed to 1.8 percent in the first quarter from a revised 3.7 percent in October-December 2010, the data also showed.

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