November 8: The most consequential sentences in Bahrain of the century -. King Hamads project to empty Bahrain's Shia society of its future religious authorities by Abbas Al-Murshid -. Bahraini scholar forcibly exiled / Mirat al-Bahrain There are just days left before what may turn out to be the most influential trials of the century in Bahrain, when more than fifty scholars and clerics are on trial amid difficult questions about the evidence linking them to the charges brought against them and whether this evidence is sufficient to secure convictions. For the first time on this scale, the ruling family moved to build a politically charged case in which the accused are clerics, seminary teachers, lawyers and religious educators. Over the past few decades, the regime has arrested and prosecuted a number of researchers, but such measures have generally been framed as part of its confrontations with the political opposition. But this time the religious establishment itself became a target in itself. This makes it justified and logical to hold King Hamad bin Issa Al Khalifa politically responsible for these trials, especially when the campaign of arrests followed his speech last May, in which he spoke in particularly strong terms, using harsh language against those he accused of links to external threats. The security services, with their familiar team of operatives in their usual exorcism goggles, conducted a sweeping campaign involving well-known religious figures. The case then moved to the courts in a political and security context whose broad direction was determined by the country's highest leadership. This responsibility warrants examining the character of the targeted investigators before turning to the expected verdicts. Three overlapping levels of influence on Shiite society in Bahrain can be discerned in the actions of the governments: