Bahrain sets up Internal Affairs Ministry

Bahraini King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa on Sunday issued a decree to set up the Ministry of State for Interior Affairs and appoint an intelligence chief to head it, Bahrain News Agency said.

Major-General Adel bin Khalifa Al-Fadhil has been the chief of National Security Agency (NSA) since 2011.

The intelligence agency has been reformed in accordance to a report of an independent inquiry commission charged with probing security members’ torturous acts toward anti-government protesters. The reform mainly took away its power to detain people.

The royal decree didn’t explain the missions of the new ministry as Bahrain already has the Interior Ministry responsible for the public security forces.