Iran’s Assembly of Experts has strongly condemned the Bahraini regime’s recent raid on the residence of the spiritual leader of the country.

The Assembly said in a statement on Friday that the inhumane treatment of Ayatollah Sheikh Isa Qassim by the ruling Aal-e Khalifa minority regime of Bahrain, which has been aided by the Saudi regime, would “create a tide and a storm that will not subside except with the toppling of the oppressive system.”

Bahraini forces raided the northwestern village of Diraz on Tuesday, clashed with people who had gathered to protect the sheikh, killed five of them, and then stormed into his house.

Sheikh Qassim faces expulsion from Bahrain after authorities revoked his citizenship last year. Ever since, the public has been staging day-to-day sit-ins in front of his house in Diraz, and the government has placed the village under a siege.

Protests escalated on Monday after a court convicted the cleric of what it said were the illegal collection of funds and money laundering and sentenced him to one year in jail suspended for three years.