Bahrain Says It Will End State of Emergency

JERUSALEM — The king of Bahrain said Sunday that the state of emergency he imposed in mid-March to quell antigovernment protests on that strategic and contested island will end June 1.

The announcement is a sign that Bahrain is seeking to assure banks and foreign governments that the chaos of recent months is over and that the kingdom, which depends heavily on financial business, is trying to return to normal.

It is also a sign that the numerous arrests and rushed trials of opposition figures in military courts could be running their course. Some leading opposition figures went on trial as the announcement was being made.

Bahrain is a majority Shiite Muslim country run by a Sunni royal family and elite. The government cracked down hard on the protests, which the organizers said were inspired by Egypt and Tunisia but which the government accused of being aided by Iran, which is predominantly Shiite.

The day before declaring the three-month state of emergency, the king brought in about 2,000 troops from Saudi Arabia and other neighboring countries.

Since then, hundreds of protesters and activists, including opposition leaders, have been arrested. Under the emergency statutes, they are tried in military courts and face harsh punishment through antiterrorism laws, including the death penalty. The protests have led to the deaths of at least 30 people. Among those due to be tried are journalists and medical personnel.

Some people reacted with joy to the impending end to the emergency statute.

“I am quite pleased,” Jasim Husain Ali, a legislator with the opposition Wefaq party, said by telephone. “This is what Bahrain needs now: to get on with business and with developing the political economy.”

But others saw the announcement as a ruse.

“This is a cosmetic step trying to show the international community that everything is back to normal when it is not,” Nabil Rajab, president of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, said in a telephone interview. “I don’t see it as a real initiative that will solve problems. Otherwise they would release political prisoners. The dispute is wider now than it was one month ago between the ruling elite and the people.”

The Bahrain Grand Prix, originally scheduled for March 13 and a source of a big government investment, was postponed because of the unrest.

Formula One’s governing body said last week that Bahrain had until June 3 to decide if a new date could be set for this year. If Bahrain does plan to go ahead with the race, that would help explain the lifting of the state of emergency on June 1 rather than June 15 as originally planned, several Bahrainis said.