Amnesty International Condemns Bahraini Crackdown on Activists

Rasa - Amnesty International condemned Bahraini regime for cracking down activists and postponing the trial of detainees.

News ID: 426824

Date: 25 January 2017 - 20:08

RNA - The human rights body specifically condemned the postponing of the trial of Nabeel Rajab for the sixth times that makes his future uncertain and unable to leave the country for a long time.

"The Bahraini authorities must stop playing games with Nabeel Rajab's freedom. He has been arrested and released repeatedly over the past five years and has been banned from leaving the country,” Samah Hadid, Deputy Director of Campaigns at Amnesty International's Regional office in Beirut said.

“By postponing his trial for a sixth time today they are cruelly stringing him along as punishment for his peaceful activism. Their refusal to release him from custody in December despite a court order suggests this is part of a deliberate strategy to harass him," she added.

"Instead of flouting his rights to freedom of expression and depriving him of his liberty they should end this campaign of harassment, immediately and unconditionally release him and drop all the charges against him," she went on to say.

Nabeel Rajab in put on trial by Bahraini regime for his Twitter posts criticizing the killing of civilians in the Yemen by the Saudi Arabia-led coalition.

The trial session due on Monday, was postponed until 21 February. He is facing charges including "insulting public authorities", "insulting a foreign country" and "disseminating false rumors in times of war". If convicted he could be sentenced to up to 15 years in prison.

On 28 December 2016 a Bahraini court ordered his release but the authorities refused to release him and instead he was immediately re-arrested and taken into custody in relation to another investigation into TV interviews he gave in 2015 and 2016.

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