Bahrain’s Court of Cassation today postponed issuing a verdict in the appeal of 13 opposition activists, including well-known human rights activist and Bahrain Center for Human Rights founder Abdulhadi Alkhawaja. The verdict will now be issued on 7 January, a request to release the activists pending the verdict was rejected. The activists, who are all serving sentences between five years and life, were first sentenced by a military court in June 2011 for their role in the country’s ongoing unrest.