Nabeel Rajab during a protest in London in September (Photo: Milana Knezevic)

Nabeel Rajab, one of Bahrain’s most prominent human rights activists, says he has again been summoned by the police. He believes he will be handed down a new charge and that he could be arrested at any time.

“Just to inform you that I was summoned today morning to attend the police station at the same time – and I came to know that the new charge against me will incitement of hatred against the regime,” Rajab, president of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights and a member of Human Rights Watch’s Middle East Advisory Board, said in an email to supporters this morning.

He said he is not planning to go to the station until after the weekend as he was informed so late, but added it is “very possible” that “they will come to arrest me at any time from home”.

“I do not know how many years I will be kept in jail this time but I am confident that people like you will always be beside me and my family,” he wrote.

Rajab has continuously been targeted by Bahraini authorities over his human rights campaigning work. On 20 January, he was sentenced to six months, suspended pending a fine, on charges stemming from a single tweet in which both the ministry of interior and the ministry of defence allege that he “denigrated government institutions”. Rajab was granted bail while he appealed the verdict in his case. Rajab was released last May after spending two years in prison on charges including writing offensive tweets and taking part in illegal protests.

An earlier version of this article stated that Rajab is the director of the Gulf Center for Human Rights. He no longer holds this post. 

This article was posted on 26 February 2015 at indexoncensorship.org