Today Bahraini human rights defender Nabeel Rajab spent his 52nd birthday in prison. The Index on Censorship award winner is due in court on 5 September on charges of spreading “false or malicious” news about the country’s government via Twitter, “offending” Saudi Arabia and condemning Bahrain’s notorious Jau prison.
He faces 15 years in prison.
To mark Rajab’s birthday and call for his immediate release, a group of human rights organisations – including Index on Censorship, English Pen, the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy, Amnesty International and Redress – held a protest outside the Bahraini Embassy on the Gloucester Road in London.
Rajab became involved in the uprisings in Bahrain of the 1990s to demand democratic reforms. He went on to co-found the Bahrain Human Rights Society and the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights. He has faced a volley attacks from the authorities as a result of his activism. He has been subjected to ongoing judicial harassment, travel bans, intimidation, physical assaults, imprisonment and solitary confinement.
Nabeel Rajab, the Bahraini human rights activist and Index on Censorship award winner, will spend his 52nd birthday in detention.
Rajab is due in court on 5 September accused of spreading “false or malicious news” about the government (evidence for which includes a retweet of an Index tweet), “offending a foreign country” by criticising Saudi Arabia’s incursions in Yemen and “offending a statutory body” by condemning conditions in the country’s notorious Jau prison. He faces 15 years behind bars.
This is just the latest in a long line of actions taken by the Bahraini government against Rajab, one of the Middle East’s most prominent human rights defenders. He has been subjected to ongoing judicial harassment, travel bans, physical intimidation and imprisonment – including time spent in solitary confinement – for his non-violent advocacy of democracy and an end to endemic corruption.
Join Index on Censorship, English Pen, The Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy and others at the Bahrain Embassy in London on 1 September to mark Rajab’s birthday and call for his immediate release.
When: Wednesday 1 September 2016, 2pm Where: Bahrain Embassy, London (Map)
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_video link=”https://youtu.be/GBQX0TvFMbs”][vc_column_text]This article was updated on 31 August 2017
Have you expressed disapproval of your government? Called for more democratic decision-making in your country? Criticised prison conditions or criticised a country allied with your government? Retweeted a comment that included #opinionsarenotcrimes?
You are a criminal. You could be facing up to 15 years in prison for simply expressing your point of view if you lived in Bahrain.
Nabeel Rajab, just like you, thinks his country could be better. And he has made those views public. He speaks out against poor prison conditions and argues for more freedom of speech in Bahrain.
Friday 1 September 2017, marks his second birthday in prison, where he has been since 13 June 2016. He has been subjected to harsh treatment in often appalling conditions that have exacerbated his health issues.
Rajab — due in court on 11 September in one of the cases against him — is facing trial for tweets and retweets about the war in Yemen in 2015, for which he is charged with “disseminating false rumours in time of war” (Article 133 of the Bahraini Criminal Code) and “insulting a neighboring country” (Article 215 of the Bahraini Criminal Code), and for tweeting about torture in Jau prison, which resulted in a charge of “insulting a statutory body” (Article 216 of the Bahraini Criminal Code).
What’s worse, it’s just the latest in a long line of actions taken by the Bahraini government against Rajab, one of the Middle East’s most prominent human rights defenders.
Rajab has been subjected to ongoing judicial harassment, physical intimidation and imprisonment for his non-violent advocacy of democracy and for his calls for an end to endemic corruption. Police officers have beat him up, the country’s press have published the government’s accusations against without his side of the story. He has been imprisoned, pardoned, banned from travelling, rearrested and held in solitary confinement.
Despite the huge personal cost to himself and his family, Rajab continues to speak out.
His activism began during protests in the 1990s and grew with his involvement with the Bahrain Human Rights Society, which he helped found in 2000.
In 2002 he partnered with Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, who is now serving a life sentence for his human rights work, and others to launch the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, which was awarded an Index on Censorship Freedom of Expression Award in 2012. BCHR has consistently spoken out for non-violent resistance and the peaceful struggle for social justice, democracy and human rights.
Nabeel Rajab, BCHR – winner of Bindmans Award for Advocacy at the Index Freedom of Expression Awards 2012 with then-Chair of the Index on Censorship board of trustees Jonathan Dimbleby
Rajab has also been outspoken in working for the protection of the Gulf’s migrant workers, founding, in 2003, one of the first committees in the region to advocate improved conditions for them.
When the Arab Spring swept across the Middle East in 2011, Rajab participated in the pro-democracy protests that were focused on the Pearl Roundabout in the country’s capital Manana. His vocal criticism of human rights violations and outspokenness — even after the government issued a state of emergency and invited foreign intervention to help maintain control — brought him into frequent conflict with security forces.
Born 1 September 1964 to a middle-class family, he went to university in India to study politics, before returning to work in Bahrain. Rajab is married and has two children. He is a nephew of Mohamed Hasan Jawad, one of the “Bahrain 13” — political figures imprisoned for participating in the Arab Spring protests, and a cousin of Hussain Jawad, a prominent human rights activist arrested in February 2015.
What can you do to help?
Silenced temporarily by the Bahraini government, Rajab needs you to use your voice. Speak out in support of free speech and human rights.
Tweet and Facebook a statement of solidarity using #FreeNabeel.
Call on your nation’s leaders to pressure Bahrain to respect freedom of expression and #FreeNabeel.
Index looks at how Rajab has been treated by the Bahraini authorities over the years.
1994-1996
Rajab became involved in the uprisings in Bahrain of the 1990s to demand democratic reforms within the country.
2000
Rajab co-founded the Bahrain Human Rights Society to strengthen calls for democratic reforms.
2002
Rajab worked with Abdulhadi al-Khawaja and others to found the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights, an NGO to promote human rights in Bahrain.
2005
Rajab suffered a spinal injury, fractured arm, broken finger and head injury after being attacked by Bahraini’s Special Security Force Command while attending a peaceful rally by the Committee for the Unemployed to protest against the government’s management of unemployment levels.
During the 2011 Arab Spring, Bahrain’s monarchy faced serious threats. As a result, even peaceful demonstrators were met with brutal government repression, leaving over 30 dead. Rajab had been a leading voice during the Bahraini uprising, and many associated with him faced a backlash. Even members of CNN’s news team were arrested by the government’s security forces as they visited his house in April. “Twenty men in black ski masks are reported to have surrounded the news team and confiscated their recording equipment,” Index reported at the time.
In June, Rajab was summoned to a military court just hours before Bahrain was due to lift its emergency law, which saw the arrival of Saudi troops in Bahrain to help crush the peaceful protests. Rajab then went missing for several of days.
2012
On 6 January 2012, Rajab was hospitalised being beaten by security forces after leading a protest in Manama and briefly detained. On 12 February he was briefly detained after he tried to march to the location of the Pearl Roundabout in Manama, where government forces cracked down on protesters during the 2011 uprising.
Nabeel Rajab, BCHR – winner of Bindmans Award for Advocacy at the Index Freedom of Expression Awards 2012
In April, Bahrain hosted the annual Formula One Grand Prix. Following the negative media coverage around the event, Bahraini authorities stepped up their suppression of the country’s protest movement. During this time, Rajab was arrested and released several times.
In October 2014, a court ruled that Rajab would face criminal 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 faced up to six years in prison.
He was due to stand trial on 19 October. It was adjourned until 29 November and he was denied bail. In November it was adjourned again until 20 January 2015 and Rajab was freed without bail.
2015
When Rajab finally stood trial on 20 January, he was sentenced to six months in prison, which was suspended pending a fine. He was granted bail while he appealed the verdict. It wasn’t long before he was summoned by police again, and fresh fears emerged of his arrest. On 26 February, he wrote an email to supporters which read: “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.” In early April he was arrested, again for comments made online.
While his appeal date was set for 15 March, it was repeatedly postponed.
On 14 July, the Bahraini king pardoned Rajab three months into a six-month sentence for the tweet. According to Bahrain’s official news agency, this was over fears for his health.
2016
Back in January, Rajab was given an arbitrary travel ban. Index, along with other NGOs, called for this ban to be lifted so that he could travel abroad with his family to secure medical assistance for his wife, Sumaya Rajab.
On 7 July, the European Parliament adopted a resolution condemning recent human rights abuses in Bahrain and called for an end to the ongoing repression against the country’s human rights defenders, political opposition and civil society.
His trial was due to take place on 2 August but has been postponed until 5 September. A tweet by Index, which Rajab shared, is to be used as evidence against him. It reads:
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