17 May 17 | Bahrain, Bahrain News, Middle East and North Africa, News and features
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Bahraini human rights defender Nabeel Rajab (Photo: The Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy)
On Tuesday the detention of human rights activist Nabeel Rajab was extended once again when Bahraini courts denied his request for bail and postponed the first of his two trials until 30 May.
Rajab, whose second trial was scheduled for today, was unable to appear in court due to deteriorating health, resulting in him being taken to a hospital.
After being arrested on 13 June 2016 on charges of spreading “rumours and false news” and tweeting about the war in Yemen, Rajab’s two trials have been postponed over ten times in total. He has now spent nearly a year straight in detention, most of which has been in solitary confinement, contributing to a string of serious medical issues including bleeding ulcers.
The treatment of Rajab, who could face up to 18 years in prison if he is convicted in both cases, has been criticised by human rights activists over the last year. On 12 May 2017, the United Nations Torture Committee released a statement strongly criticising Bahrain’s history of torture as well as urging them to “put an end to the solitary confinement of Mr. Nabeel Rajab and ensure that he is provided with adequate medical assistance and redress”.
It continued: “The Committee is deeply concerned by reports that numerous persons who were deprived of their liberty have been subjected to torture or ill-treatment. It is particularly concerned about the situation of Messrs. Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja, Naji Fateel, Nabeel Rajab, Abduljalil Al-Singace, Hussain Jawad, Abdulwahab Hussain, in particular with regard to their access to medical care.”[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_basic_grid post_type=”post” max_items=”4″ element_width=”6″ grid_id=”vc_gid:1495019195784-ddbc73bc-d6fb-3″ taxonomies=”716″][/vc_column][/vc_row]
13 Mar 17 | Bahrain, Bahrain News, Middle East and North Africa, News and features
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The trial of jailed Bahraini human rights activist Nabeel Rajab on charges of spreading “rumours and false news” was deferred for a second time on 7 March until 16 April. The charges relate to televised interviews in 2014 and 2015 in which he criticised authorities. In the meantime, he remains in detention after being denied bail.
This is one of two separate trials Rajab faces. The other is over tweets and retweets about the war in Yemen, which his accusers say “spread rumours in wartime”, insulted a neighbouring country (Saudi Arabia) and offended a statutory body within Bahrain. This trial has been postponed 11 times.
If convicted on all charges, Rajab faces up to 18 years in prison.
Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei, director of advocacy at Bahrain Institute of Rights and Democracy, said: “Bahrain is persecuting Nabeel Rajab for his speech. They would rather jail the messenger on human rights and double-down on repression than listen to what he has to say. The international community must take a stance.”
In February 2017 the European Parliament passed a resolution urging the EU and its member states “to intervene with the Bahraini Government in order to appeal for the release of Nabeel Rajab and of all those held solely on the basis of their peaceful exercise of freedom of expression and assembly”.
Rajab is the winner of a 2012 Index on Censorship Freedom of Expression Award for his efforts against human rights violations by the Bahraini government in 2011. He judged the Index on Censorship Freedom of Expression Awards last year and is also the president of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights.
Previously, Rajab had been arrested and sentenced to five years in prison in 2012 for criticising Bahraini authorities and for leading pro-democracy demonstrations. He has faced serious health problems due to his numerous detentions, which often were marked by solitary confinement and unclean conditions.
Bahrain regularly breaches basic human rights, and the persecution of Rajab is merely one example of the unjust treatment of those who attempt to exercise their freedom of expression within the country. Authorities have been taking increasingly harsh measures to prevent and punish dissent in the country.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_basic_grid post_type=”post” max_items=”4″ element_width=”6″ grid_id=”vc_gid:1489420587513-b30cc26d-4ec8-5″ taxonomies=”716″][/vc_column][/vc_row]
03 Feb 17 | Bahrain, Bahrain Letters, Campaigns, Campaigns -- Featured, Statements
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Boris Johnson
Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs
King Charles Street
London
SW1A 2AH
3 February 2017
Dear Mr Johnson,
In light of recent developments in Bahrain, we write to raise our deep concern over the punitive trials of prominent human rights defender Nabeel Rajab, who is being prosecuted in three separate cases for exercising his right to freedom of expression. As Foreign Secretary you have re-committed your Office to counter the shrinking of civil society space and promote the work of human rights defenders. We therefore urge you to give effect to this commitment by calling for the release of Nabeel Rajab.
Index on Censorship Award-winning Nabeel Rajab is the President of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, a member of Human Rights Watch’s Middle East Division advisory committee and a founding director of the Gulf Center for Human Rights. He faces up to 17 years in prison on several charges, all related to his free speech.
Nabeel Rajab, who has been in detention, largely in solitary confinement, since his arrest on 13 June 2016, currently faces two separate trials related to his right to free speech. In the first of these, he is charged with “spreading rumours in wartime”, “insulting a neighbouring country” (Saudi Arabia) and “insulting a statutory body”. The first two charges relate to Nabeel Rajab’s tweets published in March 2015 alleging torture in Jaw prison and criticising the killing of civilians in the Yemen conflict by the Saudi Arabia-led coalition. The verdict in his trial has been postponed several times suggesting that this is part of a deliberate strategy to harass him. His next hearing on this case is due to take place on 21 February.
On 28 December, during a hearing on the Twitter case, the high criminal court authorised Nabeel Rajab’s release on bail; he was then immediately rearrested for investigation into the charge of “spreading false news in media interviews”. According to the prosecution, Nabeel Rajab’s charge relate to comments given to media outlets in which he stated that foreign journalists and international NGOs cannot enter Bahrain and that the imprisonment of opposition actors was political and illegal. However, multiple international NGOs including Human Rights First, and Reporters Without Borders, as well as academics and journalists, have been denied access since 2012. Amnesty International has also not been granted access to Bahrain since January 2015. Meanwhile, political and unlawful imprisonments are common in Bahrain: Bahrain was the subject of six UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention rulings in 2014. Amnesty International has also documented many prisoners of conscience in Bahrain. Nabeel Rajab’s next hearing on this case is scheduled for 7 February.
In addition, Nabeel Rajab has a third charge against him for “spreading false news” after he an Op-Ed written in his name was published in the New York Times in September 2016.
We note the UK Government’s statements in recent years relating to Nabeel Rajab. In 2014 for example, at the UN Human Rights Council the UK together with 46 other states, urged Bahrain “to release all persons imprisoned solely for exercising human rights, including human rights defenders, some of whom have been identified as arbitrarily detained according to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention.” Also, since your appointment as Foreign Secretary, the Government has, through Parliament and the UN Human Rights Council, expressed concern at the re-arrest of Nabeel Rajab and confirmed that UK officials continue to raise his case with the Government of Bahrain and attend each of his hearings. While such efforts are welcome, it appears that the UK Government has not yet called for his release.
Since your appointment, the human rights situation in Bahrain has further deteriorated. The recent resumption of executions and excessive use of force against protesters, contradict the Bahraini authorities’ rhetoric of progress being made.
We strongly believe that the UK, following your and the Prime Minister’s visit to Bahrain in December, and particularly now that the UK has regained a seat on the UN Human Rights Council, should review its current policy on the human rights situation in Bahrain, publicly condemn regressive measures and call for the release of Nabeel Rajab and others detained solely for peacefully exercising their right to freedom of expression such as Sheikh Ali Salman, the Secretary General of al-Wefaq National Islamic Society.
The UK’s significant historical, economic, security and political ties with Bahrain incur a responsibility to acknowledge and criticise negative human rights developments within the country. The UK’s voice is strongly heard in Bahrain, and we urge you to act publicly and promptly in support of Nabeel Rajab’s human rights work and call for his release.
We would like to request a meeting with the FCO to discuss our human rights concerns in Bahrain and Nabeel Rajab’s case and hear the FCO’s views on his case and what the UK government can do to uphold its commitment to reverse the shrinking civil society space in Bahrain.
Yours sincerely,
Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain (ADHRB)
Amnesty International UK
ARTICLE 19
Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR)
Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (BIRD)
Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights
Canadian Journalists for Free Expression (CJFE)
English PEN
European Centre For Democracy and Human Rights (ECDHR)
FIDH, under the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders
Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR)
Index on Censorship
Lawyer’s Rights Watch Canada (LRWC)
No Peace Without Justice
PEN International
Rafto Foundation
Reporters Without Borders
The Bahrain Press Association
the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), under the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders
Individuals
Clive Stafford Smith (OBE), director of Reprieve
Professor Damian McCormack[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_basic_grid post_type=”post” max_items=”4″ element_width=”6″ grid_id=”vc_gid:1486118018001-8efe7b55-8d69-7″ taxonomies=”3368″][/vc_column][/vc_row]
23 Jan 17 | Bahrain, Bahrain News, News and features
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”81222″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes”][vc_column_text]The Bahraini human rights activist Nabeel Rajab was due to be sentenced on 23 January but this was postponed for an eighth time. Rajab’s ninth trial date on charges of “spreading rumours in wartime,” “insulting a statutory body” and “insulting a neighbouring country” (Saudi Arabia) – all of which are related to comments on Twitter – will be 21 February.
A tweet by Index, which Rajab shared, is being used as evidence against him. He is the winner of a 2012 Index on Censorship Freedom of Expression Award for his efforts in speaking out against human rights infringements by Bahraini government in 2011 and was a judge of the Index on Censorship Freedom of Expression Awards in 2016.
“Bahrain’s continued judicial harassment of Nabeel Rajab only serves to mar the country’s image in the international community,” Melody Patry, head of advocacy at Index on Censorship, said. “This latest postponement is just more evidence of the Bahraini government’s disregard for global human rights norms. We urge Bahrain to immediately drop all charges against him.”
Rajab was arrested and sentenced in 2012 for voicing his critical opinions about Bahraini authorities and for leading pro-democracy protests. He has since been released and re-arrested multiple times, and his time spent in solitary confinement and unclean conditions have caused a serious decline in his health.
Rajab also faces numerous other charges, including for a letter he wrote to the New York Times in September 2016 and an opinion piece in Le Monde in December 2016.
Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei, director of advocacy at the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy, said: “Nabeel Rajab faces over 17 years in prison for these pathetic charges. Now the UK is setting a dangerous precedent in providing bombs and jets to Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, worth billions, while watching in silence as rights campaigners who took a principled stance against wars and torture are harshly punished.”
There are many who face a similar plight in Bahrain. Although it is considered to be one of the most connected countries in the world in terms of technology, Bahrain has a reputation for regularly blocking critical news, as well as human rights and opposition websites. Social media is strictly monitored and the government routinely revokes the citizenship of many of its critics, rendering them stateless.
Ebrahim Sharif, former secretary-general of the secular, left-wing National Democratic Action Society, was sentenced on 13 November 2016 to a three-year prison sentence for “inciting hatred against the regime” after speaking to the Associated Press.
He was sentenced to five years in prison in 2011 for the same charges. After facing brutal torture and imprisonment in solitary confinement for 56 days, Sharif received a royal pardon on 19 June 2015. He served four years and three months in prison.
Sharif is a member of the Bahrain 13, a group of high-profile human rights advocates who were arrested, tormented and sentenced by a Bahraini military court in 2011.
Many other activists have been jailed for exercising their right to free expression. Zainab Al-Khawaja is currently in exile in Denmark, where she is a dual citizen, with her two young children. They arrived there on 6 June 2016 after she was threatened with new charges that would result in long sentences and separation from her children, following her release a week earlier.
Her father, Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja, is currently serving a life sentence for the part he played in the 2011 demonstrations in Bahrain. He was head of the 2012 Index Award-winning Bahrain Center for Human Rights with Nabeel Rajab. Al-Khawaja’s sister Maryam is also currently in exile in Denmark.
In 2015, the Liberties and Human Rights Department of Al-Wefaq National Islamic Society verified 1,765 opposition-related arrests. These included the incarceration of 120 children and five women.
On 9 October 2016, sports journalist Faisal Hayyat was arrested and sentenced to three months in prison by a Bahraini criminal court due to a tweet allegedly insulting the Sunni sect of Islam. Hayyat was also arrested in April 2011 for involvement in pro-democracy protests. He wrote on Facebook a few days before his most recent arrest about the extreme physical, psychological and sexual torture he endured while imprisoned.
Writer, blogger and president of the Women’s Petition Committee, Ghada Jamsheer, began her ten-month combined sentence on 15 August 2016. She was jailed in Bahrain for exercising her right to free expression on Twitter. She requested to be freed in order to serve the remainder of her sentences outside of the prison due to her debilitating rheumatoid arthritis, but the judge has yet to inform her of his decision.
On 17 July 2016, the Bahraini Public Prosecution decided to charge Nazeeha Saeed, an award-winning correspondent for Radio Monte Carlo Doualiya and France24, for illegally working for international media. In June 2016 Saeed faced a travel ban without her knowledge, only to discover that she could not leave the country when she wasn’t allowed to board a flight.
Many other journalists working for international media outlets have faced similar threats, including Sayed Ahmed Al-Mousawi, who was stripped of his citizenship in November 2015.
Bahrain continuously stifles free speech and silences critics. It also has the highest prison population per capita in the Middle East, including 3,500 prisoners of conscience.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_basic_grid post_type=”post” max_items=”4″ element_width=”6″ grid_id=”vc_gid:1485190510938-e7ffcac4-a5c4-10″ taxonomies=”3368″][/vc_column][/vc_row]
