Bahrani government to sue the Independent for libel

14 Jun 11 | Index Index, Middle East and North Africa, minipost, News and features

Bahrain’s Information Affairs Authority today announced it has commissioned a UK-based legal firm to file a defamation case against the Independent newspaper. Nawaf Mohammed Al-Maawda, publications director-general said: “The Independent has deliberately published a series of unrealistic and provocative articles targeting Bahrain and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.” He claimed the newspaper, and in particular its Middle-East correspondent Robert Fisk had set out to tarnish Bahrain’s image.

Bahrain: Woman beaten and jailed for poetry reading

14 Jun 11 | Index Index, Middle East and North Africa, minipost

Twenty-year-old student, Ayat al-Gormezi, who recited poems critical of Bahrain’s rulers at a Shia-led protest in Pearl Square has been sentenced to a year in prison. In the lead up to her trial she claimed that she was beaten in prison and she has now been convicted of charges which include inciting hatred. One verse of the poem, addressed directly to King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, read: “We are the people who will kill humiliation and assassinate misery. Don’t you hear their cries?” According to her mother, Sada al-Qurmezi, an appeal is planned.

Bahrain: Ayat al-Gormezi faces tribunal for poetry reading

03 Jun 11 | Index Index, Middle East and North Africa, minipost

Ayat al-Gormezi, the 20 year old woman arrested for reading a poem at a pro-democracy rally in Pearl Square, Bahrain, is due to face a military tribunal later today. Just days after she read the poem which ended “Down with Hamad”, police raided her family home. The poet and student has claimed that she was forced to hand herself in when police held her four brothers at gunpoint. Al-Gormezi has spent time in a military hospital since being taken into police custody where she has received treatment for torture wounds. This is the latest in a growing number of violent acts towards female protesters in Bahrain.