Posts Tagged ‘Bahrain’
December 3rd, 2012
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.
October 30th, 2012
Bahrain has
banned all demonstrations following clashes between police and anti-government protestors on Monday (29 October). Interior minister Sheikh Rashid Al Khalifah said that the clampdown was a result of the “repeated abuses” of freedom of expression.
The emergency move is the largest scale attempt to quash the Gulf kingdom’s anti-government uprising which began in February of last year.
Index on Censorship award winner
Nabeel Rajab is currently serving a three-year jail sentence for organising “illegal protests”.
October 19th, 2012
British politcians’ fear of upsetting “allies” has meant oppression in the tiny gulf nation is ignored, says Rohan Jayasekera
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October 17th, 2012
The Bahrain Interior Ministry announced the
arrest of four people for defaming public figures on social media today (17 October), with authorities still searching for a fifth.
The Acting General Director of Anti-Corruption, Electronic and Economic Security said that the suspects confessed to their crime, which could result in a jail sentence of up to five years. Bahrain’s cyber defamation laws — which include the publication of “fake news” — were
revised in September, resulting in heavier monitoring of social media networks to tackle the “misuse” of such platforms.
Index award winner
Nabeel Rajab of the Bahrain Human Rights Center is
currently appealing a three year sentence for organising pro-democracy rallies via social networks.
October 2nd, 2012
Bahraini police
arrested five medics in a set of dawn raids this morning, one day after the nation’s highest court
upheld their prison sentences in a case international rights groups have condemned as
politically motivated. Doctor Ali al-Ekry, who faces five years in prison for “possession and concealment” of weapons and “illegal assembly”, was arrested at his home at 5:30am local time. The other medics were reportedly arrested in subsequent raids. Separately, Mohamed al-Mushaimaa, who was jailed last year for his alleged role in protests,
died in a Bahraini prison overnight. A sickle cell anaemia sufferer, al-Mushaimaa had complained of not receiving proper medical treatment in prison, his lawyer said.
October 1st, 2012
In a case that has drawn
international condemnation,
Bahrain‘s highest court today
upheld prison sentences handed down to nine medics for weapons possession, incitement and taking part in illegal demonstrations last year. One of the doctors was sentenced to five years, and the remaining eight were given between a month and three years. Their original sentences of 15 years were reduced last June, with nine of the original group of 20 medics being acquitted. A further two remain at large.
September 26th, 2012
Bahraini human rights activist
Zainab al-Khawaja has been
sentenced to two months in prison after she allegedly tore up a picture of the ruler of the Gulf kingdom.
Al-Khawaja is the daughter of Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, the head of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, who has been in prison since
April 2011. The BCHR was
awarded the Index on Censorship Advocacy Award 2012.
Speaking at an Index event at the British parliament earlier this month, Zainab’s sister Maryam al-Khawaja
called on the United Kingdom to end its support for the Bahraini regime.
September 19th, 2012
As the Human Rights Council (HRC) prepares to release its final recommendations on Bahrain, Index joins over 100 NGOs in calling for the country to implement the recommendations. Daisy Williams reports
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