Bahrain’s Court of Cassation has upheld human rights activist Nabeel Rajab’s five-year conviction for critical tweets made from his account condemning Saudi-led airstrikes in Yemen and the use of torture at Bahrain’s notorious Jau Prison.
An Egyptian court on Sunday upheld a two-year prison sentence against activist Amal Fathy, who had been detained since May after posting a Facebook video that criticised sexual harassment in Egypt. Fathy was released following a court hearing on 27 December but remains under house arrest.
NGOs are concerned that, with Nabeel Rajab’s appeal hearing scheduled on 31 December, authorities may be planning to increase his sentence under cover of the world’s celebrations of the new year.
Index on Censorship joins with dozens of civil society organisations to call for Saudi Arabia to be held accountable for grave human rights violations.
Index on Censorship condemns the sentence handed down to Amal Fathy – an Egyptian woman who made a video about her experience of sexual harassment.
ALQST for Human Rights in Saudi Arabia, English PEN, the Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR), Index on Censorship, and PEN International call on the authorities in Saudi Arabia to release Yemeni writer and online activist Marwan Al-Muraisy, who has been subject to enforced disappearance since June.
Outside the Bahraini Embassy, Mushaima also expressed his gratitude towards MPs such as Caroline Lucas and Ian Blackford for raising his father’s case
Leading writers including Margaret Atwood, Elif Shafak and Claire Tomalin have signed an open letter to the king of Bahrain urging him to intervene in the case of a political prisoner being denied the right to read in jail.
Index on Censorship joins a coalition of some of the world’s leading human rights and digital rights organisations to call for full repeal of Egypt’s “cybercrime” law
Bahraini human rights activist Nabeel Rajab is spending his third birthday in prison. Send him a birthday message on Twitter or Facebook