53 NGOs urge UN to voice support for Nabeel Rajab

H.E. Zeid Ra’ad Zeid al-Hussein

United Nations High Commissioner forHuman Rights

Palais Wilson

52 rue des Pâquis

CH-1201 Geneva

Switzerland

CC: David Kaye, Special Rapporteuron Free Expression

Michel Forst, Special Rapporteur onHuman Rights Defenders

Dear Mr. High Commissioner,

We, the undersignedhuman rights organizations, write to urge your office to urgently and publicly callon the Government of Bahrain to immediately and unconditionally release humanrights defender Nabeel Rajab anddrop the charges against him. His next, and likely final, trial date is scheduled for 28 December.

Nabeel Rajab’s trialis ongoing following the fifth extension of his court proceedings on 15December. The further delay of Rajab’s trial to late December is additionallyconcerning due to the precedent established by the Bahraini government to takeadvantage of the time period around the end of year holidays to further violatehuman rights. For example, on 28 December 2014, the Government of Bahrain arrested and charged Sheikh Ali Salman, theSecretary General of the now dissolved Al-Wefaq political society, in relationto his free expression. Salman continues to serve a nine-year arbitrary prison sentence following his ownlengthy trial.

This December, NabeelRajab could face up to 15 years in prison on charges regarding tweets and re-tweetsfrom his account addressing torture in Bahrain’s Jau Prison, as well as criticizingBahrain’s participation in Saudi Arabia-led military operations in Yemen. Thesemilitary actions in Yemen, according to the United Nations, have so far beenresponsible for the deaths of more than 8,100 civilians, and include numerousunlawful airstrikes on markets, homes, hospitals, and schools. Rajab’s commentson Twitter about the Saudi-led coalition airstrikes in Yemen led to his arreston 2 April 2015. Bahrain’s penal code provides for up to 10 years in prison foranyone who “deliberately announces in wartime false or malicious news,statements or rumors.”

Bahraini authoritiesreleased Rajab on 13 July 2015 in accordance with a royal pardon for previous Twitter-relatedcharges following extensive international pressure. However, the PublicProsecution maintained this second round of charges against Rajab following hisrelease and ordered his re-arrest nearly a year later on 13 June 2016. Rajab isalso facing charges of “offending a foreign country” – Saudi Arabia – and “offendingnational institutions” for his comments about the torture of inmates at JauPrison in March 2015. In October 2016, after months of trial hearings, thecourt reopened his case for investigation rather than dismissing the chargesagainst him due to the lack of evidence.

Moreover, thegovernment brought an additional charge against Rajab in relation to anopen letter published in the New York Times on 4 September 2016. TheBahraini authorities immediately responded by charging Rajab with “underminingthe prestige of the state.”

Since June 2016, Rajabhas been held in pre-trial detention, including two weeks of solitaryconfinement following his initial arrest. The United Nations Standard MinimumRules for Non-Custodial Measures state that “pre-trial detention shall be usedas a means of last resort in criminal proceedings, with due regard for theinvestigation of the alleged offence and for the protection of society and thevictim.” The government’s use of pretrial solitary confinement against NabeelRajab while prosecuting him for free expression is clearly an additional formof reprisal for his work as a human rights defender and is in breach of theUN’s standards for detention.

Nabeel Rajab is theco-founder and president of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, the foundingdirector of the Gulf Center for Human Rights, a Deputy Secretary General of theInternational Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) from 2012 to 2016, and holdsadvisory positions with Human Rights Watch. Amnesty International considers himto be a prisoner of conscience. His human rights activism and his peacefulcriticism of the Bahraini authorities have resulted in his imprisonment on twoprevious occasions, between May 2012 and May 2014, and between January 2015 andJuly 2015.

Mr. High Commissioner,your office has pursued and published a number of communications in relation tohuman rights abuses perpetuated against Nabeel Rajab. Yet with his likely finalcourt appearance approaching, it is imperative, now more than ever, to use theweight of your office to publicly defend him. We therefore call on you to issuea public statement in defense of Nabeel Rajab as a human rights defenderarbitrarily detained for his free and peaceful expression. We further urge youto publicly call on the Government of Bahrain to immediately andunconditionally release Rajab, and to drop all charges against him.

Sincerely,

1. Americans for Democracy & HumanRights in Bahrain

2. AlbanianMedia Institute

3. AmnestyInternational

4. Article19

5. Associationof Caribbean Media Workers

6. BahrainCenter for Human Rights

7. BahrainHuman Rights Society

8. BahrainInstitute for Rights and Democracy

9. BahrainPress Association

10. BrazilianAssociation for Investigative Journalism

11. CambodianCenter for Human Rights

12. CanadianJournalists for Free Expression

13. Centerfor Media Studies & Peace Building

14. CIVICUS:World Alliance for Citizen Participation

15. DigitalRights Foundation

16. ElectronicFrontier Foundation

17. EnglishPEN

18. European-BahrainiOrganisation for Human Rights

19. EuropeanCenter for Democracy and Human Rights

20. Forode Periodismo Argentino

21. Foundationfor Press Freedom - FLIP

22. FreeMedia Movement

23. FreedomForum

24. FreedomHouse

25. FreeMedia Movement

26. GlobeInternational Center

27. GulfCentre for Human Rights

28. IndependentJournalism Center - Moldova

29. Indexon Censorship

30. International Federation forHuman Rights (FIDH), within the framework of the Observatory for the Protectionof Human Rights Defenders

31. International Press Institute

32. InternationalService for Human Rights

33. Journalisteen danger

34. MaharatFoundation

35. MARCH

36. Media,Entertainment and Arts Alliance

37. MediaInstitute of Southern Africa

38. MediaWatch

39. NationalUnion of Somali Journalists

40. NoPeace Without Justice

41. NorwegianPEN

42. OpenMedia

43. PacificFreedom Forum

44. PacificIsland News Association

45. PalestinianCenter for Development and Media Freedoms - MADA

46. PENAmerican Center

47. PENCanada

48. PENInternational

49. ReportersWithout Borders (RSF)

50. SouthEast European Network for Professionalization of Media

51. Vigilancepour la Démocratie et l’État Civique

52. WorldAssociation of Newspapers and News Publishers

53. World Organization Against Torture (OMCT), within the framework ofthe Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders

Individuals:

Clive Stafford SmithOBE, Founder, Reprieve ​