Joint Press Release: The price for speaking out: Nabeel Rajab sentenced to 5 years for tweeting in Bahrain

Nabeel Rajab was convicted today based on Article 133 of the Bahraini Criminal Code (“disseminating false rumoursin time of war”), Article 215 (“offending a foreign country [Saudi Arabia]”)and Article 216 (“insulting a statutory body”). Rajab’s charges includea tweet from March 26, 2015, the day the Saudi-led coalition launched airstrikes in Yemen, criticising wars that “bring hatred, destruction andhorrors”. On December 4, 2017, in a public statement announcing the appointmentof a group of experts to investigate the violations committed in Yemen, theUnited Nations (UN) High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein used nearly the same words todescribe the situation in Yemen: “For three years,the people of Yemen have been subjected to death, destruction and despair”.

“NabeelRajab is not a criminal, he is a prominent human rights defender and politicalprisoner. This new outrageous sentence contributes to furthershut down space for civil society in the country”, FIDH President Dimitris Christopoulos highlighted.

“This continuous harassment, which illustrates once more theGovernment’s relentless efforts to silence thewhole Bahraini civil society, must stop. It is urgent for theinternational community to make sure Bahrain’s authorities cannot get away withtheir crackdown on human rights defenders any longer”, OMCT Secretary General Gerald Staberock added.

TodayBahrain is under a blackout, preventing local human rights activists fromexpressing themselves or traveling, and forbidding foreign journalists andhuman rights defenders from investigating. In October 2017, a delegation of FIDH board and former board membersseeking to show solidarity with Nabeel and other imprisoned human rightsdefenders was denied entry to the country.

Theongoing case against Nabeel Rajab, which began in April 2015, has beenpostponed 20 times and on several occasions the Court violated criminalprocedure law by announcing the holding of the trial with only a few days’notice, and no explanation to Rajab’s lawyers. His lawyers reported they weretherefore unable to prepare his defence or call their witnesses to testify incourt.

NabeelRajab has been in arbitrary, solitary and pre-trial detention since June 13,2016, despite his deteriorating health conditions. After being hospitalised,his return to prison has been marked by new persecutions and dangerous,humiliating and degrading detention conditions. Beaten on his arrival, andwoken up and searched in the middle of the night, his belongings wereconfiscated and his head was shaved. Since November 20, 2017, he is being heldin Jaw prison in a segregated wing with convicted ISIS terrorists, puttinghis safety at risk.

Ourorganisations reiterate their fears for Nabeel’s health status and renew theircall to the authorities to enable him to receive an adequate medical treatment,and to release him immediately and unconditionally.

The Observatory for the Protection of Human RightsDefenders (the Observatory) was created in 1997 by FIDH and the WorldOrganisation Against Torture (OMCT). The objective of this programme is tointervene to prevent or remedy situations of repression against human rightsdefenders. FIDH and OMCT are both members of ProtectDefenders.eu, the European Union Human Rights Defenders Mechanismimplemented by international civil society.

Press contacts:

· FIDH: AudreyCouprie: +33 6 48 05 91 57

· OMCT:Delphine Reculeau: +41 22 809 49 39

· BCHR: JulieGromellon: +961 81 784 437