Nabeel Rajab's hearing postponed until September 11, 2017

Judicial harassment

Bahrain

August 9, 2017

TheObservatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a partnership of FIDHand the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), has received new informationand requests your urgent intervention in the following situation in Bahrain.

New information:

TheObservatory has been informed by reliable sources about the continued judicialharassment and arbitrary detention of Mr. NabeelRajab’s, co-founder and President of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights(BCHR), founding Director of the Gulf Center for Human Rights (GCHR), FIDHDeputy Secretary General and a member of the Middle East advisory committee atHuman Rights Watch. Mr. Nabeel Rajab has been one of the country’s most vocal human rightsdefenders, denouncing human rights violations within the country’s Jaw prison,and denouncing Bahrain’s participation in bombings of the Saudi-led coalitionin Yemen.

Accordingto the information received, on August 8, 2017, a Bahraini Court held its 15thhearing in the so-called “Twitter case” against Mr. Nabeel Rajab and decidedagain to postpone the hearing until September 11, 2017, despite a request by Mr.Rajab’s lawyers to hold the next hearing sooner. Furthermore, the court statedthat by then, new judges will be seating in the court.

Mr. NabeelRajab, who was present during the hearing, had visibly lost weight and hisvoice was weaker than usual.

In addition, Mr. Rajab’s lawyers have beendenied visit to their client for over two weeks.

In thisso-called “Twitter case”, Mr. Nabeel Rajab is being accused of “insulting astatutory body” (Article 216 of the Penal Code), “disseminating false rumoursin time of war” (Article 133) and “offending a foreign country [Saudi Arabia]”(Article 215), which carries up to 15 years in prison. Those charges arerelated to tweets he posted denouncing the torture of detainees in theKingdom’s Jaw Prison and the human rights violations perpetrated by the Saudi-Arabialed coalition air strikes in Yemen (see background information).

Hearings in the “Twittercase” have been ongoing since July 2016. Additionally,on July 10, 2017, the Manama’s Lower Criminal Court handed down a twoyears’ prison sentence against Mr. Nabeel Rajab in the framework of the“Television interviews case” (see background information). Mr. Rajab facesadditional charges in at least two other cases related to articles published inforeign newspapers about Bahrain’s human rights record.

Arrested onJune 13, 2016, Mr. Nabeel Rajab has spent the vast majority of the time insolitary confinement, in spite of his deteriorating health conditions. He iscurrently detained at Manama’s military hospital.

In its concluding observations on Bahrain publishedon May 12, 2017, the United Nations Committee Against Torture (UN CAT) drewattention to the fact that “excessive use of solitary confinement constitutescruel, inhuman or degrading punishment or, depending on the circumstances, eventorture (...)”[1]. The UNCAT added that it was “deeply concerned” by the arbitrary imprisonment, tortureand ill-treatment of detained human rights defenders, including Mr. NabeelRajab[2].

TheObservatory denounces the continued arbitrary detention of Mr. NabeelRajab, which seems to be yet another evidence of a long-standing pattern ofharassment against him to sanction his legitimate human rights activity.

TheObservatory calls upon the Bahraini authorities to immediately andunconditionally release Mr. Nabeel Rajab, to put an end to any act ofharassment against him and, in the meantime, to ensure that all judicialproceedings against him are carried out in full compliance with the right todue process, the right to a fair trial and the right to be presumed innocent,as protected under international law.

Background information:

On July 9, 2012,Mr. Rajab was sentenced to three months’ imprisonment for several tweetsposted on his twitter account. On August 23, 2012, he was acquitted by theHigher Appeal Court.

On August 16, 2012, theLower Criminal Court sentenced Mr. Rajab to three years of imprisonmentfor his participation in peaceful gatherings. In December 2012, the AppealsCourt reduced the sentence to two years. He was released in May 2014 after servinghis term.

On October 1, 2014,Mr. Nabeel Rajab was arrested by the General Directorate ofAnti-Corruption and Economic and Electronic Security of the CriminalInvestigation Department (CID) for “insulting a public institution” via Tweeter(Article 216). The case related to a tweet he published in September 2014, inwhich he criticised the military institutions for generating extremistideologies (the “terrorism tweet” case). On November 2, 2014, the Third LowerCriminal Court ordered his release but barred him from leaving the country.

On January 20, 2015, theThird Lower Criminal Court sentenced him to six months’ imprisonment for“insulting public institutions and the army” (Article 216).

In 2015, two other criminalcharges were brought against Mr. Rajab. On February 26, 2015, he wassummoned for investigations for charges of “inciting hatred towards the regime”in relation to a speech he made in February 2011 during a funeral (the “funeralspeech case”). To date, the police investigation is ongoing.

In addition, onApril 2, 2015, Mr. Rajab was arrested, sent to the General Directorate ofAnti-Corruption and Economic and Electronic Security, and placed in detentionin solitary confinement in Isa Town Police Station. On April 3, 2015, he was interrogatedby the CID regarding two new charges brought against him under criminal caseNo. 2015/38288. The first charge was “insulting a statutory body”, referring tothe Ministry of Interior in relation to tweets he posted denouncing the tortureof detainees at Jaw Prison (the “Jaw torture tweets” case). The second chargewas “disseminating false rumours in time of war”, in relation to tweets hepublished about the Saudi-Arabia led coalition air strikes in Yemen (the “Yementweets” case).

On May 14, 2015, theBahrain Criminal Court of Appeal upheld the six-month prison sentence (the“terrorism tweet” case).

On July 13, 2015, the Kingof Bahrain Hamad Ben Issa Al-Khalifa ordered through Royal Pardon the releaseof Mr. Nabeel Rajab for health reasons. Mr. Rajab had already servedthree of the six months’ jail sentence. Moreover, on the same date, the PublicProsecution imposed a travel ban against Mr. Rajab in relation to the Jawtorture and Yemen tweets cases.

In the morning of June 13,2016, police forces reportedly led by the Cybercrime Unit arrestedMr. Nabeel Rajab, after raiding his house and seizing a number ofelectronic devices. In the afternoon, he was able to contact his wife by phone,and reported being detained at East Riffa police station.

On June 14, PublicProsecution remanded him in custody on accusations of “publishing andbroadcasting false news that undermine the prestige of the State” (Article 134[3]).

On June 28, 2016, he wastransferred from police custody to the Bahrain Defence Force (BDF) Hospital dueto unprecedented heart problems. On the same day, he was examined by a doctor,and was transferred back to West Riffa police station.

On July 12, during thehearing, the judge dismissed the request for release filed by Mr. Rajab’slawyers and the hearing was postponed to August 2.

On August 2, 2016, the HighCriminal Court decided to postpone the trial to September 5 withoutjustification.

On September 4,Mr. Rajab was summoned and questioned by CID officials. He was deniedaccess to a lawyer on this occasion.

On September 5, 2016, thePublic Prosecution announced that additional charges had been brought againstMr. Nabeel Rajab, for deliberately disseminating “false news andinformation and tendentious rumours that undermine the kingdom’s prestige andstature”, in relation to a letter published in the New York Times on September 4, 2016[4],describing his judicial harassment and arbitrary detention. If convicted, thiscould add one year to his final sentence. In total, he now faces up to 16 yearsin prison.

On October 3, 2016,Mr. Nabeel Rajab underwent surgery to remove his gallbladder as aconsequence of his poor detention conditions.

On October 6, 2016, theHigh Criminal Court decided after a five-minute hearing to postpone the trialto October 31, without providing any justification. Before the hearing,Mr. Rajab’s lawyers asked the Court a copy of his medical reports afterthe Ministry of Interior and the Public Prosecution failed to provide them, inclear violation of Mr. Rajab’s right to be informed of his own healthcondition.

Once more on October 31,2016, the Fourth High Criminal Court postponed the trial until December 15 inorder to obtain a technical expert from the Cyber-Crime Unit to determine whoruns Rajab’s twitter account. Rajab arrived at the court right before thehearing, and was taken out immediately after the Judge made his pronouncements,while Rajab’s lawyers were still making applications.

On December 15, 2016, aftera fifteen-minute hearing during which Mr. Nabeel Rajab was not allowed tospeak, the Fourth High Criminal Court postponed the verdict until December 28,2016 and refused to release him.

On December 21, 2016, theCybercrime Unit of the Ministry of Interior took Mr. Nabeel Rajab out ofcustody for interrogation following the publication of a letter[5]quoting him in French newspaper Le Mondeon December 19, 2016. The Cybercrime Unit accused Mr. Rajab of using thearticle to “spread false information and tendentious rumours insulting Bahrainand the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) States and harming their relations”.Investigations on those publications were still underway.

On December 28, 2016,Manama’s Fifth High Criminal Court acceded to an application forMr. Nabeel Rajab’s temporary release following a failure to give any basisor any sufficient evidence of a link between him and the Twitter account withrespect to the Yemeni and Jaw prison tweets.

Then Mr. Rajab wastaken to the CID for temporary release. However, he was re-arrested later onthe same day and referred to the Public Prosecution in relation to aninvestigation into televised interviews dating from 2014, which commenced inmid-June 2016.

On December 28, 2016, thePublic Prosecution ordered the pre-trial detention for seven days ofMr. Nabeel Rajab, pending investigation into televised interviews datingback to 2014. These interviews with television networks Lua Lua Channel, AlEtijah TV and Al-Alam News Network were related to the human rights situationin Bahrain. In this case, Mr. Nabeel Rajab is being prosecuted on chargeof “deliberately spreading false information and malicious rumours with the aimof discrediting the State” (Article 134)[6],which carries up to three years in prison.

On January 5, 2017, thePublic Prosecution renewed Mr. Nabeel Rajab’s pre-trial detention for afurther 15 days, pending investigation.

On April 5, 2017,Mr. Nabeel Rajab underwent surgery for bleeding ulcers at Manama’smilitary hospital. His family was denied the right to visit him while inhospital. Only two days after the surgery, Mr. Rajab was sent back to WestRiffa police station where he has remained in solitary confinement most of thetime.

On April 8, 2017,Mr. Rajab was rushed to the police hospital in an ambulance because of aninfected wound that followed the operation. Since that date, Mr. NabeelRajab is recovering from his medical condition and remains in Qaala clinic,which is a division of the Ministry of Interior[7].

Actions requested:

Pleasewrite to the authorities of Bahrain urging them to:

TheObservatory urges the authorities of Bahrain to:

i.Guarantee in all circumstances the physical and psychological integrity of Mr.Nabeel Rajab and that of all human rights defenders in Bahrain;

ii.Release Mr. Nabeel Rajab immediately and unconditionally, as his detention isarbitrary and its conditions amount to ill-treatment and are endangering hislife;

iii.Put an end to any act of harassment, including at the judicial level, againstMr. Nabeel Rajab and against all human rights defenders in Bahrain;

iv.Conform in any circumstances with the provisions of the Declaration on HumanRights Defenders, adopted on December 9, 1998 by the United Nations GeneralAssembly, in particular its Articles 1, Article 6 (c), 9, 11 and 12.2;

v.Ensure in all circumstances respect for human rights and fundamental freedomsin accordance with international human rights standards and internationalinstruments ratified by Bahrain.

Addresses:

· Cheikh Hamad bin Issa ALKHALIFA, King of Bahrain, Fax: +973 176 64 587

· Cheikh Khaled Bin AhmadAL KHALIFA, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Fax : 00973 17 21 05 75; ofd@mofa.gov.bh

· Cheikh Khalid bin Ali ALKHALIFA, Minister of Justice and Islamic Affairs, Fax: +973 175 31 284

· Lt. Gen. Cheikh Rashedbin Abdulla AL KHALIFA, Minister of Interior, Email: info@interior.gov.bh

· H.E. Mr. YusufAbdulkarim Bucheeri, Permanent Mission of Bahrain to the United Nations inGeneva, Switzerland. Fax: + 41 22 758 96 50. Email: info@bahrain-mission.ch

· H.E. Ahmed MohammedYousif Aldoseri, Embassy of the Kingdom of Bahrain to the Kingdom of Belgium,Fax: 0032 (0) 26472274; E-mail: Brussels.mission@mofa.gov.bh

***

Paris-Geneva, August 9, 2017

Kindly inform us of any actionundertaken quoting the code of this appeal in your reply.

TheObservatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders (the Observatory) wascreated in 1997 by the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) and FIDH. Theobjective of this programme is to intervene to prevent or remedy situations ofrepression against human rights defenders. FIDH and OMCT are both members of ProtectDefenders.eu, the European Union Human Rights Defenders Mechanismimplemented by international civil society.

To contact the Observatory, call theemergency line:

E-mail: Appeals@fidh-omct.org

Tel and fax FIDH: + 33 (0) 1 43 55 25 18 / +33 1 43 55 18 80

Tel and fax OMCT: + 41 (0) 22 809 4939 / + 41 22 809 49 29

[1] See Working Group on ArbitraryDetention, Opinion A/HRC/WGAD/2013/12 No. 12/2013, July 25, 2013, par. 20.

[2] The Concluding Observationsalso refer to Mr. Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja,former BCHR President, sentenced to life in prison in June 2011 for politicallymotivated charges and whose health conditions have also been worsening.

[3] Article134 of the Penal Code provides that “A punishment of imprisonment for at least3 months and a fine of at least BD100, or either penalty, shall be inflictedupon every citizen who deliberately releases abroad false or malicious news,s