Human rights groups calls for release of top Bahraini activist

Dozens of Bahraini and international rights groups have called on the Aal-e Khalifah regime to release prominent human rights campaigner Nabeel Rajab, who faces up to 13 years in prison over tweets critical of the ruling dynasty.

“We remind the Bahraini government of its obligation to preserve the right to free expression,” 26 campaign groups, including Human Rights First and Physicians for Human Rights, said in a statement.

They added, “We reiterate repeated calls by United Nations officials, and others in the international community, to immediately release Rajab.”

The statement came as Rajab, who is the head of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR), will appear in court later on Tuesday over tweets in March 2015 criticizing Manama’s involvement in the deadly Saudi aggression against Yemen and torture at the notorious Jaw Prison.

Rajab has been repeatedly detained for organizing anti-regime demonstrations and publishing Twitter posts deemed insulting to the Bahraini authorities.

The 52-year-old activist was pardoned for health reasons last year, but he was re-arrested last month.

Separately, Bahraini regime forces stormed a number of houses across the kingdom early on Tuesday, arresting a number of young people.

The raids took place in the villages of Nuwaidrat, Ma’ameer, Malkiya and Dumistan.

Elsewhere in the northwestern village of Diraz, situated about 12 km west of the capital, dozens of protesters converged outside the residence of Bahraini prominent religious scholar Ayatollah Sheikh Issa Qassim early on Tuesday to voice their support for the distinguished religious scholar, and condemn the Aal-e Khalifah regime’s decision to strip him of his citizenship. The participants later said their morning prayers at the protest site.

SS