Bahrain sentences opposition leader to jail

A court in Bahrain has given the leader of the country’s largest leftist political party a one-year prison sentence for “inciting hatred against the political regime.”

According to Press TV, the court issued the sentence against Ibrahim Sharif, the secretary general of the National Democratic Action Society (Wa’ad), on Wednesday. It, however, spared him on the more serious charge of “promoting political change through forceful means and threats.”

The office of Bahrain’s Prosecutor General, however, expressed disappointment that the latter charge was dismissed and said it may appeal against the ruling to the country’s Court of Cessation.

Sharif was first found guilty of the charges in 2011 over his involvement in the popular uprising that began to engulf the country earlier that year. He then started to serve a five-year sentence, but was released from prison on June 19, 2015 due to “royal amnesty.”

He was rearrested last year after criticizing the Bahraini regime during a memorial ceremony for a victim of the unrest and faced the charges again.

SS