A prominent human rights activist in Bahrain was released from prison on Saturday after spending nearly two years behind bars.
Nabeel Rajab, who heads the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, was sentenced to three years in 2012 on charges of encouraging “illegal gatherings” tied to anti-government protests in the country. An appeals court later reduced his term by a year.
After his release from prison, Rajab was greeted by dozens of supporters and stopped to visit his mother’s grave before heading home.
Photo: AFP
The activist is a key icon for the protest movement against the Gulf Arab monarchy’s Sunni rulers. Since 2011, the country’s majority Shiites have been protesting, demanding greater rights and political freedoms.
A statement from the Bahrain Center for Human Rights said Rajab was imprisoned for “advocating peaceful demonstrations to defend the civil and human rights of all the citizens in the country.”
Rajab told reporters that he is happy to be out after more than 600 days in prison, and called for the release of all political prisoners.
He said stability can only be achieved “through respect for human rights.”
“After two years in prison, I see Bahrain’s political environment as more difficult and still without a roadmap for real reforms,” he said.
In the middle of 2012, Rajab was also sentenced to three months for his comments on Twitter about Bahrain’s prime minister. His conviction was overturned on appeal during his prison sentence for taking part in protests.
Also on Saturday, thousands of people marched in a funeral for 15-year-old Sayed Mohsen, who died during protests earlier in the week in Sitra, south Manama.
The procession turned violent when mourners clashed with Bahraini security forces nearby. Police fired tear gas to disperse the crowd.
Mohsen’s family and the country’s main opposition group, al-Wifaq, said the teenager died after being shot in the chest at close range with bird shot — a weapon commonly used by Bahraini police.
The Ministry of the Interior said that police were investigating the circumstances of the death.
The ministry said Bahraini police in Sitra reacted after being attacked with firebombs on Wednesday during a funeral procession of a man who had died earlier in a bomb blast.
“While the specific circumstances in which Sayed Mohsen was shot remain unclear, the use of force in policing public assemblies ... must conform to the requirements of necessity and proportionality; and firearms may only be used as a last resort,” Amnesty International said in a statement.
The rights group urged an independent and transparent inquiry into the teenager’s death.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
UNREST: The authorities in Turkey arrested 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deported a BBC correspondent and on Thursday arrested a reporter from Sweden Waving flags and chanting slogans, many hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Saturday rallied in Istanbul, Turkey, in defence of democracy after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in more than a decade. Under a cloudless blue sky, vast crowds gathered in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr celebration which started yesterday, marking the end of Ramadan. Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which organized the rally, said there were 2.2 million people in the crowd, but
RSS