BAHRAIN MEDIA ROUNDUP

2nd October 2014

Bahrain Activist
Remanded into
Custody over Tweets
Leading Bahraini rights
activist Nabeel Rajab,
arrested over tweets
deemed insulting by
authorities, will be held for a
week for questioning, a
judicial source said on
Thursday.
"Nabeel Rajab was
questioned by the
prosecutor who then
ordered his detention for a
week as part of the
investigation," the source,
who declined to be
identied, told Agence
France-Presse.
Rajab, who heads the
Bahrain Center for Human
Rights, was released in
May after serving two years
in jail for participating in
unauthorized protests.
Read More
Lawyer: Bahrain
Rights Activist
Detained for Tweet
The head of the Bahrain
Center for Human Rights
has been detained and
referred to prosecutors over
tweets that offended the
country's Interior Ministry,
his lawyer said Thursday.
Nabeel Rajab was detained
Wednesday for questioning,
lawyer Jalila al-Sayed said,
in part due to one tweet in
which he said many
Bahraini men who joined
terrorist groups like the
Islamic State group came
from the country's own
security institutions.
Rajab previously served
two years in prison for
leading anti-government
Shiite protests. He was
released in May.
The Interior Ministry said in
a statement that Rajab was
summoned because of
tweets that had "denigrated
government institutions,"
without elaborating.
Read More
Bahrain to detain,
question activist
Nabeel Rajab for one
week
Bahrain's Public
Prosecution on Thursday
ordered prominent rights
activist Nabeel Rajab to be
held and questioned for one
week over remarks
published on his Twitter
account that were critical of
state institutions, an
associate of Rajab's said.
Bahrain's Public
Prosecution conrmed it
had charged a person with
publicly insulting a
government institution on
social media and had
detained him for
questioning, although it did
not name the individual.
Rajab, one of the most
high-prole pro-democracy
campaigners in the Arab
world and founder of the
Bahrain Centre for Human
Rights, was freed in May
after two years in jail on
charges of organising and
participating in illegal
protests.
Read More
Prominent Bahrain
activist held for
twitter posts
A prominent Bahraini
human rights activist,
Nabeel Rajab, was arrested
because of critical
messages he posted on
Twitter about the Interior
Ministry, campaigners say.
Rajab, the head of the
Bahrain Centre for Human
Rights, will have to appear
on Thursday before the
public prosecution for
further investigation.
During the 2011 uprisings
against King Hamad al-
Khalifa, a Sunni, Rajab was
a leader of the protest
movement. The
demonstrations were
subsequently crushed. The
country is majority Shiite
but ruled by the Sunni
monarchy.
After returning to his
country from Europe on
Wednesday, Rajab was
arrested for tweets that
were alleged to have
"denigrated government
institutions."
Read More
Index calls on UK to
speak out against
Bahraini human
rights abuses after
Rajab arrest
Nabeel Rajab, a prominent
Bahraini human rights
activist and Index award
winner, has been detained
for seven days while being
investigated for claims that
he offended the Ministry of
Interior over Twitter.
Index CEO Jodie Ginsberg
said: Index is deeply
concerned that the UK
government has done little
to press Bahrain to improve
its human rights record.
Instead the UK talks
repeatedly of improvements
in the human rights system
in Bahrain when it is clear
that rights such as freedom
of expression are not being
respected. Index is writing
to UK MPs to raise the case
of Rajab.
Read More
Bahrain: Release
activist detained for
insulting
government on
Twitter
The Bahraini authorities
must immediately release a
prominent human rights
activist who has been
detained for posting tweets
deemed insulting to the
countrys Ministry of Interior,
Amnesty International said
today.
Nabeel Rajab, the
President of the Bahrain
Centre for Human Rights,
could face up to three years
in prison for comments he
posted online about reports
that members of Bahrains
security forces had joined
the Islamic State armed
group in Iraq.
The detention of Nabeel
Rajab is yet another serious
blow to freedom of
expression in Bahrain and
entrenches growing
attempts by the authorities
to muzzle dissenters, said
Said Boumedouha, Deputy
Director of Amnesty
Internationals Middle East
and North Africa
Programme.
Read More
Bahrain: Ongoing
arbitrary detention
and judicial
harassment against
Mr. Nabeel Rajab
The Observatory for the
Protection of Human Rights
Defenders, a joint
programme of the
International Federation
for Human Rights (FIDH)
and the World
Organisation Against
Torture (OMCT), has
received new information
and requests your
urgent intervention in the
following situation
in Bahrain.
New information:
The Observatory has been
informed by reliable
sources about the ongoing
arbitrary detention and
judicial harassment against
Mr. Nabeel
Rajab, President of the
Bahrain Centre for Human
Rights (BCHR), Director of
the Gulf Centre for Human
Rights (GCHR) and FIDH
Deputy Secretary
General[1].
Read More