Bahraini court upholds charges against prominent activist Khawaja

AhlulBayt News Agency: A Bahraini court has upheld charges against Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, a prominent rights defender already serving a life sentence, after denying him access to an appeal hearing.

Khawaja faced new charges in November 2022 over his protests from prison, including the alleged breaking of a plastic chair a year ago when he was denied the right to call his daughters from prison.

On November 28, he was convicted and fined the equivalent of $418 as his family condemned the charges as “bogus,” saying he was denied legal representation.

On Thursday, the High Criminal Second Court of Appeal upheld the charge of allegedly breaking the chair while the family and rights campaigners say the court had denied him access to an appeal hearing. “The court decided to accept the appeal in its general form but rejected its subject matter and upheld the [appeal] ruling,” the Free Al-Khawaja campaign said in a statement.

The rights defender had asked his legal defense to withdraw from the proceedings if Bahraini authorities fail to give him access to the court and his lawyers before the hearing. He also wrote a letter to the judge before withdrawing from the courtroom.

In the letter, the detainee regretted that there is a “complex network of laws and procedures” in place in Bahrain which works to “violate the rights, especially those who oppose the regime, rather than protecting those rights.”

The 61-year-old activist was initially arrested and put on trial in 2011 after leading peaceful protests that called for fundamental freedoms in the Persian Gulf country.

Daughter says not shocked

Maryam al-Khawaja said she was “not shocked” by the court ruling. “I am not shocked by the court’s decision since the court is doing exactly what it is intended to do: violate rights and punish human rights defenders like my father,” she said on Thursday.

“My father’s letter says everything that needs to be said, not only about his cases, but also about the system of reprisals against human rights activists and the involvement of the British government.”

She also tweeted on Friday an audio recording from her father in prison, expressing concern over his physical safety. In the audio clip, Khawaja alleges prison authorities attempted to send him into a room alone with a police official.

Khawaja was convicted of insulting the official when referring to him as a "torturer" of prisoners. He says that this was done in response to his letter to the judge.

International rights groups described the new charges as an attempt to intimidate Khawaja and other prisoners who speak up from jail.

Khawaja, the former president and co-founder of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR), was arrested and put on trial on April 9, 2011, as part of a campaign of repression by Bahraini authorities following pro-democracy protests in the Persian Gulf kingdom. He was sentenced on June 22 that year, along with eight other activists, to life imprisonment.

Khawaja has gone on a series of hunger strikes while serving his life sentence in protest at political conditions in Bahrain.

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