The Supreme Court of Appeal in Bahrain has upheld a 10-year-jail sentence on photojournalist Ahmad Humaidan.
Humaidan, 25, was allegedly convicted of taking part in an attack on a police station in Sitra in April 2012.
Human rights groups say he was simply covering pro-democracy protests that erupted among Bahrain's Shia majority.
The photojournalist won the National Press Club's John Aubuchon Press Freedom Award for 2014 and has always maintained his innocence.
He has been in detention since December 2012. Following repeated home raids against his family, plain-clothes security agents abducted Humaidan from a shopping mall on the night of 29 December 2012 and took him to the Central Investigation Department (CID), where he was interrogated without the presence of a lawyer. Ahmed has maintained that he was not involved in any violence and that he wasn’t presence during the police station attack and if he does that would be only in his capacity as a photojournalist documenting the ongoing unrest.
Twenty-six other defendants were also sentenced to 10 years in jail, while another three received three-year terms. Three more were acquitted.
As a signatory to the ICCPR, Bahrain has committed to uphold international standards of free expression, including the ability of media professionals to document and publish their work. This obligation is rooted in Article 19.2 of the Covenant, which states that, “Everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of his choice.” Similarly, a number of the 158 recommendations that the Government of Bahrain accepted as part of Bahrain’s 2012 Second Cycle UPR referenced ending intimidation, repression and censorship against journalists and the press in Bahrain.
Recognizing these obligations and commitments made by Bahrain, therefore the government should immediately and unconditionally release Ahmed Humaidan and to dismiss all charges against him.
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