AhlulBayt News Agency

source : Lualua TV
Wednesday

22 November 2017

1:05:01 PM
868444

Bahraini court upholds Nabeel Rajab’s 2 years prison term

(AhlulBayt News Agency) - Manama’s Court of Appeal upheld a 2-year prison sentence against Bahrain’s leading human rights defender Nabeel Rajab on Wednesday.

The verdict came during the fourth hearing in the appeals process, which started back in October.

The activist, who was arrested last summer, received his sentence in July of this year after being found guilty of “publishing and broadcasting fake news that undermines the prestige of the state”.

The charges stem from television interviews during which Rajab told journalists that Manama bars reporters and human rights workers from entering Bahrain.

He faces a further 15 years in prison over a separate set of charges related to tweets criticizing the bombardment of Yemen and Manama’s use of torture.

Ahead of Wednesday’s appeal hearing, fifteen NGOs, including the Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR) and the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (BIRD) called on western governments to “ urgently raise, both publicly and privately, the case of Nabeel Rajab”.



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