Bahrain rights activist Nabeel Rajab acquitted over tweet, still in jail
Tens of thousands of people chanting anti-government slogans and holding up pictures of jailed activists have taken part in Bahrain’s first authorised opposition protest since June.
No clashes occurred at Friday’s march along a three kilometre stretch of a highway west of the capital Manama.
Protesters carried Bahraini flags and held up images of rights activist and protest leader Nabeel Rajab, calling for his release.
Bahrain, where the US Fifth Fleet is based, has been in crisis since a revolt led by majority Shia Muslims began 18 months ago to demand democracy in the Sunni-ruled kingdom.
A court in Bahrain has acquitted human rights activist Nabeel Rajab of insulting Bahrainis by criticizing the prime minister via Twitter, but remains in jail on other charges, his lawyer said.
Rajab said he had been “subjected to psychological and physical torture” while speaking in court on Thursday, International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) President Souhayr Belhassen said.
Despite complains of ill treatment, Rajab will remain in jail, as a lower Bahraini court later added three years to the veteran human rights on three counts of leading protests. The prosecution further claimed he had incited violence against police. Rajab is set to appeal the later conviction in September.
The United States had previously said it was “deeply troubled” by the verdict, but its hypocritical criticism remained mostly muted as the US Fifth Fleet – which is in a major build to attack Iran – operates out of Manama base.
Rajab has long maintained that he’s been targeted for exercising his “right to defend human rights.” As the head of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, Rajab helped lead anti-government protests following a brutal crackdown on Shiite-led demonstrations against the Sunni regime in March 2011.
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There are currently an estimated six hundred political prisoners in Bahrain, as a result of the regime’s ruthless retaliation against a popular uprising that started in February 2011. 397 citizens are thought to be currently serving sentences delivered by military and civilian courts that fall far short of international standards for fair trials.
On Saturday, 7 April 2012, one of these prisoners was transferred to a prison clinic after allegedly losing twenty-five percent of his body weight as the result of a hunger strike begun on 8 February 2012.
Fifty-one-year-old human rights defender Abdulhadi al-Khawaja has reportedly said: “My hunger strike is a part of my human rights defense inside jail. It’s very important to focus on all detainees as I’m just a part of them. I will continue with my hunger strike until I reach my demands despite the consequences. I’m aware that freedom is expensive and we must sacrifice to gain it.”
The Free 
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