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News ID: 52156
Publish Date : 23 April 2018 - 22:06

Bahraini Court Postpones Trial of Top Dissident




MANAMA (Press TV) – A Bahraini court has postponed the trial of prominent opposition figure and pro-democracy campaigner Nabeel Rajab, who has been kept behind bars over his criticism of the ruling Al Khalifah regime and the Wahhabi ideology, until May 8.
The court took the decision against the 53-year-old president of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR) on Monday, Arabic-language Lualua television network reported.
The BCHR voiced serious concerns over ill-treatment of its founder at Bahrain’s notorious Jaw Prison in a post published on its official Twitter page on Thursday.
The group said Rajab and his cellmates had been denied drinking water for the past 24 hours, and the detainees had been subjected to 23-hour lockdowns and were prevented from accessing reading materials.
On February 21, a court in Bahrain sentenced the distinguished human rights activist to five years in prison over tweets deemed critical of the Manama regime and the deadly Saudi-led war against Yemen.
Bahrain’s Court of Cassation, which has the ultimate say in the case of appeals in the country, also upheld a two-year jail sentence against Rajab on January 15.
He faces a further 15 years in prison over a separate set of charges related to his criticism of the ruling Al Khalifah family and Wahhabism.
On December 22, 2016, Bahraini authorities accused Rajab of making comments that "harm the interests” of the Manama regime and other Persian Gulf kingdoms through an article attributed to him and published by French daily Le Monde.
The article slammed the Daesh terrorist group for its crimes against humanity. It also condemned Persian Gulf Arab countries for their failure to stop the spread of the violent Wahhabi ideology.