Bahrain introduced new legislation last year allowing its courts to convert jail terms into non-custodial sentences.
The Ministers of Finance of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, the State of Kuwait…
724 | the publication reaches you by | Bahrain NewsRajab, who played a prominent role in pro-democracy protests in 2011, was handed a five-year jail sentence and a two-year sentence for publicly criticising the government and its ally Saudi Arabia.
Rajab was sentenced last year over social media posts criticising Saudi Arabia’s air strikes in Yemen and accusing authorities of torture.
He was convicted of “spreading false news and rumours in time of war”, “insulting foreign countries” and “insulting publicly the interior ministry”, according to a court filing by his lawyers during his trial.
Bahrain’s highest court upheld the five-year sentence last December, ending avenues for appeal.
In his mid-50s, Rajab has been in jail since 2016 and served another two-year term for torture allegations he made in a news interview. He also faces a number of other cases, including over a column he wrote in the New York Times.
Amnesty International has described Rajab as a “prisoner of conscience”. The United States has also expressed concern over his case.
Bahrain, led by a Sunni Muslim royal family, clamped down on dissent after quashing the 2011 protests, led mainly by Shi’ite Muslims, with the help of Gulf Arab neighbours.
Home to the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet, the small Gulf kingdom prosecuted and revoked the citizenship of hundreds of protesters in mass trials and banned the main opposition groups. Most of the leading Shi’ite opposition figures and human rights activists are imprisoned or fled abroad.
Bahrain’s authorities said last month they restored citizenship to 551 people but no prominent opposition figures were on the list.
Non-custodial sentences outlined in the new law include community service, electronic monitoring and repairing criminal damage.
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The Arab states of the Persian Gulf are the seven Arab states which border the Persian Gulf, namely Bahrain, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).This excludes the non-Arab state of Iran. All of these nations except Iraq are part of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).
