On 10 January 2017, Saudi Arabia’s Specialized Criminal Court (SCC) sentenced human rights defender and lawyer Abdulaziz al-Shubaily to eight years in prison followed by an eight-year travel ban. Al-Shubaily is a founding member of the Saudi Association for Civil and Political Rights (ACPRA), which documented human rights abuses in the Kingdom while promoting a[…]
10
Jan
Jan
Following yet another postponement in the final days of 2016, the trial of Bahraini scholar and activist Khalil al-Halwachi is now set to enter its twenty-third session on 22 January 2017. He is being tried along with 16 others and has been detained by Bahraini authorities for over two years without being sentenced, in clear[…]
05
Jan
Jan
5 January 2017 – Bahrain today restored law enforcement abilities to its National Security Agency (NSA), an institution which oversaw torture of protesters in 2011. The move reverses one of the few post-Arab Spring reforms outlined in the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI). The reversal comes after an escalated human rights crisis in 2016,[…]
28
Dec
Dec
28 December 2016 – A Bahraini court earlier today ordered the provisional release of human rights defender Nabeel Rajab on bail. However, the Public Prosecution subsequently ordered his continued detention for seven days, citing further investigation into another case in which Rajab is accused of “spreading false news,” likely to be related to letters published[…]
21
Dec
Dec
21 December 2016 – Bahraini authorities have today interrogated imprisoned human rights defender Nabeel Rajab on allegations stemming from a letter he recently published in the French newspaper Le Monde. The undersigned NGOs condemn in the strongest possible terms any further legal action against Rajab for exercising his fundamental right to free expression and call[…]
