Case History: Nabeel Rajab

On 17 September 2019, the Bahrain High Court of Appeals rejected the request to grant Nabeel Rajab a non-custodial sentence.  On 21 February 2018, the human rights defender was sentenced to five years in prison in connection with social media posts criticising the government's participation in the Yemeni war.

UPDATE: On 5 June 2018, the Court of Cassation in Bahrain upheld a five-year sentence against Nabeel Rajab for tweeting about Saudi Arabia’s role in the Yemeni Civil War and about torture practices at Jaw Prison.

UPDATE: On 8 May, the Court of Cassation postponed the hearing against Rajab's five-year prison sentence to 20 May 2018 for closing arguments.

On Wednesday, 21 February 2018, Bahrain’s Criminal Court sentenced Nabeel Rajab to five years in prison for tweeting about Saudi Arabia’s war on Yemen and on torture in Jaw Prison.

Nabeel Rajab is the President of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights and the Deputy Secretary General of the International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH). He has been a leading voice in civil society opposing repressive rule in Bahrain and has been in detention since June 2016.

On 21 February 2018, Nabeel Rajab was sentenced to five years in prison on charges of “spreading false rumors in time of war,” “insulting public authorities,” and “insulting a foreign country” in relation to Twitter posts about Bahrain's participation in Saudi Arabia’s war on Yemen.

On 15 January 2018, following an appeal submitted by Nabeel Rajab’s defence team, the Bahraini Court of Cassation also upheld the defender’s sentence to two years in prison from a parallel case running against him on charges relating to his participation in televised interviews for which he was sentenced to two years in prison in July 2016. The human rights defender has been in detention since his arrest on 13 June 2016.

While in prison, the human rights defender has been subjected to inhumane conditions and ill-treatment including solitary confinement, arbitrary raids of his cell at night and having his hair forcibly shaved. Additionally, he has been denied adequate medical care for different issues including chronic gallstones, as well as ailments caused by his living conditions in prison, including a skin infection and irregular heartbeat.

Front Line Defenders condemns the latest sentencing of Nabeel Rajab, which it believes to be in direct retaliation against his human rights work. Front Line Defenders is also gravely concerned by the human rights defender’s ill-treatment in detention and denial of adequate medical care. Front Line Defenders calls for the immediate and unconditional release of Nabeel Rajab and that he be provided with necessary medical care.

On 7 December the Bahrain Criminal Court again postponed the court hearing of Nabeel Rajab for charges of “spreading false rumors in time of war,” “insulting public authorities,” and “insulting a foreign country” in relation to Twitter posts about Bahrain's participation in the war on Yemen. The next hearing is set for 15 January 2018. The human rights defender faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted.

Alongside this, Rajab continues to serve a two-year prison sentence relating to television interviews, following his sentencing on 10 July 2017.

On 25 October 2017, human rights defender Nabeel Rajab was subjected to degrading treatment in Jaw Prison, Bahrain. He reported being subjected to a forced, humiliating search and having his hair forcibly shaved off.

Nabeel Rajab is a human rights defender and President of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights. He has been a leading voice in civil society opposing repressive rule in Bahrain and has been in detention since June 2016.

On 25 October 2017, Nabeel Rajab was arbitrarily transferred to Jaw prison from the Ministry of Interior Hospital in al-Qalaa where he had been detained since April 2017 due to health complications arising from previous solitary confinement. On his arrival at Jaw prison, the human rights defender was searched in a humiliating manner and his hair was forcibly shaved off. That night as he slept, prison guards raided his cell and searched him again. Nabeel Rajab has faced a litany of human rights violations in the past number of years as result of his work, including physical intimidation, ill-treatment, arrest, detention and travel bans.

On 10 July 2017, the human rights defender was sentenced to two years imprisonment by the Lower Criminal Court in Bahrain in violation of his rights of assembly and expression. He was convicted of "disseminating false news, statements and rumours about the internal situation of the Kingdom that would undermine its prestige and status". These charges related to media interviews Nabeel Rajab gave in 2015 and 2016.

Front Line Defenders is deeply concerned about the ill-treatment of the human rights defender in detention and calls for an immediate end to his harassment. Front Line Defenders also condemns Nabeel Rajab’s continued detention and calls for his release and for all convictions against him to be quashed.

Despite a court’s decision to temporarily release Bahrain’s most prominent human rights defender Nabeel Rajab in a Twitter case, he was immediately taken into custody on another investigation in relation to televised interviews dating back to 2015 and January 2016. The pending charges are without substance and must be dropped and he must be immediately and unconditionally released, say the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders (FIDH-OMCT), the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI), Front Line Defenders and the Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR), who mandated a joint trial observation mission.

On 28 December 2016, following an important mobilisation for his release, Manama’s Fifth High Criminal Court acceded to an application for Nabeel Rajab’s temporary release following a failure to give any basis or any sufficient evidence of a link between him and the Twitter account with respect to the Yemeni and Jaw prison tweets (see below).

“The quality of the evidence from the purported computer forensic expert was very poor. It extended no further than a recital of the results of a basic google search,” said the trial observer. “The supposedly neutral expert witness is an employee of the Bahrain government Ministry of interior,” he added.

According to defense submissions made by Rajab’s lawyer during the hearing: “There has never been any sound legal justification to hold Nabeel Rajab in detention in this trial because of a lack of evidence since the very start of this case. The evidence of the Ministry of Interior’s so-called expert before the Court today makes it clearer than ever that at no point in time has there been, nor probably could there have been, any technical evidence to support this prosecution. Hence Nabeel Rajab’s release should be ordered forthwith.” The judge agreed and ordered the temporary release of Rajab until the next hearing scheduled on 23 January 2017 in which the court will allow the Public Prosecution to present new evidence against Nabeel Rajab, after such was requested by the Public Prosecution.

Nabeel Rajab thus continues to face charges of allegedly “offending a foreign country” (Saudi Arabia) and “offending national institutions,” for comments about the alleged torture of inmates in Bahrain’s Jaw Prison in March 2015. He still faces up to 15 years in prison notably for tweets critical of Bahrain’s participation in Saudi Arabia-led military operations in Yemen, which according to the United Nations, have so far been responsible for the deaths of thousands of civilians. A travel ban remains in place as it has been without a break for almost three years.

Then Rajab was taken to the Criminal Investigation Directorate (CID) for temporary release. However, he was re-arrested later on the same day and referred to the Public Prosecution in relation to an investigation into televised interviews dating from 2015 and January 2016, which commenced in mid-June 2016. He will be held for seven days on these charges. It seems that these interviews were with television networks which support the Bahraini opposition: a Bahraini network (based in the United Kingdom), a Lebanese network and an Iranian network.

“It is shocking that the Court has only ordered Nabeel Rajab’s temporary release when there was a finding of no evidence after more than a year of the Twitter case. It is extraordinary that he has been immediately taken back into custody for investigation on charges relating to events that date back to 2015 and January 2016, in an investigation which has been completely dormant since mid-June 2016,” noted the trial observer.

Nabeel Rajab is the co-founder and President of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR), Founding Director of GCHR, Deputy Secretary General of FIDH from 2012 to 2016, and a member of the Middle East advisory committee at Human Rights Watch. Comments on his Twitter account about the Saudi-led coalition airstrikes in Yemen first led to his arrest on April 2, 2015. He remained in custody until he received a royal pardon for health reasons and was thus released on July 13, 2015. Again on 13 June 2016 he was arrested for the televised interviews. During his detention in relation to the televised interviews’ investigation he was referred for trial in the criminal court in relation to the Yemeni war Tweets. He remained in detention on these charges until December 28, 2016.

He has suffered from poor health in prison including heart problems. Most worryingly, he has been held in solitary confinement for the vast majority of that period and denied access to proper care. It is reported that his cell is air conditioned but filthy and infested with cockroaches. On 3 October, 2016, he was taken to the Bahraini Defense Forces hospital for surgery to remove his gallbladder. Despite the risks of moving him back to jail, Rajab was taken from the hospital the day after his surgery and placed in solitary confinement in a dirty cell. Three days after surgery, he was taken back to court.

“The practice of holding a person in solitary confinement for prolonged periods is internationally recognised as a form of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment that may amount to torture. Solitary confinement can have a devastating effect on a prisoner’s mental health.” remarked the trial observer.

Charges regarding the Yemeni Tweets are based on Articles 133 and 160 of Bahrain’s Penal code and provide for up to 10 years in prison for anyone who “deliberately announces in wartime false or malicious news, statements or rumors.” Charges regarding the televised interviews are based on Article 134 of the Penal code, which provides between three months and three years of imprisonment for releasing deliberately “abroad false or malicious news or statements or rumours about domestic conditions or for exercising in any manner whatsoever activities that are harmful to the national interests.”

In September 2016, an additional investigation was initiated against Rajab following the publication on September 05, 2016 of an Op-Ed in “The New York Times” with his by-line, which discussed the conditions of his imprisonment and arrest. The pending charge of “intentionally broadcasting false news and malicious rumours abroad impairing the prestige of the State” carries an additional one-year prison term if he is convicted.

On December 21, 2016, Rajab was interrogated in connection with a letter published in his name in the French newspaper “Le Monde” on December 19, which urged Paris and Berlin to “reassess their relationship with [members of the Gulf Cooperation Council], which actively work against democracy and human rights and fan the flames of violence and extremism.”

Human rights organisations, the UN and government representatives worldwide have all called for Rajab to be released, including through ANHRI “Their Freedom is Their Right” Campaign which named him Prisoner of the Month in September, FIDH #RT4Freedom website, and a case history by Front Line Defenders.

ANHRI, Front Line Defenders, GCHR and the Observatory (FIDH-OMCT) call on the Government of Bahrain to:

1.     Immediately and unconditionally release Nabeel Rajab and drop all charges against him, as well remove his travel ban;

2.     Uphold international legal standards including ensuring that technical experts are independent; and

3.     End all forms of reprisals against human rights defenders and other activists in Bahrain, including travel bans, to which they have been subjected in violation of their rights to freedom of assembly and freedom of expression.

Update: Nabeel Rajab's trial was postponed to 15 December.

On 5 September 2016, human rights defender Nabeel Rajab was charged with "undermining prestige" of Bahrain for publishing an article in The New York Times, titled "A letter from a Bahraini jail".

In his op-ed, Nabeel writes:

"America’s actions have emboldened the Bahraini government to detain me and other rights advocates: Its unconditional support for Saudi Arabia and its lifting of the arms ban on Bahrain have direct consequences for the activists struggling for dignity in these countries. Instead of fanning the flames in Yemen by supplying arms to the Saudi coalition, Mr. Obama’s administration should use its leverage to resolve the conflict. Working to secure the release of people who call for peace, and are trying to build democracy in the region, would serve that aim".

FULL ARTICLE: A LETTER FROM A BAHRAINI JAIL

On 12 July 2016, new charges were brought against human rights defender Nabeel Rajab, following his first court hearing which was subsequently adjourned to 2 August. Nabeel's health is acutely deteriorating due to poor detention conditions.

He is charged of “insulting a statutory body”, “disseminating false rumors in time of war”, and newly accused of “insulting a neighboring country (Saudi Arabia)” over social media posts in which he criticised the ongoing war against Yemen. The Bahraini High Court rejected his release following his lawyer's request, and he will remain in detention for another three weeks pending his trial. He is currently held at the West Riffa Police Station in Riffa, Bahrain.

Nabeel Rajab's family was allowed to visit him on 14 June. He is now at the offices of the public prosecution with his lawyer and charged with publishing and broadcasting false news that undermined the prestige of the state. He will remain in detention for seven days.

On 14 May 2015, the Appeals Court in Bahrain rejected the appeal of human rights defender Mr Nabeel Rajab against his six-month prison sentence. The human rights defender is currently detained in Isa Town Police Station.

Nabeel Rajab had originally been arrested on 2 October 2014 and was granted bail pending trial on 2 November 2014, on the condition that he refrain from travelling. The charges were based on public statements he had made, in particular a tweet the human rights defender published on 28 September 2014.

Nabeel Rajab was arrested again on 2 April 2015 on separate charges of “insulting a statutory body” and “spreading rumours during a time of war”. The new charges are based on his work documenting torture in Bahrain's Jaw Prison and on comments he reportedly made on Bahrain's involvement in the war in Yemen. The investigation remains open and, if the charges are confirmed, he faces up to ten years imprisonment.

On 2 November 2014, prominent human rights defender Mr Nabeel Rajab was released on bail by the Third Lower Criminal Court on the condition of a travel ban. He may face up to six years imprisonment for “insulting a public institution” via Twitter. A verdict on his case is due on 20 January 2015.

The judge initially decided not to impose travel restrictions on the human rights defender. However, this decision was reversed some hours later after the prosecution reportedly submitted evidence suggesting that Nabeel Rajab planned to leave the country.

On 1 October 2014, Nabeel Rajab was summoned by the General Directorate of Anti-corruption and Economic and Electronic Security of the Criminal Investigation Department where he was interrogated on charges of “insulting a public institution” via Twitter, under article 216 of Bahrain’s penal code.

On 17 September 2019, the Bahrain High Court of Appeals rejected the request to grant Nabeel Rajab a non-custodial sentence.

On 21 January 2013 a Manama court rejected the request for early release put forth on behalf of human rights defender Mr. Nabeel Rajab.

Nabeel Rajab has been in prison since May 2012 and was sentenced on 16 August 2012 for calling for illegal gatherings. This particular conviction came in the aftermath of the human rights defender's support of the so-called “Arab Spring” but Nabeel Rajab has also faced a long pattern of harassment which has included various forms of intimidation and arrest as a result of his peaceful work in the field of human rights.

In their request for early release the human rights defender's lawyers showed that Nabeel Rajab had fulfilled all the conditions for early release listed in the Bahraini criminal code: completing two thirds of the sentence, having demonstrable good conduct during detention, release not constituting a threat to national security and the duration already spent in detention being no less than 9 months.

By rejecting the request for early release the Bahraini courts are effectively continuing the pattern of judicial harassment to which Nabeel Rajab has been subjected, given that the criteria were all met. Nabeel Rajab's attorney intends to appeal the decision as there has been no explanation given to justify the court's stance.