Bahrain Mirror: Bahraini and international human rights organizations, including nine SRT (Sigrid Rausing Trust) grantees, sent a letter to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, H.E. Zeid Ra'ad Zeid al-Hussein, urging him to call on the Government of Bahrain to immediately and unconditionally release detained human rights defender Nabeel Rajab and drop the charges against him.

The letter published on the Bahrain Center for Human Rights website (Thursday December 20, 2016), read, "We, the undersigned human rights organizations, write to urge your office to urgently and publicly call on the Government of Bahrain to immediately and unconditionally release human rights defender Nabeel Rajab and drop the charges against him." The letter also noted that Rajab's next, and likely final, trial date is scheduled for 28 December, adding that if convicted, Rajab faces up to 15 years in prison. 

Moreover, the letter signed by 52 human rights organizations addressed the High Commissioner saying, "Mr. High Commissioner, your office has pursued and published a number of communications in relation to human rights abuses perpetrated against Nabeel Rajab. Yet with his likely final court appearance approaching, it is imperative, now more than ever, to use the weight of your office to publicly defend him."

"We therefore call on you to issue a public statement in defense of Nabeel Rajab as a human rights defender arbitrarily detained for his free and peaceful expression. We further urge you to publicly call on the Government of Bahrain to immediately and unconditionally release Rajab, and to drop all charges against him," the rights organizations further stressed in their letter.

Mr Rajab is being tried on charges regarding tweets and retweets addressing torture in Bahrain's Jau Prison, as well as criticizing Bahrain's participation in Saudi Arabia-led military operations in Yemen.

Furthermore, the letter noted that Nabeel Rajab was also charged with "undermining the prestige of the state" for his open letter which was written during his time in detention and was published in the New York Times on 4 September 2016. In the letter, he states that he was threatened into silence after being released from detention in July 2015, before the Bahraini authorities arrested him again in June 2016.

Among the organizations who signed the letter were Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain, Bahrain Center for Human Rights, Gulf Centre for Human Rights, Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (BIRD), Amnesty International and other organizations.

Arabic Version