The first minor criminal court adjourned trial of prominent dissident Ibrahim Sharif, over which he is accused of insulting Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir, until March 13 for ruling.

The minor criminal court in Bahrain decided on Monday (February 11, 2019) to adjourn the former Wa’ad Society Secretary-General Ibrahim Sharif’s trial over charges of insulting a foreign head of state until February 19 for pleading.

Bahrain's total population in January 2019 reached 1.60 million, and the total number of mobile subscribers reached 2.63 million, i.e. 164% more than the population, while internet users reached 1.54 million, Al-Watan newspaper reported on Friday, February 8, 2019.

Amnesty International said that upholding life sentence against Bahraini opposition leader Sheikh Ali Salman is a bitter blow to freedom of expression.

Human Rights Watch issued its 2019 world report on human rights around the globe, in which it said that the Bahraini authorities continue repression in Bahrain through targeting dissidents and attacking freedom of expression and assembly.

Human rights organizations from around the world have sent an open letter to the Bahraini authorities calling for the immediate release of Nabeel Rajab, the repeal of his convictions and sentences, and dropping all charges against him.

United Nations human rights experts called on Bahrain on Thursday to end the repression of activists, restrictions on freedom of expression and discrimination against women.

The US State Department report about human rights in the world said that the Bahraini government limited freedom of speech and press through active prosecution of individuals under national security laws that targeted journalists to limit speech in print and social media.

Bahraini King’s media advisor, Nabeel Al-Hamer, a corrupt man, won the Media Personality of the Year award granted by the Arab Media Forum in Dubai.

12 NGOs called on international community to help free human rights defenders in Bahrain, and stop persecution of journalists simply for peacefully exercising their rights to freedom of expression and assembly.

Human Rights Watch launched a feature entitled “140 Characters” that presents the profiles of 140 prominent Bahraini, Kuwaiti, Omani, Qatari, Saudi, and Emirati social and political rights activists and dissidents, and their struggles to resist government efforts to silence them.

Bahraini authorities on June 4, 2017, ordered the immediate indefinite suspension of Al Wasat, the country’s only independent newspaper, said Human Rights Watch.

The Third Minor Criminal Court adjourned the case of the human rights defender Nabeel Rajab, in which he is accused of spreading false news about the Kingdom’s internal situations, until May 30 to show the CDs and watch the video in question, also authorizing the defense panel to meet with the defendant where he is being held.

The Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) Twenty-Seventh session issued an unedited version of its draft report on Bahrain, on Wednesday (May 3, 2017). The 2017 recommendations seem to mirror the 2012 recommendations, as both sets line up to 176 recommendations.

Switzerland regretted that Bahrain has not implemented all recommendations of the BICI report and criticized what it called reprisal measures against Human Rights activists and banning their travel to Geneva.

Slovenia demanded Bahrain to set a timetable to implement HRC recommendations.

​Human Rights Watch says prominent Bahraini human rights activist, Nabeel Rajab, is suffering from health problems that have developed or deteriorated during more than 10 months​ ​of​ ​arbitrary​ ​detention.

Amnesty International highlighted in a statement that Bahrain’s authorities have dramatically escalated their crackdown against critics, summoning 32 people for questioning within the past five days.

Amnesty International called on its website for an urgent action to “urge the Bahraini authorities to quash the conviction of leader Sheikh Ali Salman, the Secretary General of Bahrain’s main opposition party Al-Wefaq National Islamic Society, and to release him immediately and unconditionally,” after the court of cassation reduced the nine-year prison sentence against him to four years.

Index on Censorship said on its website that it is deeply concerned about the deteriorating conditions for freedom of expression and human rights in Bahrain.