Bahrain Mirror: On the sidelines of its annual report on freedom of the press in the world, Freedom House has listed 12 people as the most prominent figures in combating injustice via their online activity. Among these figures was Bahraini human rights activist Nabeel Rajab, who has been detained by the authorities in Bahrain since mid last year.

Freedom House highlighted that Rajab, one of Bahrain's most prominent rights activists and most followed Twitter users, has been in and out of jail since 2012 in connection with various cases linked to his online activism. "In 2016, he was jailed over tweets and retweets critical of civilian deaths resulting from Saudi-led coalition airstrikes in Yemen, and which accused security forces of torturing detainees at Bahrain's Jaw prison; for these remarks, he was charged with spreading rumors during wartime and insulting a statutory body, respectively, and faces as many as 15 years in prison."

The independent watchdog further noted that Rajab was held in solitary confinement until April 2017, when he was transferred to a hospital following complications from surgery, adding that in July, he was convicted in absentia on separate charges of "disseminating false news" in connection with televised remarks about torture at Jaw prison. "The case related to his Twitter activism remains open; in the meantime, he has been transferred from the hospital to Jaw prison, where he risks becoming a victim of the same abuses he sought to expose."

Arabic Version