Bahrain has been urged to quash the conviction of Nabil Rajab, the human rights activist who was sentenced to six months in prison on Tuesday for posting a tweet deemed offensive by the government of the western-backed Gulf state.
Rajab had faced a sentence of up to six years under the kingdom’s cybercrime law after suggesting that Bahraini recruits to Islamic State (Isis) were drawn from state security forces. The relatively light sentence suggested that the court decision may have been influenced by international protests over the case.
But news of his sentencing was greeted by calls for an end to efforts to curb the freedom of expression.
Rajab was granted bail of $500 (£430) while he appeals against the verdict.
Rajab, president of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights, was freed in May 2014 after serving two years in jail for his role in the pro-democracy uprising that began at the start of the Arab spring in 2011. He was arrested again last October and charged with publicly “insulting a public institution” on Twitter.
The offensive tweet about Bahrainis in Isis was embarrassing since Rajab enjoys a very high profile internationally and also because the country is one of five Arab states participating in the US-led coalition fighting the jihadi terrorist group. He described the security forces of being an “ideological incubator” for jihadis.
Rajab and others in the Bahraini opposition accuse the Sunni Al Khalifa dynasty, which rules over a restive Shia majority, of being sectarian. The government and its supporters see him as an inveterate troublemaker.
On Monday state prosecutors charged the leader of the country’s main opposition movement, al-Wefaq, Sheikh Ali Salman, with planning to overthrow the government – a step that surprised observers in Bahrain and abroad by its severity.
Jodie Ginsberg of Index on Censorship said Rajab “has been sentenced for doing nothing more than exercising his right to express an opinion”.
She added: “We condemn the actions of the Bahraini authorities – whose foreign minister marched in Paris to defend freedoms that Bahrain denies the people in its own country. We urge the UK and other allies of Bahrain to join us in calling for this sentence to be overturned.”
Said Boumedouha, deputy director of Amnesty International’s Middle East and north Africa programme, said: “Rajab is being unjustly punished simply for posting tweets deemed insulting to the authorities. His conviction is a blow to freedom of expression – it must be quashed. He should be released immediately and unconditionally.”
Sayed Alwadaei, of the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy, said: “This is a shameful indictment enabled by the UK government that is still propping up the Bahraini government with arms and to this day refuses to condemn human rights abuses committed by its ally.”