Prominent Bahraini activist Maryam al-Khawaja flashes the V-sign as she leaves the Bahrain court building in the capital Manama on October 1, 2014. — AFP picDUBAI, Dec 1 — A Bahraini court today sentenced in absentia prominent rights activist Maryam al-Khawaja to one year in jail for assaulting police officers, her lawyer said.

Mohammed al-Jishy told AFP the verdict was announced in the absence of Khawaja, who said yesterday she would not attend the hearing because it was “impossible to have a fair and independent  trial” in the Gulf kingdom.

Khawaja, a director of the Beirut-based Gulf Centre for Human Rights, also holds Danish nationality and is a daughter of jailed top Shiite opposition figure Abdulhadi al-Khawaja.

She has been in London since a travel ban was lifted on October 1, Jishy said.

Khawaja was arrested after arrival at Manama airport on August 30 on charges of hitting two policewomen, while she insists it was police who attacked her.

She was granted bail on September 18 pending trial.

Her father, Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, was jailed for life following 2011 Shiite-led protests that were crushed by authorities in the Sunni-ruled state.

She has been active abroad in criticising the Bahraini authorities since the crackdown.

“Today’s sentence… is a powerful warning to human rights activists who criticise the regime,” said Bryan Dooley, head of Human Rights Defenders Programme at the US-based Human Rights First.

“It tells those based out of Bahrain they risk jail if they try to return,” he added in a statement.

Tiny but strategic Bahrain, home base of the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet, remains deeply divided three years after the month-long protests. — AFP