The fact that Bahrain’s most prominent activist was sentenced to six months in prison this week may not be entirely surprising, but it does seem to suggest an abandonment of pretence on the part of the ruling family.
Nabeel Rajab had scarcely touched down on home soil last autumn before he was served a summons that led to his subsequent arrest. The official reason was a tweet in which he wrote “many #Bahrain men who joined #terrorism & #ISIS came from security institutions and those institutions were the first ideological incubator”.
He was later released pending a trial, which after initial postponement finally came to pass on Tuesday. Found guilty of making “false claims that two ministries acted as ideological incubators that led to former employees joining terrorist and extremist groups abroad,” he was given a six month jail term. Read on…