The trial of Ali Abdulemam and 10 other human rights defenders has again been postponed, this time until December 9, 2010.

Further Information

The trial of 23 persons (including human rights defenders, political activists, bloggers, and men of religion) started at 9:30 am. The hearing was attended by embassy representatives defense lawyers, representatives of international organisations as well as some local media and relatives of the detainees.

Among the people prevented from entering the court by the Bahraini security forces were:

1 - Mr. Mohamed Maskati - Chairman of the Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights (representing the Arab-European Centre for Human Rights) in Norway. 2 - Ms.Ghada Jamsheer - a defender of human rights. 3 - Reporters from the BBC.

Local activists and the families of some detainees were also prevented from entering the court.

In addition to calling for the release of the detainees the defense lawyers also presented the following requests to the trial judge:

1 - to investigate allegations of torture 2 - to improve the conditions of detainees at the prison. 3- The formation of a independent medical committee to examine the detainees. 4 - to allow local media to publish on the issue.

Detainees confirmed that they had been tortured again after a previous trial, and had also been subjected to ill-treatment.

The judge did not respond to the lawyers' requests and has postponed the hearing until December 9, 2010.

please see the previous appeal of Front Line on 9th Nov 2010