Abdulhadi Al Khawaja

In a joint statement issued by the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights (BCHR), Human Rights Watch and ARTICLE 19 the organisations expressed their concern about the deteriorating situation for human rights defenders in Bahrain. "Blogs and social networking websites have been censored, union leaders have been slapped with defamation suits and human rights activists are facing up to 10 years or even life in prison" said the statement.

Further Information

Last week, Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja, former President of BCHR who now works for Front Line, was in court on charges of "instigating hatred and disrespect", stemming from a speech he made in January that was critical of the Government. Human Rights Watch, which monitored the trial with Front Line, called on Bahrain to drop the charges and lift the travel ban on Al-Khawaja.

To read the full text of the joint statement log onto the web site of The Bahrain Centre for Human Rights