Dubai: Bahraini activist Nabeel Rajab will face trial for tweets he allegedly made about the kingdom’s prison system and its involvement in the war in Yemen, his lawyer said on Sunday, and he could face up to 13 years in prison.
Rajab was arrested earlier this month on unspecified charges amid a crackdown that also included a court shutting down a main opposition society and a decision to strip the spiritual leader of the island’s Shiites of his citizenship.
The case appears to relate to tweets he is alleged by the authorities to have made last year in which he suggested security forces had tortured detainees in a main prison and on a military campaign in Yemen by a Saudi-led coalition which also includes Bahrain.
“He was notified of the referring of his case regarding Jaw prison and the Yemen war to the High Criminal Court for trial,” Jalila Sayed, Rajab’s lawyer, said in an email to supporters.
“The first hearing will be on July 12, 2016. Nabeel may face up to 13 years of imprisonment if convicted in that case,” she added.
There was no immediate comment from Bahraini authorities regarding the case. Officials there deny systematic abuses of human rights and have accused the opposition of stirring sectarian hatred in the kingdom and serving the interests of Iran.
Rajab has repeatedly been arrested since 2011 anti-government protests were quelled with help from the GCC.
Bahraini announced earlier this month that the country’s top Shiite cleric, Ayatollah Eisa Qasim, would be stripped of his citizenship, and it also closed down Al Wefaq Islamic society.
It had accused both of being linked to Iran and of fomenting sectarian tensions in the kingdom, charges they deny.
An administrative court began hearing a petition by the justice ministry to dissolve Al Wefaq but postponed the hearing until September to give the group time to respond to the charges.
On Sunday, the group’s lawyer said that the court has informed him it was advancing the date for the hearing to June 28.
