Bahrain frees political activist Nabeel Rajab
He was released after 4 years in prison and is to serve rest of 7-year sentence at home
Cairo: Bahrain has released well-known rights advocate after nearly four years in prison, his lawyer and rights group have said.
“The prominent Bahraini Human Rights Defender, Nabeel Rajab, is free now,” Rajab’s lawyer Mohammad Al Jishi tweeted without details.
The Bahrain Centre for Human Rights, co-founded by Rajab, confirmed his Tuesday’s release.
“The Bahrain Centre for Human Rights welcomes the release of Nabeel Rajab after nearly four years behind bars,” the watchdog tweeted.
Rajab, 55, will serve the rest of a seven-year verdict at home under a non-custodial sentences scheme for alternative penalties launched by Bahrain in 2018, his supporters said.
Rajab appeared in a picture circulated online smiling as he stood along with his family apparently after his release. He was arrested in 2016 and convicted later in two separate cases of spreading rumours and insulting state institutions. He was handed down a seven-year prison sentence.
The cases are related to a series of tweets published by Rajab in 2015 alleging abuses in Bahraini prisons and assailing a military campaign led by Saudi Arabia in Yemen against Iran-aligned Al Houthi militias.
In recent months, Bahrain has released thousands of prisoners in an effort to contain the spread of the new coronavirus in the kingdom.