Free Zainab al-Khawaja

Drop all charges against Zainab al-Khawaja : Amnesty
Shia Post – 13 August, 2012

Zainab Al-Khawaja was arrested in the evening of 2 August 2012 when she was protesting alone outside the capital, Manama, at al-Qadam roundabout in Budaya road, Two days later her detention was extended for a further seven days and she was charged with “destroying government property”, as she had allegedly torn up a picture of Bahrain’s King while detained in May.

In the past nine months Zainab Al-Khawaja has been arrested and released several times. She has been put on trial several times for “illegal gathering” and “insulting officials” .

She is still facing three more trials. The first is an appeal hearing on a charge of “insulting an officer” in a military hospital. She had been acquitted of this charge on 2 May but the prosecution appealed and the appeal hearing is now under way; the next session will be on 16 October.

She faces two further trials: the first trial together with Ma’suma Sayyid Sharaf, for “illegal gathering” and “inciting hatred against the regime” has been postponed until 5 September. The second, for obstructing the traffic during a protest has been postponed until 1 November.

Zainab al-Khawaja was reportedly injured in the leg when she was hit by a teargas canister fired by riot police breaking up a protest she was monitoring a few weeks ago. It is not clear whether she has been given any medical treatment in detention. …more