Bahraini activist’s father jailed for life

[Editor Note: Zainab and Maryam, I know this is a devastating blow and I know that you also know this isn’t anywhere close to the end of this fight. Your father is fighting the good fight and there are many of us in the world who stand solidly by his side. Your are not alone. The labor for his release and the freedom of all detainees will not cease on this end until all are free. My thoughts, hopes and mediation are for your fathers freedom.]

Bahraini activist’s father jailed for life
Zainab al-Khawaja aka angryarabiya gained international attention after tweeting about human rights abuses in the country

Activist Zainab al-Khawaja
Zainab al-Khawaja’s father was jailed for life, her husband and brother-in-law are also in custody.

The Bahraini activist whose prolific tweeting has focused international attention on human rights abuses was briefly arrested during a court hearing at which her father was jailed for life and her uncle was also imprisoned, her sister said.

Zainab al-Khawaja, known on Twitter as angryarabiya, comes from one of Bahrain’s most conspicuous dissident families. Her husband and brother-in-law are also in custody but have yet to be charged. She came to prominence in April after staging a 10-day hunger strike to demand her relatives’ release.

She was in court when her father, Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, one of the country’s leading rights activists, was given a life sentence, her younger sister, Maryam, said.

“Right after they read out the verdicts my father shouted, ‘The struggle will continue,'” said Maryam, 23, who left Bahrain in March and has been protesting from overseas, tweeting as maryamalkhawaja. “He was beaten and forcefully removed from the court. My sister stood up and chanted, ‘Allahu akbar’ [God is great], and she was forcefully removed from the court and arrested. She was charged with contempt of court but then was made to sign a pledge not to speak in court again and then she was released.”

With official pressure building up on family members within Bahrain – Zainab was briefly arrested last week – it is now largely up to her younger sister, an activist with the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights, to sustain the pressure on authorities. …more