National Dialogue – Free the Opposition Prisoners!

Bahrain’s Hard Justice: Activists Sentenced to Death and Life
By Karen Leigh Wednesday, June 29, 2011

In February, the wheelchair-bound, gray-haired Shi’a anti-government activist Abduljalil al-Singace was released from a six-month prison stint in Bahrain. He celebrated by joining a Shi’a anti-government rally that marched to the King’s palace in Riffa. There, he was sought out and congratulated by hundreds of admirers. Several weeks later, he was re-arrested in a pre-dawn raid and taken to a prison in the island nation’s capital Manama. After that, news of Singace — one of the island kingdom’s most famous opposition figures — grew scarce.

Then, a week ago, Singace was sentenced to death in a military court, along with seven other prominent Bahraini activists, the highest-profile verdict in the weeks since the regime began trying arrested members of the opposition. Another 13 were handed sentences ranging from two to 15 years in prison. …more