Extreme sentences and perversion of civil judical conduct mark al Khalifa regime torturous detention of innocents

Bahrain upholds lengthy prison terms for journalists
September 28, 2011–The Committee to Protect Journalists

New York, September 28, 2011–The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns today’s decision by the appeals chamber of Bahrain’s Court of National Safety to uphold lengthy prison terms for 21 individuals, including two online journalists and a prominent human rights defender. In separate press freedom violations, authorities prevented a newspaper from covering Saturday’s parliamentary by-election, and an independent journalist has faced persistent harassment.

The appellate ruling, which was reported by the official Bahrain News Agency, upheld the June convictions of journalistic bloggers Abduljalil Alsingace and Ali Abdel Imam and human rights activist Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, a leading defender of free expression rights, on a series of charges related to “plotting to topple” the regime. The court also let stand the life prison sentences given to Alsingace and al-Khawaja, and the 15-year term handed to Abdel Imam. The original proceedings in the Court of National Safety, a tribunal made up of civilian and military judges, were marred by a lack of due process and fairness, according to news accounts and human rights defenders. Defense lawyers had limited access to both their clients and to the evidence in the case, according to those accounts, and the court did not fully investigate reports that the defendants were tortured in custody.

“Journalism, no matter how adversarial to the government, does not amount to an antistate crime,” said CPJ Middle East and North Africa Program Coordinator Mohamed Abdel Dayem. “The prosecution failed to produce evidence implicating the two journalists in a crime, and the courts did not ensure fair and just proceedings.”

Alsingace and Abdel Imam were arrested last year on antistate conspiracy charges during a government crackdown. They were released in February as the government sought to appease a then-nascent protest movement, but they were re-arrested in March as authorities cracked down again. Al-Khawaja was arrested in April and suffered extensive physical abuse, CPJ research shows.
Front page of Al-Wasat (AP)

In a separate case, the government’s election committee delayed granting ID passes to journalists for the independent daily Al-Wasat, thus preventing them from covering the government’s by-elections on Saturday, local journalists told CPJ. The government-issued ID passes allow journalists to enter and report from polling stations. The election was scheduled to fill 18 empty seats in the 40-seat parliament that had been vacated by Shiite lawmakers six months ago to protest the crackdown. On September 21, just days before the election, the Bahrain News Agency published an Interior Ministry statement that “warned against posting illegal calls on social networking and Internet websites inciting people to break the law,” adding that circulating or publicizing calls to take part in rallies is a “crime punishable by the law.” …more