Nabeel Rajab

Detained Since: June 13, 2016.

Charges: Spreading false rumors in time of war, insulting public authorities, and insulting a foreign country.

Sentence: Two years for disseminating false news and undermining the prestige of the kingdom (July 10, 2017). Additional five years for offending Saudi Arabia and insulting the Bahraini interior minister (February 21, 2018).

Biography: Nabeel Rajab is a prominent Bahraini human rights activist who is the President of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights and the Director of the Gulf Center for Human Rights who has been repeatedly arrested and convicted for exercising the basic human rights to freedom of expression and assembly. On August 6, 2012 Rajab was convicted and sentenced to three years in prison on charges of “illegal gathering” and “disturbing public order” for calling for and taking part in three demonstrations in Manama without prior notification between January and March 2012. During a protest, he was assaulted by riot police who punched him several times in the face, head and back.  He said: “I fell on the ground but they continued to beat me – they even stomped on me and kicked me.” 

On May 24, 2014, after serving two years in prison, Rajab was released, only to be detained again on October 1, 2014 for a tweet that was said to have offended the Ministry of Interior. He was released on bail on November 7, 2014. On January 2015, Rajab was sentenced to six months in prison on charges of insulting a public institution and the army. He remained free but subject to a travel ban while the conviction was appealed. But on April 2, 2015, he was re-arrested at his home, and a month later his conviction was upheld. Rajab remained in jail until July 10, 2015, when the king of Bahrain issued a special pardon for health reasons and he was freed.

Slightly less than year later, on June 13, 2016, Nabeel Rajab was re-arrested without a warrant and has been continually detained since. He has been subjected to solitary confinement and degrading treatment, and suffers from poor health that has required prolonged hospitalizations. On July 10, 2017 Rajab was sentenced to two years imprisonment by the Lower Criminal Court in Bahrain for "disseminating false news, statements and rumours about the internal situation of the Kingdom that would undermine its prestige and status" related to media interviews he gave in 2015 and 2016. The sentence was upheld in January 2018. A month later he was sentenced to an additional five years.

Advocate: Rep. James P. McGovern (D-MA)

Updates:

• Bahrain arrests prominent human rights campaigner Nabeel Rajab: wife Nabeel Rajab has been arrested nearly one year after being released from prison. No reason for the arrest was given. (June 13, 2016, Reuters) 
• Rajab was reportedly in poor medical condition after undergoing surgery and going in and out of solitary confinement. He was rushed to a hospital on April 8 for treatment of an infected wound. (April 13, 2017, Gulf Center for Human Rights)
• Rep. James P. McGovern delivered a 5-minute floor speech to urge Nabeel Rajab's immediate and unconditional release. The text of the speech is available here. (June 13, 2017, U.S. House of Representatives)
• On the anniversary of Nabel Rajab's arrest, 37 members of the European Parliament sent an open letter to the EU High Representative for Foreign Affaris and Security Policy urging her to call for his immediate release. (June 13, 2017, European Centre for Democracy and Human Rights)
• European Parliament Subcommittee on Human Rights Chair issued a statement denouncing the arrest of Nabeel Rajab and urging Bahraini authorities to release him. (June 27, 2017, European Parliament)
• Rajab was sentenced to two years in prison for allegedly making "false or malicious" statements about Bahraini authorities. (July 10, 2017, Reuters)
• Rajab faces up to 15 additional years in jail for criticizing Bahrain's participation in the Saudi-led war against Houthi rebels in Yemen, and for speaking out about torture in Bahrain's infamous “Jaw” prison. (December 7, 2017, Global Voices)
• Rajab received an additional five-year jail sentence for tweets in 2015 criticizing torture in Bahrain and the Saudi-led coalition’s military intervention in Yemen. He is already serving a two-year sentence, which he received last July on a charge of “spreading rumors and false information” for criticizing the Bahraini authorities in TV interviews. (February 21, 2018, Reporters Without Borders)
• A Bahraini court on May 8th adjourned the appeal hearing of Nabeel Rajab until May 20th. This is the second hearing after Rajab decided to appeal his February 21st conviction on politically motivated charges. (May 8, 2018, Americans for Democracy and Human Rights in Bahrain)
• On May 20, Bahrain’s High Court of Appeal adjourned until June 5 to issue its ruling on whether to uphold the five-year prison sentence against human rights defender Nabeel Rajab. (May 21, 2018, Americans for Democracy and Human Rights in Bahrain)
• A Bahrain appeals court upheld a five-year prison sentence for human rights activist Nabeel Rajab. Rajab is already serving a two-year prison sentence for television interviews he gave that included criticism of Bahrain. (June 5, 2018, Amnesty International)
• United Nations human rights experts called on Bahrain on Thursday to release detained activists. The experts cited cases including that of Nabeel Rajab. (July 26, 2018, Reuters)
• The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention declared Nabeel Rajab's deprivation of liberty to be arbitrary and called for his immediate release. (August 13, 2018, UN Human Rights Council, WGAD)
• Nabeel Rajab has been shortlisted for the 2018 Vaclav Havel Prize, which is awarded to outstanding civil society activism in the defence of human rights. (August 28, 2018, Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly)
• Citing the Opinion by the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention on Nabeel Rajab's continued detention, 127 human rights groups called on the Bahraini government to release him. (August 29, 2018, Human Rights Watch)
• The city of Chicago recognized Nabeel as an 'Honorary Citizen of Chicago' for his human rights work. (September 20, 2018, City of Chicago - Office of the City Clerk)
• 57 rights groups have called upon the government of Bahrain to release Nabeel Rajab immediately, to repeal his convictions and sentences, and drop all charges against him in light of the upcoming issuing of a verdict in the appeal of his five-year prison sentence on December 31. (December 19, 2018, Human Rights Watch)
• Bahrain’s high court upheld a five-year jail sentence against human rights activist Nabeel Rajab. (December 31, 2018, Reuters)
• The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights has called on the government of Bahrain to immediately and unconditionally release Nabeel Rajab. (January 4, 2019, UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights)
• Bahrain has rejected a UN call to release Nabeel Rajab, claiming that Rajab "posted false and malicious tweets harming the civil peace and social harmony," that "amount to legal violations which do not fall within the protections for freedom of expression that are guaranteed by Bahrain’s constitution." (January 12, 2018, Middle East Eye)
• Nabeel Rajab and other imprisoned human rights defenders have been informed that all subsequent family visits in Jaw Prison will be carried out behind a glass wall. Imposing the glass barrier on human rights defenders is a form of collective punishment that violates human rights law such as the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (Mandela Rules). (January 17, 2019, Gulf Center for Human Rights)
• Nabeel Rajab was selected by readers as a Foreign Policy Global Thinker for 2019. (January 22, 2019, Foreign Policy)
• On the 8th anniversary of the Pearl Uprising, Rep. James P. McGovern inserted remarks into the Congressional Record calling on the government of Bahrain to release Nabeel Rajab and other prisoners of conscience and reform policies that risk fostering extremism. (February 14, 2019, Congressional Record)
• A Bahraini court has refused to grant Nabeel Rajab a non-custodial sentence instead of the jail terms he is currently serving. (May 6, 2019, Reuters)
• Nine human rights and press freedom organizations wrote to Bahrain's Minister of Information Affairs to urge the government of suspend Nabeel Rajab's current sentence. (September 13, 2019, IFEX)
• A Bahraini court refused the noncustodial sentence request for Nabeel Rajab. (September 17, 2019, HRW Daily Brief)
• US Senator Chris Murphy visited the home of Nabeel Rajab and called for "freedom of expression" to be defended. (November 25, 2019, Hartford Courant)