BAHRAIN: Activist slammed with 2-yr sentence for spreading “fake news”

A 52-year-old prominent human rights activist Nabeel Rajab has been slammed with a 2-year jail sentence by a court in Bahrain after he was found guilty of spreading “fake news”.

Rajab who has been in hospital since April was sentenced in absentia after he was convicted “of disseminating false news, statements and rumours about the internal situation of the kingdom that would undermine its prestige and status” according to court papers.

Moments after the courts verdict was passed, Bahraini and international human rights watchdogs condemned the ruling, with the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy saying Rajab had been sentenced “for speaking to journalists” and that he had “spent over a year in pre-trial detention, largely in solitary confinement”.

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“His lawyers state he was denied basic fair trial guarantees,” the group said in a statement.

In his comments after the Rajab was slammed with the jail sentence,Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei of the Bahrain Institute strongly condemned the ruling saying it was outrageous.

“This outrageous sentence against someone speaking the truth exhibits the brutality of the Bahraini government and its heinous crimes and that of its kangaroo court,” he said.

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