Released Activist Nabeel Rajab Vows to Continue Fight for Human Rights

Local Editor

A Bahrain court freed prominent human rights activist Nabeel Rajab on Sunday and adjourned his trial to next year over remarks posted on Twitter deemed "insulting to public institutions", a judicial source said.

The Bahrain criminal court ordered Rajab's release from custody but barred him from leaving the country, setting the next hearing in his trial to January 20, the source said.

In his first interview since being released from prison, Rajab told RT that he will continue his fight for democracy.

"Human rights activists in this country [Bahrain] are the target of the government and intuitions. We are forced to be silent. We are to be suffocated because the government doesn't want us to talk, doesn't want us to criticize government institutions, which have been responsible for a lot of human rights violations. And today I'm paying the price for talking; I'm paying the price for what I write, for monitoring the human rights violations in this country. So what I am facing is what hundreds of other human rights activists face. Many people are behind bars today [in Bahrain] because of a tweet they have made or because of criticism they have written in a newspaper or online," Rajab told RT.

"There is no bargaining about my work for human rights. The struggle has to continue for justice and democracy. You can't get justice and democracy free of charge. We have been ruled by the same family for the past 200 years in the same way. Now we are struggling to have democracy, justice, equality, and liberty..." he said.

"I know that it's very costly and that a lot of people have given their lives. So me comparing to them is nothing. I spent my last two years in jail and now again I'm spending one month. And I was released on bail and I don't know for how long I'm going to be out. But whatever happens, it's not going to stop me from continuing my struggle for democracy. I'm more determined. I'm more sure that the struggle has to continue peacefully to achieve human rights and democracy," Rajab also told RT.

Meanwhile, the trial has been condemned by advocacy groups, including Human Rights Watch, which also called for the charges against Rajab to be dropped.


Rajab is the director of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights and was detained after the tweet was posted and as he was charged with "publicly insulting official institutions." He may now have to serve jail terms of up to three years.

Rajab has been protesting against the Bahraini regime since 2011 and was arrested recently this month on October 1 after posting comments on Twitter about the interior and defense ministries.
In one of the tweets that were deemed "offensive", Rajab charged that many of the Bahrainis fighting with extremists in Syria were former security forces personnel who had developed extremist views during their service.

Thousands of anti-regime protesters have held numerous demonstrations in the streets of Bahrain since mid-February 2011, calling for the Al-Khalifa royal family to relinquish power.
On March 14, 2011, troops from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates [UAE] were deployed to Bahrain to assist the Bahraini regime in its crackdown on peaceful protesters.
Moreover, many Bahrainis have been killed and hundreds injured and arrested in the regime's ongoing crackdown on peaceful demonstrations.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team