Rajab’s Defense Lawyers Walk Out of Trial

Local Editor

A rights group reported on Wednesday that lawyers for a leading Bahraini human rights activist walked out of court after their demand to postpone the trial was rejected by the judge.

According to the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy [BIRD], the lawyers asked the court to postpone the trial until Nabeel Rajab, hospitalized since April, could attend and defend himself.

Rajab's health had deteriorated in solitary confinement, the institute said, and he has undergone surgery for bleeding ulcers.

"When Judge Al-Jazar refused the postponement request, the defense declared they were withdrawing from court until their client could attend in person and walked out of the court room," BIRD said in a statement.

A leading figure in a 2011 pro-democracy uprising, Rajab has been repeatedly detained.

He faced two trials on Wednesday, one in the morning for tweeting, the other in the afternoon for allegedly spreading false news. He also faces another trial on charges of writing an editorial decrying prison conditions in the country.

BIRD's statement said the trial for tweeting has been postponed until Aug. 7 and the trial for spreading false news has been delayed to July 2.

The Al Khalifa regime had no immediate comment on the report.

In a New York Times column published under his byline in September, Rajab addressed readers in the first person, saying he was writing from a "Bahraini jail cell where I have been detained, largely in isolation, since the beginning of summer".

The United Nations Committee against Torture last month called on Bahrain to release Rajab from more than nine months of solitary confinement and investigate widespread allegations of ill-treatment and torture of detainees.

Since 2011, Bahrain has been the scene of peaceful anti-regime protests against the systematic abuse of the Shia population and discrimination against them. Manama had responded to the protests with lethal force, which has drawn international criticism.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team