Cairo September 4, 2012
ANHRI condemns the decree issued by The Supreme Court of Appeal of Bahrain, of up-healing the decrees issued by the court of national safety against some of the figures due to allegations of plotting to overthrow regime and speaking with foreign entites.
The Supreme Court of Appeal today issued a decree of supporting the judgments of the Court of National Safety (exceptional court) against a group of opposition Bahraini figures known as “icons” or “group of 21 “, and include the case of 21 activists on trial in absentia against 7 activists and convicted 7 of them to life imprisonment while others for prison terms ranging from 5 years to 15 years, most notably the human rights activist, “Abdul Hadi Al-Khawaja”, “Hassan Mushaima”, “Abdul Jalil Singace” and the blogger “Ali Abdel Imam”. The court started to review the case after the issuance of judgment of the Bahraini Court of Cessation of reverse the case of civilians after reversing judgment of the Court of national Safety and continued the trial, which began on 8 May 2012, nearly four months, during which it held sixteen hearing, declined to some activists to attend meetings of non-conviction seriously and credibility of the trial.
During its hearing today the Court issued its ruling against activists and dissidents and to uphold provisions against them, despite dropping some of the charges against them, which a lot of charges dropped of terrorist organization for the lack of evidence in which relied upon by the court ruling National Safety, in an attempt to show the seriousness of the trial and transparency on the part of the Bahraini regime, which is physically incompatible with concrete reality in the country.
ANHRI said that “The judgment today against activists, is a continuation of the provisions of arbitrary judgments by the Bahraini regime against activists and opposition supporters of the uprising in Bahrain and advocates of reform, a sentence issued, since a while, against human rights activist” Nabeel Rajab “sentenced to three years.”
ANHRI wondered: “How the Court of Appeal issues its ruling by up-healing the previous judgments, although of dropping some of the charges against the activists, including the charge of the terroristic organization?”
ANHRI called the international and regional organizations and institutions advocating the human rights to quickly intervene to press the Bahraini regime for the release of the “Icons group” and urged the Bahraini regime to respect freedom of opinion and expression as well as peaceful demonstration.