Bahrain Mirror: Amnesty International said that the verdict issued by a Bahraini court on Thursday sentencing the president of Bahrain Center for Human Right to six months in prison shows that Bahrain is brazenly flouting its international obligations.

The appeal verdict against Bahraini human rights activist Nabeel Rajab, confirming his sentence of six months in jail for insulting government institutions demonstrates "the Bahraini authorities' complete disregard for the right to freedom of expression", said Amnesty International in a statement.

"The Bahraini authorities must release him immediately and unconditionally, and ensure his conviction is quashed," said Said Boumedouha, Deputy Director of the Middle East and North Africa Programme at Amnesty International. Amnesty considered that "this case provides further proof that the reforms Bahrain claim it has introduced in recent years amount to little more than empty gestures. Bahrain today remains a country where exercising freedom of speech is treated as a crime."

Amnesty International called on the Bahraini authorities to "uphold the right to freedom of expression, repeal laws that criminalize the peaceful exercise of the rights to freedom of expression, association and assembly, and to release Nabeel Rajab immediately and unconditionally."

The Arabic Issue