Bahrain Mirror (AFP): Bahrain's appeals court has reduced the sentence of an opposition figure convicted of insulting the king by ripping up a photograph of him, Amnesty International said Wednesday.

Zainab al-Khawaja was sentenced in December to three years in jail. The court upheld her conviction but cut the sentence from three years to one, the London-based rights organisation said.

The daughter of prominent rights activist Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, she will still have to pay a fine of 3,000 dinars (about $8,000/7,080 euros).

Amnesty deputy regional director James Lynch said the verdict was a "vindictive assault on freedom of expression", saying it "offers yet another example of the Bahraini authorities' use of oppressive tactics to silence peaceful activists."

"It is ludicrous that Zainab Al-Khawaja is facing a year in prison simply for tearing up a photo of the head of state. The Bahraini authorities must ensure her conviction and prison sentence are quashed."

Tiny but strategic Bahrain, home base of the US Navy's Fifth Fleet, remains deeply divided three years after authorities crushed a month-old pro-democracy movement.