Political Activist Sentenced to Prison in Bahrain For Insulting King
Zainab al-Khawaja, rights activist and daughter of a famous activist, Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, has been convicted by the Bahrain Court of Appeals for ripping up a photo of the Bahraini king during a court hearing in 2014.
Her appeal resulted in reduced charges for insulting the king from three years to one year in prison. She has also been fined 3,000 Bahraini dinars (USD $7,953.34), but if she fails to pay the fine, her prison term may be extended by a year-and-a-half.
She has been arrested and released three times since December 2011 and has previously spent around a year-and-a-half in prison. Currently, she is appealing three separate convictions against herself, including a four-sentence for two charges of “destroying public property” and a one-year sentence for “insulting a police officer” while visiting her father in jail, who is presently in prison for life for being involved in pro-democracy protests in 2011.
