Bahrain royal dictatorship news update

This video says about itself:

12 April 2011

A woman describes how the police sexually assaulted her in Bahrain.

Dec 29, 2014 at 6:05pm

Call for release of three female human rights activists in Bahrain

Bahrain has been urged by UN human rights experts to drop charges against three female activists.

The independent experts said the women have been detained or sentenced purely for their criticism of the Bahraini authorities.

They added that the women were exercising their right to free expression and association.

Two of the activists are daughters of Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, the former president of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights, who has been in detention since 2011.

The other activist is Ghada Jamsheer, head of the Women’s Petition Committee, a network of Bahraini women human rights defenders who campaign for the reform of the country’s family laws.

From ANSA news agency in Italy:

Bahrain: opposition leader detained after demonstration

Ali Salman head of Al-Wefaq group. 56 arbitrary arrests, BCHR

ROME, DECEMBER 29 – Yesterday Bahraini authorities detained Shaikh Ali Salman, the recently re-elected head of the kingdom’s main opposition group Al-Wefaq, Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR) reports today.

His arrest comes after he led a peaceful rally near the capital city of Manama on Friday in protest against last month’s general elections, which the opposition boycotted. The Ministry of Interior is accusing Al-Salman of inciting hatred against the government and calling for its overthrow by force.

After Al Salman was detained by criminal investigators, scattered clashes broke out on the streets Sunday evening between protesters and government forces, which led to 56 arbitrary arrests, including 5 children, BCHR also reports.

Since last week, human rights defender Nader Abdulimam has been facing further charges for founding the human rights organization ‘Ensaf‘. Abdulemam has been serving a six-months prison sentence since August 2014 for “publicly insulting a religious figure of worship”. The new charges against him are a clear violation of the principles of human rights, especially those relating to freedom of expression, peaceful work and establishing civil society organizations.

The Bahrain Center for Human Rights believes that Nader Abdelimam is being targeted because of his high-profile human rights activism online and on his blog. Further, the BCHR joined with several other NGOs to express strong concern over the extradition of Bahraini citizen Ali Haroun from an immigration detention center in Thailand into the custody of authorities in Bahrain last week. There is strong concern that he will be further abused by the authorities as he reportedly was in 2013 during a previous arrest and detention.

Last week, the BCHR was able to document a total of 56 arbitrary arrests, including 5 children under the age of 18. Five individuals was confirmed as released, leaving more than 3000 prisoners in arbitrary detention.