Nabeel Rajab was arrested on 1 October 2014 after his return from an international advocacy tour at the United Nations and the European Union.
UPDATE (2 October 2014): The Public Prosecution announced today that Nabeel Rajab is being detained for seven days pending investigations. (Arabic Network for Human Rights Information)
Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR) president and well-known human rights activist Nabeel Rajab, who was only recently released after serving a gruelling two-year sentence in Bahrain’s Jaw Prison, was arrested again on 1 October 2014. He was detained one day after his return from an international advocacy tour at the United Nations and the European Union.
I received a call from the Criminal Investigation dep to go immediately to Cyber Crimes Dep. waiting for written summon in order to go.
— Nabeel Rajab (@NABEELRAJAB) October 1, 2014
The Bahrain Ministry of Interior said that the General Directorate of Anti-Corruption and Economic and Electronic Security summoned Rajab to “interview him regarding Tweets posted on his Twitter account that denigrated government institutions.”
As Rajab was heading over to the Cyber Crimes Department on 1 October, he posted this picture of himself on Instagram and, in Arabic, captioned it by saying, “departing to be investigated and my prison suitcase is my ally.” It appears Rajab seemed to be expecting arrest.
BCHR’s President @NabeelRajab arrested for a Tweet in less than 24hrs after arrival to #Bahrain from advocacy trip abroad.
— Bahrain Human Rights (@BahrainRights) October 1, 2014
Marietje Schaake, a member of the European Parliament, weighed in on his arrest after having met with him earlier last week.
As @nabeelrajab feared when we spoke with him last week, he got arrested again in #Bahrain so sadly predictable pic.twitter.com/Q2vs6wPaMt
— Marietje Schaake (@MarietjeSchaake) October 1, 2014
Ala’a Shehabi, the co-founder of the independent research and advocacy organisation Bahrain Watch, thinks Rajab might have been charged with “insulting a public institution” because of the following tweet:
many #Bahrain men who joined #terrorism & #ISIS came from security institutions and those institutions were the first ideological incubator
— Nabeel Rajab (@NABEELRAJAB) September 28, 2014
John Horne, a member of Bahrain Watch, agrees.
It’s 2014 and @NABEELRAJAB is still being arrested for his tweets. This time for those quoted in this article: http://t.co/NBIFE8P9LK
— John Horne (@JohnHorneUK) October 1, 2014
As the news of his arrest spread, support for Rajab immediately flooded social media networks.
Show your solidarity wt Prominent Human Rights Defender Nabeel Rajab who was imprisoned today by the gov of #Bahrain on fabricated charges.
— Khalid Ibrahim (@khalidibrahim12) October 1, 2014
Bahraini authorities detained human rights Mr. #Nabeel_Rajab. #Bahrain @hrw @AmnestyOnline @UNrightswire pic.twitter.com/PPOgGQoomU
— Bahraini (@Bhreny) October 1, 2014
HRF statement on today’s detention of @NABEELRAJAB http://t.co/EtyZcsnWWd @yarabayoumy @HyderAbbasi @NABEELRAJAB @binmrajab @tublani2010
— Brian Dooley (@dooley_dooley) October 1, 2014
Seriously concerned by reports that @NABEELRAJAB has been arrested and will face public prosecution tomorrow in #Bahrain @BirdBahrain_
— English PEN (@englishpen) October 1, 2014
According to Rajab’s wife, he will be taken to the public prosecutor tomorrow [2 October 2014].
