Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR)

In a hearing which took place on 29 May 2016, the Specialised Criminal Court (SCC) in Riyadh sentenced Al-Shubaili to eight years in prison followed by another eight years of a travel ban to start after he serves his sentence.

On 31 May 2016, human rights defender Zainab Al-Khawaja was finally released from prison, seven weeks after Bahrain’s Foreign Minister promised to free her.

On 18 April 2016, Kuwaiti security forces arrested Bedoon human rights activist Abdulhakim Al-Fadhli. Human rights defender Rana Al-Sadoun, who was arrested two days previously, has since been released from prison on bail.

Eleven regional and international civil society groups have penned a letter to U.S. President Barack Obama urging him to press for the release of all detained rights defenders across the Gulf region who are imprisoned solely due to their peaceful and legitimate human rights work.

Since his detention, many human rights groups have campaigned for his release. On 21 April 2015, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention declared his detention a violation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and called for his release, yet the Syrian authorities refuse to free him.

She is sentenced to a total of three years and one month in prison, on a variety of charges including two sentences for ripping a picture of Bahrain’s monarch and one year in prison for allegedly “insulting” a police officer.

“Across the region, women pay a heavy price for exercising their rights, especially when they dare to demand women’s rights in some of the world’s most repressive countries.”

Ten regional and international human rights organisations call on the government of the United Arab Emirates to release immediately and unconditionally all those imprisoned solely for peacefully exercising their rights to freedom of expression, association, and assembly as a result of this unfair trial.