Bahrain (and Beyond) Live Coverage: An Activist Tries to Re-Enter the Kingdom

See also Syria Live Coverage: The End of the Brahimi Mission?
Thursday's Turkey (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Three Kurdish Officials Killed in Paris Attack

---

1748 GMT:Tunisia. Hundreds of protesters demanding jobs and the reopening of a border crossing with Libya set fire to a police station and cars, as security forces used tear gas and fired shots into the air to disperse them.

Demonstrators in Ben Guerdane want the Ras Jedir crossing reopened so that trade with Libya, on which most of the population depend, can resume.

Tunisian and Libyan authorities opened the crossing briefly on Thursday but shut it when four days of protests in Ben Guerdane turned violent.

1818 GMT: Bahrain. Zainab AlKhawaja's reaction:

MY SISTER IS HOOOME!!!! #bahrain

— angry arabiya (@angryarabiya) January 11, 2013

Maryam and Zainab Alkhawaja:

Click to read more ...

Bahrain Live Coverage: Appearing Before the UN Human Rights Council

See also Bahrain Report: The Ongoing Assault on the Health System
Yemen, Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: A Suicide Bombing in Sana'a
Monday's Bahrain Live Coverage: The Regime's Strategy of Rolling Detention

---

1610 GMT: Some detail on detained hunger striker Abdulhadi Alkhawaja's appearance in court today, amidst 13 activists and political figures on an extended "retrial" of their lengthy prison sentences (see 1200 GMT)....

"The continuation of my arrest is a crime," Alkhawaja told the court. "Stop this sham trial."

Alkhawaja continued, "For more than 100 days I have been on hunger strike and am ready to sacrifice my life to demand freedom."

Alkhawaja's wife, Khadija Almousawi said her husband also told the court about the abuse to which he was subjected after detention in April 2011: "There was a moment of silence when he spoke about the psychological torture when they lied to him about arresting [their daughter] Zainab...torturing, raping Zainab and moving her to a jail in Saudi Arabia. This must have been harder than the torture itself."

Click to read more ...

Bahrain Opinion: On Day 100 of a Hunger Strike, Thoughts About the Regime's Strategy

Abdulhadi Alkhawaja and Nabeel Rajab

---

Abdulhadi Alkhawaja may or may not die. His daughter and Nabeel Rajab may or may not be released. Other activists may or may not join them.

I can't predict what will happen, but I can say this about the likelihood of events going one way or the other. The regime is gambling that it can tighten the screw of repression without paying a price in its contracts and links, if not its reputation, in the international community. Silence from that community raises the likelihood that the gamble --- despite the continued protests --- will pay off.

Click to read more ...

Bahrain Live Coverage: Challenging the US Arms Sale

See also Bahrain Feature: A Very British System of Repression
Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: A Pause in the Conflict?
Saturday's Bahrain Live Coverage: Marches and US Arms Sales

---

Cartoon: Carlos Latuff1914 GMT: The wife of detained human rights activist Abdulhadi Alkhawaja, who is Day 95 of his hunger strike, has seen him for two hours today.

Khadija Almousawi said her husband appears in better condition, but he is still only taking water and juice.

Click to read more ...

Bahrain Live Coverage: Prominent Activist Nabeel Rajab Arrested

See also Bahrain Video Special: How the Tear-Gassing of A Village Begins
Saturday's Bahrain Live Coverage: The Many 1000s on the Highway

---

Nabeel Rajab Leads Protest, 1 April1950 GMT: Finally, a press release from the regime that sets out its approach against detained human rights activist Nabeel Rajab....

Prosecutors, using the Bahrain News Agency, said:

[We] filed a case against the defendant after compiling compelling evidence of his involvement in inciting illegal rallies and marches online on social networking websites....The defendant's cyber-incitement proved detrimental as [it] fuelled rioting, road blocking, arsons, acts of sabotage targeting public and private properties, in addition to the use of Molotov cocktail incendiary bombs. The inquiry has also revealed compelling evidence on the defendant's role in instigating, online, acts targeting policemen whilst on duty, leaving some of them injured.

The statement effectively convicted, "[Rajab] admitted posting the defamatory and humiliating material on his account."

Most telling, however, might be this element of truth about this morning's court hearing, "The defendant stood the trial, in the presence of his lawyer, but he refused to answer the questions about the charges leveled against him, saying that he does not recognize the court."

Click to read more ...

Bahrain Analysis: The PR Game, the BBC, and Alkhawaja's Hunger Strike

The surprise news that resonated throughout Tuesday was the five-minute visit of BBC reporter Frank Gardner to detained human rights activist Abdulhadi Alkhawaja on Day 83 of his hunger strike. The photograph of the meeting and Gardner's article testified to a thin but alert Alkhawaja, who maintained that he had been force-fed during the previous week but that he would continue his fast.

Opposition activists were pleased to see that Alkhawaja --- cut off from his family, his lawyer, and the Danish Ambassador for six days until the ban was lifted on Sunday, briefly missing from his room in the military hospital, and feared near death --- was sitting up and coherent. (The BBC went even farther in its article, reporting that Alkhawaja said he had been walking for three days.) But at the same time, some of those activists noted the regime's game in allowing the interview.

Click to read more ...

Bahrain Snap Analysis: The Regime's Propaganda Struggles

Bahrain's Minister of Justice on BBC's HardTalk

---

In a series of messages last night via Twitter, hunger striker Abdulhadi Alkhawaja's wife Khadija Almousawi documented the pain of her husband while putting out his continued hope: "Despite all that happened to Hadi, he is as strong as a mountain, very thin but content and with his large smile. Again he said to us today he has never been happier."

Almousawi continued, referring to her detained daughter, activist Zainab Alkhawaja, as well as her husband: "No matter what they do, they cannot break my Hadi or my Zainab and this gives me strength to continue being hopeful."

The regime response? Saqer Al Khalifa, a leading figure in the social media campaign and former media attaché at the Bahraini Embassy in Washington, took the spectre of threat to a new level: Alkhawaja was comparable to the Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, the planner of the attacks of 11 September 2001.

Click to read more ...

Bahrain, Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Free Alkhawaja

One of Friday's "Free Alkhawaja" rallies in Bahrain --- see also our Bahrain Video and Photo Special

See also Bahrain Feature: A Call from Hunger Striker Abdulhadi Alkhawaja to His Family
Bahrain Video and Photo Special: Friday's "Free Alkhawaja Protests"
Lebanon Feature: Is Hezbollah's Syria Policy A Regional and Domestic Mistake?
Turkey Video Feature: Will the "Coup Trial" Heal Political Wounds?
Friday's Bahrain, Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: A Kingdom on Edge

---

2045 GMT: On Friday night, Bahraini activist Zainab Alkhawaja was seized as she stood outside a military hospital and called out to her father, political prisoner Abdulhadi Alkhawaja, held inside on his hunger strike. She was released this afternoon.

Tonight Zainab returned. According to her mother, she was seized, tied to a wheelchair, and taken to the security room at the hospital.

Click to read more ...