Bahrain Video Feature: Re-Visiting the Protesters, A Year Later (Al Jazeera English)
Thursday, February 16, 2012 at 14:58 | John Horne in EA Middle East and Turkey, Middle East and Iran One of the activists was a young trainee engineer, Sayed Ahmed. He was arrested at a checkpoint at the height of the crackdown. Though initially he was told he would be quickly released, his plight became more serious when police learned of his appearance in the Al Jazeera film. "I was handcuffed and blindfolded," he said. "Badly beaten on my face and body. I was in so much fear." He would be held in prison for the next six months, until his release in December.
Another activist, Dr Nada Dhaif, who had served as a medical volunteer in a tent at Pearl Roundabout was also arrested. At the start of the protests she had been full of optimism, inspired by the "Arab Spring" and believing that change was coming to Bahrain. "This is our golden chance," she said in February 2011. "Either we grab it now or never!" But that optimism faded when police came to her home in the middle of the night. "It was 19th March around 3am. They raided my house, came into my bedroom, two dozen masked men. It was horrible. You are coming with us, they said. We are going to teach you a lesson."