Bahrain activist Nabeel Rajab released then immediately re-arrested

A leading Bahraini human rights activist who is on trial for tweeting against the Bahraini political system was freed on bail today after spending months in detention. He was then immediately re-arrested in a separate case.

Nabeel Rajab, one of the most prominent voices of the Bahraini opposition during the Arab Spring, tweeted that he is being released on bail and a travel ban being lifted and with a pending re-trial.

الافراج عن الحقوقي نبيل رجب مع استمرار محاكمته ومنعه من السفر #Bahrain #NabeelRajab

— Nabeel Rajab (@NABEELRAJAB) December 28, 2016

However, hours later his son tweeted that Rajab had been re-arrested.

Sadly, My Father will not be released those oppressors already have another case ready for him, they dont want him out #NabeelRajab #Bahrain

— آدم (@Adamnabeel) December 28, 2016

The decision to re-arrest Rajab was also announced on the Bahrain public prosecutors Instagram page.

Rajab was arrested in June after tweets from his account suggested that security forces had tortured detainees in a Bahraini prison and on a military campaign in Yemen by a Saudi-led coalition that includes Bahrain. He was charged for producing “false news and statements and malicious rumours that undermine the prestige of the kingdom.”

He is also under investigation for writing in the French newspaper Le Monde that Western countries should reconsider their support for Gulf Arab monarchies because they were fuelling Islamist extremism. Bahraini authorities said the article contained “false rumours” about Gulf Arab states.