MANAMA, May 8 (Reuters) – Bahrain began a civilian trial of
13 protest leaders on Tuesday but adjourned the session because
hunger striker Abdulhadi al-Khawaja and another defendant were
too ill to attend, lawyers and witnesses said.
Last week the Gulf Arab state’s highest appeals court
ordered a re-trial after a military court convicted the men last
year of using violence in protests led by majority Shi’ites in
an effort to topple the Sunni monarchy.
But the court did not release the protest leaders or cancel
their original convictions, despite calls from international
rights groups for their unconditional release.
Eight of the 13 who had expressed support for turning
Bahrain into a republic are serving life sentences. One man was
released last week and seven others are abroad or in hiding.
“The lawyers asked that they be allowed to talk to their
clients,” said Khawaja’s lawyer, Mohammed al-Jishi, after
Tuesday’ hearing. “I said I had not been able to see Abdulhadi
for a month. I can’t defend him if I can’t talk to him.”
Two of the accused were absent, Khawaja and Sheikh Mirza
al-Mahroos, who prosecutors said were both in hospital, Jishi
said. The judge adjourned the case to May 22 to allow the two
men to attend and lawyers to see their clients.
“I don’t know how they will bring him (to court),” Jishi
said of human rights activist Khawaja, a Bahraini-Danish
national who has been on hunger strike for three months.
Western governments and the United Nations secretary-general
have called for a quick resolution of his case.
Jishi said the other defendants, who were dressed in normal
clothes, had tried to complain of their treatment in detention.
The men are believed to be among hundreds cited in the
report of an international rights probe in November as having
suffered torture in detention, often to extract confessions.
Jishi said it was hard to hear the men, appearing in public
for the first time since September’s military appeal, as they
spoke from behind a glass screen. The session lasted 30 minutes.
Reuters witnesses said riot police were out in strength
around the courthouse in central Manama, where a small group of
women staged a brief protest. “We know our leaders, prison
doesn’t scare them,” they chanted.
Bahrain, once a tourism and banking hub, has been in turmoil
since pro-democracy protests erupted in February 2011 after
popular uprisings toppled Arab autocrats in Egypt and Tunisia.
The U.S. ally, which hosts Washington’s Fifth Fleet, cracked
down, using martial law and bringing in Saudi and United Arab
Emirates troops, but one year later unrest still swirls.
Violence has intensified in recent months with daily clashes
between protesters and riot police. Opposition parties have held
mass rallies. But security forces have prevented demonstrators
from regaining a permanent foothold in central Manama.
The defendants, who include Shi’ite clerics, rights
activists, politicians and a blogger, are heroes to the
protesters, who have painted their images on walls around the
country.
Though the Sunni-dominated government says the protesters
had Shi’ite sectarian aims, those on trial include Ibrahim
Sharif, the Sunni leader of a secular party.
(Reporting by Andrew Hammond in Dubai and Reuters television in
Manama; Writing by Andrew Hammond; Editing by Alistair Lyon)
