{"id":9635,"date":"2012-05-11T13:37:37","date_gmt":"2012-05-11T20:37:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/?p=9635"},"modified":"2012-05-11T13:37:37","modified_gmt":"2012-05-11T20:37:37","slug":"tens-of-thousands-in-protest-demanding-release-of-nabeel-rajab-for-tweeting-crimes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/?p=9635","title":{"rendered":"Tens of thousands in Protest demanding release of Nabeel Rajab for &#8220;tweeting crimes&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Bahrain: Tens of thousands protest in support of rights activist Nabeel Rajab<\/strong><br \/>\n11 May 2012 &#8211; BlottR<\/p>\n<p>Thousands of protesters took part in a protest in the village of Karzakan in support of prominent activist Nabeel Rajab who was arrested a week ago.<\/p>\n<p>Protesters were seen holding pictures of Rajab who has become one of the symbols of the Bahraini uprising.<\/p>\n<p>Rights activist Nabeel Rajab was arrested on last Saturday at Manama airport after returning from a human rights conference in Beirut, Lebanon. He appeared in front of a court the next day where he faced charges of \u201cinciting illegal rallies and marches online by using social networking websites.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Bahraini Ministry of Interior issued a statement stating that Rajab was detained on the order of the Attorney-General. On the other hand, Rajab&#8217;s lawyers mentioned that the charges against him include &#8220;engagement in illegitimate practices&#8221; and &#8220;incitement to gatherings and unlicensed marches&#8221;. They also affirmed that he has been questioned about some of his tweets and has been accused of &#8220;insulting a statutory body; being the Ministry of Interior&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>The president of the Bahrain centre for Human Rights will be sent to public prosecution this Sunday where the question of his release will be discussed.<\/p>\n<p>The Shi&#8217;ite community has been demanding democratic reforms. More than a year after the beginning of the uprising, members of the Shi&#8217;ite community protest almost every day in different villages and cities across the Gulf kingdom.<\/p>\n<p>The majority Shi&#8217;ite community say they feel marginalized by the minority Sunni al-Khalifa regime, which has been in power for more than 200 years. Bahrain&#8217;s Prime Minister Sheikh Khalifa ibn Salman Al Khalifa has occupied his position for 42 years. The Shi&#8217;ite population demand democratic reforms that would reduce the extensive powers of the ruling Sunni Muslim Al Khalifa family.<\/p>\n<p>According to activists the regime&#8217;s violent clampdown on pro-democracy protests resulted in the deaths of more than 80 people since the beginning of the popular uprising last year.  <a href=\"http:\/\/www.blottr.com\/world\/breaking-news\/bahrain-tens-thousands-protest-support-rights-activist-nabeel-rajab\" target=\"_blank\">&#8230;source<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"igit_tsb_button\" style=\"float: left; margin-right: 10px;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/share?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.crookedbough.com%2F%3Fp%3D9635&amp;text=Tens+of+thousands+in+Protest+demanding+release+of+Nabeel+Rajab+for+%22tweeting+crimes%22&amp;count=horizontal&amp;via=\" style=\"\" class=\"twitter-share-button\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bahrain: Tens of thousands protest in support of rights activist Nabeel Rajab 11 May 2012 &#8211; BlottR Thousands of protesters took part in a protest in the village of Karzakan in support of prominent activist Nabeel Rajab who was arrested a week ago. Protesters were seen holding pictures of Rajab who has become one of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/?p=9635#more-'\" class=\"more-link\">more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[247],"tags":[2985],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9635"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9635"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9635\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9636,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9635\/revisions\/9636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}