Khawaja, the daughter of Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, who has been on hunger strike for more than three months, was arrested a month ago for trying to stage a protest during Bahrain’s Formula One Grand Prix.
She was fined 200 dinars ($ 530) on Monday on a separate charge related to insulting a government employee.
“She was supposed to be released since she has already served the jail term,” Zainab’s mother, Khadija Almousawi, said from Manama. “She refused to pay the fine and the judge said she would remain in jail for (a further) 40 days unless she pays it.”
Separately, a policewoman charged with torturing a female journalist during last year’s crackdown on anti-government protests will go on trial next month, the prosecution said yesterday.
The unnamed officer was accused of torturing the Bahraini correspondent of France 24 and Radio Monte Carlo Doualiya, Nazeeha Saeed, when she was arrested on May 22 last year, according to a statement.
The prosecution “has referred the case to the high criminal court because the defendant is a public servant in the ministry of interior and has used force against the victim to make her confess to a crime,” it said.
The officer was charged of “attacking the body” of Saeed, by “slapping her, beating her with a plastic tubing, kicking her in all parts of her body, in addition to insulting her,” the statement said. The first hearing has been set for June 6.
