He is alleged to have defamed Islam, but did his arrest have more to do with an open letter on Facebook urging an end to restrictions on freedom?
A Bahraini criminal court has sentenced a sports journalist to three months in prison for a tweet that allegedly defamed the Sunni sect of Islam.
Faisal Hayyat was arrested on 9 October, but it was unclear about the specific nature of his offence. A few days earlier, he posted an open letter on Facebook to Bahrain’s interior minister in which he referred to the conditions in which he was detained, and tortured, in 2011.
He referred to government corruption and urged for an end to restrictions on civil and political freedoms.
Hayyat’s conviction has been condemned by the press freedom group Reporters Without Borders and the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (BIRD) as a violation of Hayyat’s right to free speech.
On Monday, 46 rights groups, including Article 19 and Index on Censorship, wrote to King Hamad of Bahrain calling for Hayyat’s release.
The letter described Hayyat’s prosecution as part of “the ongoing criminalisation of free expression in Bahrain.”
Hayyat is a former sports journalist and social media activist who presents a YouTube series on local politics. During the 2011 Arab spring protests, he was arrested and held for 84 days.
During his detention, he was subjected to physical and psychological torture, including sexual harassment and degrading treatment.
Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei, BIRD’s director, said: “Bahrain’s repressive nature was on full display in Faisal Hayyat’s case. Bahrain has zero tolerance for free speech or critical reporters to conduct their work and is an enemy of the internet.
“Its allies in London and Washington should not give it a free pass. A father of five children is unjustly serving prison time while perpetrators of abuse and torturers are rewarded.”
