Nabeel Rajab

Nabeel Rajab is a prominent human rights defender in the Gulf and President of the NGO Bahrain Centre for Human Rights (BCHR). He has been repeatedly targeted for his human rights work and criticism of the Bahraini government and has been in and out of prison since 2012 and on a travel ban since November 2014. Nabeel Rajab has been in detention since his arrest in June 2016 and put on trial for posting and re-posting peaceful comments on Twitter regarding the conflict in Yemen and torture in Jaw prison in March 2015. He faces a total of up to 15 years in prison. He was charged in September 2016 for an editorial in the New York Times published in his name, regarding his detention and it is unknown when he will face trial for this charge. Nabeel Rajab is a prisoner of conscience held solely for his peaceful exercise of his right to freedom of expression.