Nabeel Rajab: Bahraini human rights activist freed from jail

Nabeel Rajab pictured with his daughter following his release from jail

Bahrain has released a leading human rights activist who was sentenced to five years in jail for criticising the government on social media.

Nabeel Rajab, 55, had been held since 2016 and convicted of offences including "spreading fake news".

Rights groups condemned Rajab's treatment and a UN panel has called for his release.

On Tuesday, Rajab's lawyer said his client would serve the remainder of his sentence in a non-custodial setting.

"Nabeel has been released and he is on his way home now," Mohammed Al-Jishi told the AFP news agency. "The court has finally agreed to grant [him] an alternative sentence."

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Bahrain introduced legislation in 2018 that allowed courts to convert jail terms into non-custodial sentences. Rajab is the first major opposition figure to be freed under this legislation, Reuters news agency reports.

Who is Nabeel Rajab?

Rajab is the head of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR) and played a leading role in a pro-democracy uprising in 2011.

In February 2018, he was sentenced to five years in prison for tweets criticising alleged torture at a Bahraini prison and the actions of the Saudi-led military coalition fighting in Yemen's civil war.

His sentence was later upheld by an appeals court in the Bahraini capital Manama.

Bahrain's government insisted that Rajab's trials had been independent and transparent.

"There is a distinct difference between legitimate criticism of government and attempts to incite public disorder," it said in a statement at the time.

Rajab was already serving a two-year sentence after he was found guilty in 2017 of spreading false news that undermined Bahrain's "prestige".

That sentence related to a television interview he gave in which he criticised the authorities for their refusal to allow journalists and human rights groups into the country.

Charges included "spreading false rumours in time of war", "insulting public authorities" (the interior ministry) and "insulting a foreign country".

"The Bahrain Centre for Human Rights welcomes the release of Nabeel Rajab after nearly four years behind bars," the organisation said in a statement.

"We are overjoyed at the news of Nabeel Rajab's release. Nabeel is a dedicated and passionate activist who has always advocated for human rights in Bahrain," Aya Majzoub from Human Rights Watch told AFP.