Nabeel Rajab

On 21 February 2018, Rajab was sentenced by the High Criminal Court of Bahrain to a further five years in jail for tweets and documentation of human rights violations. The first charge was for "offending national institutions" in connection to his documentation of mistreatment and torture in Bahrain's Jaw Prison in March 2015. (See BCHR's report: Inside Jau: Government Brutality in Bahrain’s Central Prison). The second charge of "spreading rumors during wartime" related to his reporting on civilian deaths in Yemen, in contravention of a government prohibition of any public mention that is critical of the conflict. He was also charged under the Bahrain penal code with "offending a foreign country" (Saudi Arabia).

Rajab is an active user of online media in his human rights work, in particular social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. He stopped posting in Internet forums in order to encourage support for social network-based campaigning. He devotes significant time and effort to his Twitter account, created in March 2009, posting mostly in Arabic, and in the 2011 Forbes magazine list of the 100 top Arabs on Twitter was ranked number 43, with 36,040 followers (currently about 322,000 - August 2016). He ranked number 1 in Bahrain.

Following protests during the Formula 1 race in April 2012 that attracted media attention, Rajab was arrested and incarcerated several times. On 9 July, he was detained and sentenced to three months prison for having "insulted Bahrainis" in a Twitter message and most recently on 16 August, while still in detention, Rajab was sentenced to three years' imprisonment on three protest-related charges. The verdict has drawn criticism from Bahrain's western allies and human rights organizations. In December, 2012, the sentence was reduced to 2 years in prison after appeal. In December 2013, a court denied him early release. He was released on 24 May 2014, after serving 2 years in prison. He was re-arrested on 1 October over criticizing the government on Twitter. On 2 November he was released on bail, pending his next trial on 20 January 2015.

On 24 May 2014, Rajab was released from prison after serving his full term of 2 years. FIDH welcomed the move, with its Secretary General Amina Bouayach travelling to Bahrain to meet Rajab as soon as he was released. "It is an immense pleasure to see our friend and colleague Nabeel again. We have been waiting for this moment for a very long time," Bouayach said. Rajab was happy to be out and called for the release of other prisoners and for "respect for human rights".

It is appalling that Bahrain is willing to rest on the benefits of these people's hard work, and often their suffering, but that they refuse to live with them in equality and dignity. The solution is not to force migrant workers into ghettos, but to urge companies to improve living conditions for workers – and not to accommodate large numbers of workers in inadequate space, and to improve the standard of living for them.

In December 2013, a court denied Rajab early release after he had served three quarters of his sentence. According to Bahraini law, a prisoner may be eligible for early release after serving three quarters of the sentence. Rajab's lawyer stated that the court gave no reason for rejecting early release.

In 2012, the BCHR led by Rajab won Index on Censorship Freedom of Expression Advocacy Award. The award sponsored by Bindmans LLP aims to "recognise campaigners or activists who have fought repression, or have struggled to challenge political climates and perceptions." BCHR was also recipient of Roger Baldwin Medal of Liberty given by Human Rights First. and in 2013 it won the Rafto Prize "for their long and courageous fight for fundamental human rights".

In November, Rajab took part in a six-member international fact finding mission. It released a 27-page report and gave eleven recommendations addressing human rights violations in Bahrain. In December, Rajab and two other human rights activists received death threats on Twitter by a retired security official. On 6 January 2012, after leading a night peaceful protest in Fareeq el-Makharqa in Manama, Rajab was hospitalized and briefly detained with injuries from an alleged beating, which the opposition blamed on security forces. Via their Twitter account, the Ministry of the Interior denied the accusation, saying police found Rajab "lying on the ground" and referred him to hospital.

On 12 February, Rajab was briefly detained after he tried to march along with his family to the location of the symbolic Pearl Roundabout in Manama. Rajab explained that he took this move to be a model to encourage people from different ages to take part in protests. Following the media attention on protests during the Formula 1 race in April 2012, the government launched a "legal crackdown" in which Rajab was arrested and released several times.

On 11 December 2012, the court of appeal reduced the sentence of Rajab to two years in prison after it cleared him from insulting police. The court however upheld the charge of "illegal gathering". Rajab had expected to be released, according to his wife. The United States Assistant Secretary of State, Michael Posner called the Bahraini authorities to drop all charges related to non-violent activism. Jeo Stork of HRW criticized the judiciary as being "very politicized" and called the court decision "bizarre".

In a World Tomorrow episode broadcast on 8 May 2012, Rajab accused the US of opposing democracy in Bahrain when it asked Russia not to sell arms for Syria while selling arms to Bahrain, and in July, shortly before Rajab's arrest, he noted that the presence of US Fifth Fleet in Bahrain made the struggle against the monarchy more difficult because US support, accompanied by the support, or silence, of the international community, was seen as giving the green light for repression and attacks on human rights defenders.

In 2012 Rajab's Twitter-based campaigning led firstly to his detention for three weeks (two weeks on the charge of "insulting a statutory body via Twitter" and another week for "organizing illegal protests") after he published tweets critical of the Ministry of Interior (leading to criticism of the authorities by international human rights organizations), then to a three-month prison sentence for a Tweet criticizing the prime minister, and eventually in August 2012 he was given three further consecutive one-year prison sentences for illegal political activities involving the use of social networking sites. On 23 August, spending more than half of his sentence, Rajab was acquitted of Twitter charge in which he criticized the prime minister, but remained in jail while appealing the other prison sentence.

In 2011, Rajab received the Ion Ratiu Democracy Award, presented annually by the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. The award citation praised him for having "worked tirelessly and at considerable personal peril to advance the cause of democratic freedoms and the civil rights of Bahraini citizens". On 13 September, Rajab received the British Silbury Prize to "facilitate his on-going humanitarian and human rights work". In December, the Arabic American organization for democracy and human rights listed him among the fifteen "leaders of the Arab Spring". Other activists from Bahrain included Abdulhadi al-Khawaja and Mohamed al-Maskati.

Beginning in February 2011, Bahrain saw sustained pro-democracy protests, centered at Pearl Roundabout in the capital of Manama, as part of the wider Arab Spring. Authorities responded with a night raid on 17 February (later known as Bloody Thursday), which left four protesters dead and more than 300 injured. Protests continued for a month reaching over 100,000 participants in a nation of about 500,000 citizens, until more than a thousand troops and police from the Gulf Cooperation Council arrived at the request of government and a three-month state of emergency was declared. Authorities then cracked down on the protests. However, smaller-scale protests and clashes continued to occur almost daily, mostly in areas outside Manama's business districts, with some rare marches in the center of the capital city. As of April 2012, more than 80 people had died since the start of the uprising and as of January 2013, near-daily clashes between protesters and police are ongoing.

In the early hours of 20 March 2011, a group of 20 to 25 masked men, some armed with rifles and accompanied by dozens of uniformed Bahraini security forces, broke into Rajab's house. Rajab was detained and his files and a computer were confiscated. He reported that they blindfolded and handcuffed him and put him into the back of a vehicle before verbally abusing, beating and threatening to rape him. He claimed that they kicked him when he refused to say that he loved the prime minister. He was taken to a Ministry of Interior detention facility in Adliya, a suburb of Manama. After being briefly questioned about someone he did not know, he was released.

According to the BCHR, authorities organized an anonymous smear campaign targeting Rajab and Maryam al-Khawaja in May 2011. Later in the month Rajab stated that his uncle, Mohammad Hassan Mohammad Jawad (65 years old), an arrested activist, was being tortured because of their relationship. He also stated that he was prevented by Muharraq airport security staff from traveling to Beirut to attend an International Freedom of Expression Exchange (IFEX) meeting in May and an Amnesty International conference in June.

Rajab was critical of the US role in Bahrain throughout the uprising. On 26 July 2011, in an interview with Al Jazeera English, he expressed disappointment at US silence and the inconsistent way in which US standards of democracy and human rights were applied to countries which they had problems but not to dictatorships with whom they had good relations. On 21 December 2011, in an interview with National Post, he criticized US support for royal dictatorships in the region and contrasted the hard attitude shown towards Syria and Libya with the soft attitude towards allies.

Even though on this occasion Rajab was personally congratulated by the Minister, his use of Twitter to publicise human rights abuses has brought him into repeated conflict with the authorities. In April 2011 he was threatened with prosecution for the publication on his Twitter account of an allegedly fabricated image of the body of Ali Issa Saqer showing signs of torture in custody; the threats were withdrawn after prison guards were charged with Saqer's death. The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) described the threat against Rajab of the first ever charge in the Arab world involving "tweeting" (publishing information on Twitter) as an illustration of the Bahraini government's implacable hostility towards freedom of expression and Internet freedom.

In October 2009 Nabeel was elected Chairperson of CARAM Asia for 2 years. CARAM is a regional non-governmental organization, based in the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur, that works to defend the rights of migrant workers, reduce the risks to which their communities are vulnerable, including HIV, and promote their health rights. On 24 February 2010, Rajab addressed the "World Congress against the Death Penalty" conference in Geneva on the subject of "Migrant Workers and the Death Penalty in Bahrain & Saudi Arabia". He drew attention to the exceptional vulnerability of migrant workers in countries with systemic abuses and rights violations.

During a government crackdown in the summer of 2010, Rajab's photograph was published a number of times by the pro-government Al-Watan Newspaper accusing him of supporting a terrorist network and being "active in publishing false reports and information". Gulf Daily News also published Rajab's photo naming him as one of the "supporters" of aforementioned network. A few days later, the Bahrain News Agency published a PowerPoint file about the alleged terrorist network. According to BCHR and Human Rights Watch, the file referred to Rajab as having been officially accused of involvement in the terrorist network. The claim was removed the following day.

During this time, the authorities imposed a ban preventing Rajab from engaging in any new business in Bahrain that made it difficult for him to earn a living. The ban was subsequently lifted without any official explanation. In mid-August 2010, a number of opposition activists were again arrested. According to Rajab, an order for his arrest was issued on 8 September but was cancelled on 18 October. Rajab was also subject to a travel ban during this period.

Since December 2009, Nabeel has been a member of the Board of Advisors of the Middle East and North African division of Human Rights Watch, a position he still held in February 2012. In July 2010 the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) appointed Rajab to the position of Deputy Secretary General and FIDH permanent representative in the Gulf Cooperation Council countries. He is also a member of the Arab working group for media monitoring.

Rajab was one of the founders of the first migrant workers protection committee in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, the Migrant Workers Protection Group (in 2003). On 28 April 2007, the Bahraini Parliament passed a law banning unmarried migrant workers from living in residential areas. BCHR issued a press release condemning this decision as discriminatory and promoting negative racist attitudes towards migrant workers. Rajab, then BCHR vice president, said:

According to Front Line, Rajab has been the subject of ongoing harassment since 2005, including physical attacks and smear campaigns in the media (official TV, radio channels, Bahrain News Agency and newspapers close to government). Human Rights Watch and Reporters Without Borders have both described him as being targeted by Bahraini authorities for his human rights activities. In a postal campaign targeting Rajab and his wife thousands of letters were allegedly distributed.

According to an Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada report, on 15 July 2005, Nabeel and several others were beaten by Special Forces whilst attending a peaceful demonstration in solidarity with the Committee for the Unemployed. BCHR stated that Rajab suffered a spinal injury, a broken finger, a fractured arm and a head injury and was hospitalised for two weeks as a result.

With the ending of the oppressive State Security Law period in 2000, Rajab was able to begin working openly in the field of Human rights as one of the founders of the Bahrain Human Rights Society, one of the first human rights organizations in Bahrain. He subsequently fell out with some of the other founders. In 2002, following wide ranging political reforms by the Bahraini government which allowed independent human rights groups to operate, Rajab worked with Abdulhadi al-Khawaja and others to found the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights (BCHR), a nonprofit non-governmental organization which works to promote human rights in Bahrain. Rajab was Training Program Officer and Senior Researcher at BCHR. He later became Vice President and Head of International Relations until he later took over from Abdulhadi al-Khawaja as BCHR president, a position he still held as of August 2012. In 2011, he along with Abdulhadi al-Khawaja and Khalid Ibrahim founded the Gulf Centre for Human Rights. Rajab became the president of the newly founded rights group, and remains a Founding Director.

Rajab started his human rights activity during the 1990s uprising before going on to become involved in campaigning on behalf of migrant workers in GCC countries. He is known for his pioneering use of social networking as an important element in human rights campaigning which has brought him into conflict with the authorities. Front Line Defenders, Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Reporters Without Borders have described him as being targeted by Bahraini authorities for his human rights activities.

According to Rajab, he became involved in organized human rights activities during the 1990s uprising in Bahrain. In 1996 Rajab discussed the idea of setting up a human rights organization with Ali Rabea and Ibrahim Kamal Al Den. They introduced him to Salman Kamal Al Den, Sabeeka Al Najjar, Mohammed Al Motawa and other colleagues with whom they held secret meetings. Together they founded the Bahrain Human Rights Society in 2000.

Nabeel Ahmed Abdulrasool Rajab (Arabic: نبيل أحمد عبدالرسول رجب ‎, born on 1 September 1964) is a Bahraini human rights activist and opposition leader. On 21 February 2018, Rajab was sentenced by the High Criminal Court of Bahrain to five years in prisons for tweets wherein he criticized Bahrain's government. The first charge was for "offending national institutions" in connection to his documentation of mistreatment and torture in Bahrain's Jaw Prison in March 2015. (See BCHR's report: He is president of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights (BCHR).

Nabeel Rajab was born on 1 September 1964 in Bahrain to a middle-class family. He is married and has two children. He finished his secondary school education in 1983 in Bahrain, specializing in science. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and History from the University of Pune (formerly University of Poona) in India in 1987. He earns his living as a "building contractor by trade". In February 2012, Rajab announced his intention to close down his business due to what he called government harassment. Nabeel Rajab is a nephew of Mohamed Hasan Jawad, one of the Bahrain Thirteen who were imprisoned for taking part in the uprising in 2011. He is also a cousin of Hussain Jawad, a prominent human rights activist arrested in February 2015.