NEW YORK: The Human Rights Watch demanded on Thursday that a Bahraini rights activist jailed for ripping up a photo of King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa in court on October 14, 2014, should be released immediately.

Bahrain should drop all freedom-of-expression related charges against the activist, Zainab al-Khawaja, who is eight months pregnant and has been charged with insulting the king. She was in court to face charges relating to two previous incidents in which she also tore up photographs of the king as a form of protest. She was arrested again in the courtroom and, on October 15, the public prosecutor charged her with insulting the king and ordered her detention for another seven days.

“Zainab al-Khawaja has exposed the thin skin of Bahraini authorities, armed again only with a photograph,” said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “It says much about the state of the justice system in Bahrain that you’re more likely to end up in jail for ripping up a photo than you are for shooting an unarmedprotester.”

Zainab al-Khawaja is the daughter of Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, who is serving a life sentence in relation to his calls for political reform in Bahrain.

In September 2012, she was sentenced to two months in prison for ripping up a photo of King Hamad. In early February 2013 she was imprisoned on charges that included illegal gathering and insulting police officers. She was released in February 2014. She is now facing six outstanding charges, five of which, according to information provided by her lawyer clearly violate her right to free expression, Human Rights Watch said.

Published in Dawn, October 17th, 2014