Bahrain opposition leader Ebrahim Sharif given six-month sentence for Israel criticism Submitted by Alex MacDonald on Sun, 01/11/2026 - 11:27 Sharif has been detained for months over comments criticising Bahrain and other Arab states' ties with Israel Bahraini demonstrators hold up placards bearing the portrait of jailed political activist, Ebrahim Sharif, during an anti-government protest, in the village of Karranah, west of Manama, on 8 August 2014 (Mohammed al-Shaikh / AFP) Off Bahraini activists have expressed concerns over opposition leader Ebrahim Sharif after he was handed a six-month prison sentence after criticising the kingdom's ties with Israel . Sharif, a popular and outspoken left-wing campaigner, has been held in detention since November, accused of "spreading false news on social media" and "making offensive remarks against sister Arab states and their leaders". On Thursday, the Bahraini Lower Criminal Court sentenced Sharif to six months' imprisonment and fined him 200 Bahraini dinars ($530), citing an interview he gave in Beirut to LuaLuaTV in which he condemned Arab states for failing to support the Palestinians and for their growing ties with Israel. "In the interview, he made statements containing false and offensive information about Arab countries, accusing them of collusion and conspiracy, and calling on their people to resist and rise up against their governments," the public prosecutor's office said in a statement on Instagram. Bahrain was among a number of Arab states that normalised relations with Israel in 2020 as part of the US-brokered Abraham Accords. The move was met with criticism from pro-Palestine campaigners in Bahrain, with anger at the move dramatically increasing after the beginning of Israel's genocidal assault on Gaza in October 2023. 'A chilling precedent' Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei, advocacy director at the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (Bird), said the move was a "new low" for the Bahraini government. "This sentence sets a chilling precedent: a prominent public figure is being criminalised for standing with Palestine and challenging governments that have normalised relations amid Israel's genocide," he said in a statement. "It signals a grave escalation in Bahrain's assault on free expression and marks a new low for the Bahraini government." The new sentence marks the 10th time that Bahraini authorities have arrested, interrogated or prosecuted Sharif since 2011, when pro-democracy campaigners took to the streets demanding greater freedoms in the autocratic kingdom. UK-backed Bahrain body dismisses concerns for prisoners in illegal detention Read More » Sharif, head of the National Democratic Action Society (Wa'ad), became a prominent figure in the demonstrations, standing out as a secular leftist activist amid a movement heavily led by the Shia al-Wefaq organisation. Bahrain's prisons, which have been swelled by thousands of pro-democracy campaigners since 2011, have gained notoriety for their routine use of torture and mistreatment of prisoners. Last month, a US-based rights group submitted a dossier to President Donald Trump's administration recommending sanctions against Bahrain's interior minister for his alleged role in torture in prisons under his control. Human Rights First, in a statement shared with Middle East Eye, accused Bahrain's Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid bin Abdullah Al Khalifa of overseeing torture and other cruel treatment against political prisoners since 2011, despite Bahrain being a signatory to the UN Convention Against Torture. In the periodic review this year by the UN's Committee Against Torture, Bahraini officials defended their government's human rights record and their criminal justice system. However, the committee cited in its final observations in November the "consistent reports indicating that persons in custody are subjected to torture or ill-treatment", and that it was "deeply concerned at the reported lack of accountability, which contributes to a climate of impunity". "Torture and cruel treatment in Bahrain's prisons have continued well past the crackdown on the country's 2011 uprising," said Uzra Zeya, president and CEO of Human Rights First. "US law requires that government officials involved in gross violations of human rights like these be barred from entering the country." Inside Bahrain News Post Date Override 0 Update Date Mon, 05/04/2020 - 21:19 Update Date Override 0