Bahrain Court Adjourns Trial of 13 Activists
A Bahraini court on Tuesday adjourned for two weeks an appeals hearing for 13 dissidents, including Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, a prominent activist on a hunger strike, a judicial source said.
Eleven of the defendants appeared in court except for Khawaja, who is at a military hospital as he has refused food since February 8, and Mirza al-Mahroos, who was also admitted to hospital, the source told Agence France Presse.
The court demanded both Khawaja and Mahroos show up in court when the retrial is to resume on May 22.
During a brief hearing, the court authorised lawyers to meet their clients for one hour each and demanded the two activists receive suitable medical assistance during their appearance in the next hearing.
Khawaja and 20 other mostly Shiite activists have been convicted of plotting to overthrow the Sunni rulers of the Shiite-majority Gulf kingdom.
Seven of them, including Khawaja, were jailed for life, while 14 others were sentenced to between two and 15 years in prison.
Of the 21 defendants, seven were convicted in absentia and remain at large.
Bahrain's highest appeals court on April 30 ordered the retrial of 13 dissidents, following the release of one defendant after his sentence was reduced to six months by the Court of Cassation.
Tuesday's hearing took place amid tight security measures around the court, witnesses said. It was preceded by dawn protests across several Shiite villages.
Khawaja, who has become a symbol of Bahrain's opposition movement, was arrested in April last year shortly after a regime crackdown on a month-long Shiite-led uprising that killed 35 people, according to an independent probe.
Amnesty says 60 people have been killed since the uprising began in mid-February 2011.
Bahrain has repeatedly come under pressure from rights groups as well as Western governments to release Khawaja.
Source: Agence France Presse
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