DUBAI: Bahrain’s leading human rights activist will be questioned by a military prosecutor, according to the Gulf country’s interior ministry that has been leading the crackdown on Shia protests against Sunni rulers.
The interior ministry accused Nabeel Rajab, head of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, of tampering with photos of a man who died in custody last week. A statement posted on the ministry’s official website late Sunday said Rajab posted on his Twitter account a "fabricated image" of a detainee, Ali Isa Saqer.
Rajab claims Saqer was fatally beaten in custody. He told The Associated Press that the photo he had posted on his Twitter account was genuine, showing Saqer’s body covered with bruises and gashes. Rajab said the campaign against him is aimed at preventing him from documenting human rights abuses in Bahrain.
Rajab said he has not been contacted by the interior ministry and only learned of the planned questioning from the ministry’s website.
"They want to do their crimes in secret," Rajab said of Bahrain’s government. "I am one of the few human rights activists who has not yet been arrested and the government wants to silence me and prevent me from doing my work."
Authorities claim Sager died on Saturday after struggling with guards. A government photo shows few signs of injuries.
Bahrain sharply tightened Internet and media controls under the military rule imposed last month to quell protests by Shia majority against the Sunni monarchy that has ruled Bahrain for more than 200 years.
At least 29 people have been killed since Feb. 14 when protests began in the strategically important Gulf kingdom, the home of the US Navy’s 5th Fleet. Among the dead are also two opposition supporters who died in custody.
Bahrain declared martial rule March 15. Hundreds of Shia activists, anti-government protesters and opposition leaders, demanding greater political freedoms and equal rights have been detained.
None of those in custody have been publicly charged with a crime or brought to trial.
On Monday, the former chief editor of Bahrain’s main opposition newspaper Al Wasat was questioned by a prosecutor investigating the paper’s allegedly unethical coverage of the Shia uprising.
Two other former editors of the paper are due in court later in the day over government accusations of running fabricated news reports and false pictures.
Mansoor Al-Jamri, Al Wasat’s former editor-in-chief, denied the allegations.
He and the two editors stepped down earlier this month to save the newspaper from a campaign to muzzle anti-government media.
Authorities banned "all media from publishing data and news" on legal proceedings against anybody being tried by the security courts, the kingdom’s official news agency said in a brief report Friday.
