Journalists Imprisoned in 2017 - Mahmoud al-Jaziri

Al-Wasat | Imprisoned in Bahrain | December 28, 2015

Police arrested Mahmoud al-Jaziri, a reporter for the independent daily Al-Wasat, at his home in Nabih Saleh Island, south of the capital Manama, on the morning of December 28, 2015. He was allowed to call his brother later that day to say he was being held as part of a criminal investigation, local human rights groups and his paper Al-Wasat reported.

The Interior Ministry named al-Jaziri as among those arrested for allegedly plotting terrorist attacks funded by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and Hezbollah, according to a January 1, 2016, report by the official Bahrain News Agency. That announcement came amid a diplomatic rift between Iran and Saudi Arabia and its allies, including Bahrain, after Saudi Arabia executed prominent Shiite cleric Nimr Al-Nimr. It also followed years of official persecution – including the 2011 death in custody of a founding investor – of Al-Wasat staff.

On January 4, 2016, two days after al-Nimr's execution, al-Jaziri was referred to a special prosecutor for terrorist crimes who charged him with supporting terrorism, inciting hatred of the regime, having contacts with a foreign country, and seeking to overthrow the regime by joining the Al-Wafaa Islamic Party, the banned political group, and the February 14 Youth Movement, which have organized anti-government protests since the 2011 uprising, according to news reports. The Interior Ministry statement carried by Bahrain News Agency listed al-Jaziri and three other co-accused as members of an armed wing of Al-Wafaa that was plotting bombings in cooperation with Iran's Revolutionary Guard and Hezbollah.

On June 28, 2016, the public prosecutor announced the commencement of a trial of 18 suspects, including al-Jaziri and another journalist, Ali Mearaj.

On October 30, 2017, a Bahraini court convicted al-Jaziri of belonging to a terrorist group, sentenced the journalist to 15 years in prison, and revoked his citizenship, according to reports.

A journalist familiar with the case, who asked to remain anonymous for reasons of security, told CPJ that authorities did not provide written copies of the verdicts, which explain the court's decision on sentencing, to al-Jaziri's lawyer. The journalist added that al-Jaziri will appeal.

Mansoor al-Jamri, editor-in-chief of Al-Wasat and CPJ's 2011 International Press Freedom Awardee, told CPJ that al-Jaziri denied the charges and told prosecutors his relationship with Al-Wafaa did not extend beyond proofreading the group's public statements, an activity he stopped after becoming a professional journalist in 2012. Al-Jamri said al-Jaziri covers parliamentary news for Al-Wasat.

Al-Jaziri was arrested on the same day that Al-Wasat published his report on a member of parliament's proposal to deny housing to Bahrainis whose citizenship had been revoked for political activities.

Over the course of 2013 and 2014, he wrote a series of opinion articles for Al-Wasat in which he blamed world and regional powers for what he called the "failures" of the 2011 uprisings collectively known as the "Arab Spring," criticized the lack of compromise in the region's conflicts, and called for closer relationships between predominantly Sunni and Shiite countries in the region.

According to the Bahrain Press Association, al-Jaziri's family said he was blindfolded for an unspecified number of days after his arrest. The family said he was banned from sitting or sleeping for three days during questioning and before he signed a confession, unaware of its content.

As of late 2017, Al-Jaziri was detained in Jaw Prison.