Local Editor
The prominent Bahrain human rights activist and critic of the ruling family, Maryam al-Khawaja, has been arrested by authorities on her arrival at the Gulf state’s airport. Posts on the Twitter account of Khawaja said she had been had been charged with insulting the king, assaulting police officers, and faced charges for her involvement with the rights campaign, Wanted For Justice.
Khawaja, the co-director of the Gulf Centre for Human Rights, is the daughter of Shia Muslim activist Abdulhadi Abdulla Hubail al-Khawaja, who has been in custody in Bahrain since 2011 and is on hunger strike.
The Reuters news agency reported her mother Khadija al-Musawi as saying her daughter would be transferred to the public prosecution court on Sunday. A later post on her Twitter account stated that she would be held for seven days and was not allowed to see a lawyer before her interrogation.
It is not reported why Khawaja, who has lived abroad for several years, had returned to Bahrain. Her sister, Zainab, had been released from custody on Friday pending further investigation. Bahraini authorities were not immediately available to comment.
Source: http://www.abna.ir/
