Zainab al-Khawaja and her son were released from prison in Bahrain on humanitarian grounds on 31 May. She left Bahrain for Denmark on 7 June after receiving information that she could face new charges if she remained in Bahrain. She was released from the women’s detention centre in ‘Issa Town, Bahrain, on 31 May. She was a prisoner of conscience.
Zainab Al-Khawaja had been arrested on 14 March 2016 to serve a total of three years and one month in prison on various convictions. She ripped up framed pictures of the King belonging to the Ministry of Interior while detained at a police station in ‘Issa Town on 4 and 6 May 2012 respectively and on 4 December 2014 she ripped a photo of the King while in court. 9 December 2014 she was sentenced to one year in prison for “insulting a public official” after she spoke out in defence of a fellow prisoner who had been insulted and humiliated by a prison guard in women’s detention centre in ‘Issa Town on 22 June 2013. On 2 June 2015 Zainab al-Khawaja was also sentenced to 9 months imprisonment for “entering a restricted area” and “insulting a public official” when she tried to visit her father, prisoner of conscience Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, in Jaw prison in August 2014, when he was on hunger strike and she was seven months pregnant.
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