Bahrain pardons protest poet

Middle East Tuesday, August 30th, 2011

DUBAI – Bahrain has pardoned a young poet sentenced to jail for taking part in illegal protests and incitement against the Gulf state’s monarchy, the government said on Tuesday.

Ayat al-Qurmozi, 20, was sentenced to a year in prison for reciting a poem mocking Bahrain’s Sunni rulers and demanding the king step down during pro-democracy protests led by the Shi’ite majority in March and February.

Qurmozi was released in July but banned from travel.

The Information Affairs Authority said in a statement Qurmozi was amongst those declared pardoned by King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa during a speech on Sunday.

Bahrain called in troops from its fellow Sunni Arab neighbour Saudi Arabia in March to help crush the protests. It arrested hundreds, mostly Shi’ites and fired some 2,000 workers from their jobs.

The King on Sunday urged quicker steps to re-hire sacked workers and said those charged with insulting the kingdom’s rulers had been pardoned.

“There are those who were accused of insulting us and the men of the kingdom and we pardon them today, hoping they will realise that insulting us and others is an insult to all and is of no use,” he said in a speech to mark the final days of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.

He also ordered that the final verdict in the trials of those charged with participating in demonstrations be issued by civilian courts rather than military courts.

Bahrain, which hosts the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet, has addressed international criticism of its handling of the protests by conducting a national dialogue and inviting a panel of lawyers to investigate the unrest.

Activists and rights groups say the government-funded commission is cut off from people who fear reprisal for giving testimonies that implicate security forces in the abuses during the crackdown.

(Reuters)