Update: Nabeel Rajab has been released on nearly $1,600 dollars bail. To read more, go to:

edition.cnn.com/2012/05/28/world/meast/bahrain-rights-activist/

Original Release

May 8 -- The BBC News and other media outlets report that Nabeel Rajab, one of Bahrain’s leading democracy and human rights activists, was arrested by Bahraini authorities on Saturday, May 5, at Manama’s airport after returning from Beirut, Lebanon.  According to Freedom House, Mr. Rajab was detained on previous charges of “inciting illegal rallies and marches online” and using social networking websites to post “defamatory depictions of security forces.”  He currently has more than 140,000 followers on Twitter.

Mr. Rajab, who serves as president of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR) and director of the Gulf Center for Human Rights (GCHR), has had several run-ins with the Bahraini authorities for his human rights work.  On January 6, the World Movement issued a DemocracyAlert for Rajab after he was severely beaten by Bahraini security forces for participating in a peaceful protest in the country’s capital.  Just one month prior, Rajab’s house was tear gassed with his family inside after he appeared on television to discuss the Ion Ratiu Democracy Award, which he received in 2011 from the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

The World Movement for Democracy joins Freedom House in calling for Nabeel Rajab’s immediate and unconditional release.  We further express our solidarity with Mr. Rajab and his family and call on the Bahraini government to cease targeting democracy and human rights activists.

For more information, go to:

www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-17980755

www.freedomhouse.org/article/bahrain-must-release-activist-nabeel-rajab

To read previous alerts on Nabeel Rajab, go to:

www.wmd.org/alerts/nabeel-rajab-leader-bahraini-human-rights-organizations-severely-beaten

www.wmd.org/alerts/bahraini-human-rights-activists-targeted-government