A Bahraini court upheld charges against one of the country’s most prominent human rights defenders on Thursday, after denying him access to an appeal hearing.
Abdul-Hadi al-Khawaja, 61, was initially imprisoned in 2011 after leading peaceful protests calling for fundamental freedoms in the kingdom.
Last year, he was handed fresh new charges, including allegations that he broke a plastic chair when denied the right to call his daughters from prison and insulted a prison guard.