A prisoner of conscience, should be immediately released

Amnesty International called on its website for an urgent action to "urge the Bahraini authorities to quash the conviction of leader Sheikh Ali Salman, the secretary general of Bahrain's main opposition party Al-Wefaq National Islamic Society, and to release him immediately and unconditionally," after the court of cassation reduced the nine-year prison sentence against him to four years.

Hawzah News Agency (Manama, Bahrain) - The organization deemed Sheikh Salman "a prisoner of conscience, held solely for peacefully exercising his right to freedom of expression," calling on the Bahraini authorities to implement the decision of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, which called for the immediate release of Sheikh Ali Salman and for him to receive adequate compensation.

Amnesty urged the Bahraini authorities "to uphold the right to freedom of expression and repeal or amend all laws that criminalize the peaceful exercise of the rights to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly," calling on concerned people to immediately write in Arabic, English or their own language to King Hamad and Minister of Interior and send copies to Minister of Justice and Islamic Affairs.