Hawzah News Agency (Manama, Bahrain) -Amnesty stressed in its report that "He was a prisoner of conscience" and that it will continue to monitor his situation.

Dr Saeed Al-Samahiji, a Bahraini activist, was released from Jaw Prison, south-eastern Bahrain by the Bahraini authorities on 3 January 2017, having served his one-year jail sentence. He had been sentenced on 7 April 2016 by the Lower Ninth Court in Manama, the capital, on charges of "insulting a brotherly State [Saudi Arabia]", "publicly inciting to non-compliance with the laws and institutions in Bahrain" and "publicly calling for participation in unlicensed demonstrations and marches" on his Twitter account. During the trial he denied all the charges brought against him.

Amnesty recalled in its report that Dr Saeed Al-Samahiji had been arrested on 3 January 2016 for disseminating information about the execution of prominent Saudi Shi'a cleric Shaykh Nimr al-Nimr and insulting the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on Twitter.

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