VIDEO: Bahraini Human Rights Activist Zainab Alkhawaja Freed from Prison, Father Still Behind Bars | Democracy Now!

VIDEO: Bahraini Human Rights Activist Zainab Alkhawaja Freed from Prison, Father Still Behind Bars | Democracy Now!:

 On Monday, Democracy Now! spoke to human rights activist Zainab Alkhawaja upon her release from prison by the Bahraini government after nearly a year behind bars. At that time she faced a return to prison pending her appearance in court today on charges of damaging police property, defacing a picture of the king and insulting a police officer. But her sister, Maryam Alkhawaja tweeted today that Zainab’s case had been postponed until March 3. Alkhawaja’s father, longtime activist Abdulhadi Alkhawaja, remains behind bars, serving a life sentence.

The U.S.-backed monarchy is home to the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet, which is responsible for all naval forces in the Gulf. Alkhawaja’s release came on the heels of rallies marking the third anniversary of the pro-democracy protests that began on February 14, 2011. Protests against the Sunni regime have been crushed by martial law and a U.S.-backed Saudi Arabian forces. Scores of people were arrested ahead of protests on Friday, when police fired bird shot and tear gas at demonstrators. Tens of thousands of people defied the crackdown to march on Saturday.

Watch all of Democracy Now!’s coverage of Bahrain.

 <iframe width="400" height="225" src="http://www.democracynow.org/embed/blog/2014/2/19/video_bahraini_human_rights_activist_zainab" frameborder="0"></iframe>