Bahrain: MP continues to suffer persecution: case against Mr Mattar dropped, on-going trial against Mr Fairuz

After having been ambushed and abducted, having suffered three months of detention and mistreatment, and having been tried before the National Safety Court, established in March 2011 to judge those who supported and participated in the demonstrations, Mattar Mattar's last charge was finally dropped on 20 February 2012.

This former member of the Bahraini Parliament was violently arrested on 2 March 2011, the same day Jawaz Fairuz was arrested, in Al Daih. Mr Mattar and Mr Faituz were elected in October 2010 among the ranks of the Al Wefaq Political Society party, Bahrain's largest opposition party. They both resigned on 27 February 2011 in protest at the government's reaction to popular demonstrations. But they did not stop criticising the government crackdown on protesters, in particular Mr Mattar, who regularly appeared in international media such as Al-Jazeera denouncing the violence of the government response to demonstrations.

Mr Mattar was firstly acquitted to the charges of "public incitement for regime change and deliberately spreading biased rumours". On 20 February 2012, the court dropped the last charge of "taking part in public gatherings". Mr Mattar's travel ban was lifted one week after his release.

However, a different fate was reserved to Mr Faituz: while both individuals were released on 8 August 2011, despite being tried in different cases, Mr Faituz's trial is still on-going.

Alkarama submitted their arbitrary detention to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention on 20 June 2011 and updated the Working Group with the more recent developments in the case on 27 March 2012.