Female poet brought before Bahrain military tribunal
A female poet whose "death" became the focus of an Iranian state propaganda campaign against Bahrain has been brought before a military tribunal in the island kingdom.
Ayat al-Ghermezi was arrested after reading a self-penned poem to anti-government protesters in the Bahraini capital Manama Photo: Facebook
By Adrian Blomfield, Middle East Correspondent
1:33PM BST 02 Jun 2011
Ayat al-Ghermezi, who is 20, was charged with incitement and insulting members of the Al Khalifa royal family.
Arrested after reading a self-penned poem to anti-government protesters in the Bahraini capital Manama, she has been in custody for two months.
Bahraini human rights activists say that although Miss Ghermezi was not raped, she was badly tortured while in custody.
Her purported crime centres on a poem she read to protesters at the Pearl Roundabout in Manama, the epicentre of the street movement until it was destroyed by the authorities.
Its lyrics include the lines: "We are the people who will kill humiliation and assassinate misery/We are the people who will destroy the foundation of injustice/Don't you hear their cries, don't you hear their screams?" She said the poem was addressed to King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa and his hawkish prime minister and relative Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa.
The Bahraini authorities yesterday defended her arrest and prosecution.
"Reading a poem is part of Arab culture; it is the content of the poem that makes a difference," Sheikh Abdulaziz said. "She called for uprising and hatred against the leadership. In this part of the world, that is against the law."
Hundreds of protesters, including 65 women, remain in custody. Activists say many of them have been tortured.
Miss Ghermezi was hailed as martyr in Tehran after state media claimed she had fallen into a coma after being gang raped by her interrogators and that she had subsequently died.
The reports led to protests by women in Tehran. As the campaign gathered pace, her name was given to a vessel carrying Iranian activists to Bahrain to join the protests. The Ayat al-Ghermezi and a second boat were intercepted by the Bahraini navy last month and turned away.
Bahraini officials denounced Iran for peddling deliberate misinformation as an attempt to worsen instability in the kingdom, where more than 30 Shia protesters have been killed by the security forces since pro-democracy protests erupted in February.
"Tehran never misses out on an opportunity to undermine Bahrain," said Sheikh Abdulaziz al-Mubarak, a Bahraini government spokesman. "Naming a ship after her to give her celebrity status is unacceptable."
Bahrain has become the focus of a major battle for influence between Shia Iran and Sunni Saudi Arabia ever since pro-democracy protests led by the island's Shia majority erupted in February.
Tehran has given its ideological support to the demonstrators, who are demanding reforms and equality from Bahrain's Sunni elite, and is also accused of inciting radical elements on the fringe of the protest movement.
Saudi Arabia and a number of Sunni Gulf states have sent 4,000 troops to Bahrain to defend the ruling family.
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