On 12 February 2012, human rights defender Ms Zainab Al Khawaja was arrested by Bahraini security forces in the capital Manama as she was on her way to the site of the Pearl Roundabout to join a peaceful protest.

Zainab Al Khawaja is a human rights defender and blogger who has been active in calling for political reform and democracy in Bahrain. Zainab Al Khawaja has been campaigning since April 2011 for the release of her father, Abdulhadi Al Khawaja, a prominent human rights defender and former Front Line Defenders Protection Coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa, who is serving a life sentence passed after a grossly unfair trial. In April 2011 she staged her campaign with a hunger strike which continued for 10 days and attracted worldwide attention.

On 12 February 2012, Zainab Al Khawaja was arrested by Bahraini security forces while walking to the site of the Pearl Roundabout, which was demolished by the government following protests there last year, to attend a peaceful anti-government protest. The following day, she was taken to the public prosecutor's office where she was charged with "illegal assembly" in the presence of her lawyer. She is currently detained at Nu'aim Police station in Manama.

In December 2012, Zainab Al Khawaja was arrested and detained for several days and subsequently charged with a number of offences including illegal assembly and assaulting a police officer. She was reportedly beaten while in detention. At the time of her arrest in December, Zainab Al Khawaja was taking part in a protest by women demonstrators near the Country Mall in Manama. She is due to appear before the Criminal Court of first instance in connection with these charges on 27 February 2012. See Front Line Defenders urgent appeal dated 20 December 2011 (http://www.frontlinedefenders.org/node/16957).

Front Line Defenders is concerned about the continued harassment and persecution of Zainab Al Khawaja by the Bahraini authorities, including through arbitrary detention and judicial harassment, and believes that her arrest is solely motivated by her peaceful and legitimate work for the defence of human rights in Bahrain. Front Line Defenders is seriously concerned for the physical and psychological integrity of Zainab Al Khawaja, in particular in light of previous reports of physical and verbal abuse of human rights defenders and other activists while in detention.