MANAMA, 2 July 2003 — A Bahraini court yesterday adjourned the trial of two journalists accused of flouting a ban on publishing details about a suspected “terror” cell in a case which has put press freedom in the kingdom in the spotlight.
The court adjourned the trial to September, the journalists’ lawyers said.
The trial has drawn interest because Bahrain last year passed a new press law as part of a number of political and economic reforms.
Mansur Al-Jamri, editor of Al-Wasat newspaper, and a reporter at the daily, Hussein Khalaf, face charges of breaking a prosecutor’s ban on publishing information about a suspected “terror” cell. They first went to court on June 21.
Bahrain last February arrested five Bahrainis who it said were plotting “terrorist” acts in the country before the launch of the US-led war on Iraq in March.
A verdict is due later this month.
Al-Wasat wrote in March that three of the five suspects had been freed from jail, apparently flouting the publication ban.
In a similar case, two journalists from another daily, Akhbar Al-Khaleej, are among seven Bahrainis whose trial on charges of insulting Islamic judges begins on July 5.
