DUBAI/MANAMA: A prominent Bahraini human rights activist said he had been threatened with rape while in custody after he refused to apologize to the king over his role in anti-government protests.
Human rights groups said Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, former president of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, was removed from a military court Monday on the third day of his trial after he told the judge about his treatment.
He said that despite prior complaints the court had not taken action to secure his safety.

“The judge refused to listen to these statements and Mr. al-Khawaja was ordered out of the courtroom,” the Bahrain Center for Human Rights and Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights said in a joint statement.
The Interior Ministry media office said no one was available to comment on the report. Other officials could not be reached.

Khawaja is one of 21 activists charged with trying to topple the Sunni-led government during weeks of popular Shiite protests, calling for greater political freedoms, an end to sectarian discrimination and a constitutional monarchy.
Some hard-line Shiite groups also called for the overthrow of King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa.
Khawaja has in all three trial sessions so far voiced allegations of abuse but was silenced by the judge on each occasion, the two rights groups said in their statement.

The rights groups said Khawaja told family members and his lawyer that he had been taken by four men to an unknown location Friday, and a man there told him he was a representative of the king and began to question him.
They asked him if he would like to apologize in a video message and he refused, then he was taken to a room where the men “started to use foul language and threatened him with rape,” the rights groups said, adding they also threatened to rape his activist daughter.
“At this point the men started undressing and showing their private parts after which they started touching Mr. al-Khawaja inappropriately,” the rights groups reported.

“When they tried to take off his pants, he threw himself down and started hitting his head on the ground continuously until he almost passed out. Seeing this they returned him to his prison cell.”
Human Rights Watch said last week that Khawaja bore visible signs of ill-treatment and perhaps torture and called on Bahrain to set up an impartial commission to look into allegations of torture.
A Western lawyer and an observer from an international human rights group were banned from attending the second day of the trial Thursday.

In further signs that Sunni-led Bahrain continues to take a tough stance against mostly Shiite protesters, a military court sentenced seven demonstrators to prison terms of between one and three years, Gulf News daily reported.
Separately, Bahrain’s Parliament accepted the resignations Tuesday of the last seven lawmakers of the Shiite opposition in a move that could further exacerbate sectarian tensions.
The resignations were submitted in February over the deadly crackdown on anti-government protesters, but had not yet been approved by the council.

The lawmakers acted alongside 11 other Shiite opposition members of Parliament whose resignations were previously accepted. They were members of Al-Wefaq, the country’s largest Shiite party.
Bahrain’s 40-member lower house of Parliament is now left with 22 lawmakers and is controlled by Sunnis. Elections to replace the 18 empty seats are scheduled for September.
A senior U.S. diplomat urged Bahrain’s rulers Tuesday to pursue political dialogue with the opposition and stressed “the importance of full respect for universal human rights,” the State Department said.

Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg held talks in Bahrain along with Jeffrey Feltman, the department’s top Middle East official, and a senior official from the U.S. National Security Council. “Deputy Secretary Steinberg affirmed the long-standing commitment of the U.S. to a strong partnership with both the people and the government of Bahrain and stressed the importance of full respect for universal human rights,” the State Department said.