Bahrain Live Coverage: The Regime's Strategy of Rolling Detention

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Carlos Latuff cartoon featuring Nabeel Rajab0935 GMT:. Maryam Alkhawaja reports that the detention of her sister and fellow activist Zainab has been extended until Thursday, when her next court hearing is scheduled.

Zainab Alkhawaja was imprisoned on 21 April after she staged a sit-in protest in the middle of a Bahraini highway.

0825 GMT:. The United Nations Human Rights Council is considering Bahrain's record and situation this morning.

The British representative has cited ongoing human rights violations, while the American delegation has called for accountability of all perpetrators of torture. Denmark has sharply criticised the Bahraini Government for lack of action on rights, while emphasising the case of Danish-Bahraini human rights activist Abdulhadi Alkhawaja, who has been on hunger strike for 102 days.

The Bahraini envoy, unsurprisingly, has said there are no issues, as the regime has implemented the recommendations of the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry.

We hope to have a summary of proceedings later today.

0630 GMT: As it pursues the strategy of "rolling detention" to curb and possibly decapitate opposition, the regime also continues to play the Iran card. After its Sunday meeting, the Cabinet put out the statement "that Iran's continued flagrant meddling in the internal affairs of the Gulf Cooperation Council is categorically rejected at official and public levels".

Following the collapse of plans for "union", especially with Saudi Arabia --- a development due far more to Saudi caution after objections from GCC countries than to any Iranian intervention --- the Cabinet said Tehran showed "disregard to the GCC's ongoing efforts to achieve integration" with "statements and actions that violate good-neighbourly rules and all international conventions and agreements".

0500 GMT: Two weeks ago we wrote, after authorities justified the arrest of human rights activist Nabeel Rajab because of his supposed incitement of violence via Twitter:

Why is the regime moving now to detain Rajab? Why are he and other prominent activists such as Zainab Alkhawaja joining leaders of the opposition --- some serving life sentences --- such as Abdulhadi Alkhawaja and Ibrahim Sharif behind bars?

The answer, I suspect, is an attempt to "decapitate" the activists by keeping top figures off the streets and out of the village, trying to fragment the opposition so it can be represented as nothing more than a violent threat to national security.

More evidence for this on Sunday --- even though Rajab was technically "freed" on $800 bail over the Twitter charge, he was returned to jail on other charges, such as participation in illegal marches. His next hearing is on 30 May.