Bahraini activist is sentenced to jail

MANAMA, Bahrain, May 24 (UPI) -- Zainab al-Khalawaja -- daughter of jailed activist Abdulhadi al-Khawaja -- was sentenced in absentia to a month in prison for her part in an illegal rally.

Zainab was convicted in April of confronting a policewoman and taking part in an unauthorized rally against the regime, the IB Times reported Thursday.

Also known as AngryArabia on Twitter, Zainab denied the charges, calling them "politically motivated."

The IB Times said Zainab rejected the legitimacy of the court and pledged to continue to refuse to attend trials "even if it means not seeing my 2-year-old daughter for a long time."

In a letter, the rights activist said she refused a plea bargain.

"If I get released, every village I pass through will shout the names of countless prisoners of conscience … All the walls will show me their faces. My case is the case of hundreds of innocent political prisoners in Bahrain, my release, without them, means nothing to me," she said.