Today Bahrain began a “trial” for 21 opposition leaders, seven of them to be tried in absentia. The trial was suddenly announced on Saturday following public attention on Friday – including an urgent appeal by Amnesty International – when word spread that human rights leader Abdulhadi Alkhawaja had been taken from jail to a hospital for surgery for injuries caused by torture. (Alkhawaja is known to many FDL readers as the father of @angryarabiya)

Ethan Bronner of the New York Times asks how could Bahrain tolerate disruption of the Financial Center while the head of the Bahrain Human RIghts Center is beaten and threatened with rape and the “blog father” of Bahrain is missing after 50 armed security agents come looking for him.

The Bahraini monarchy is continuing its repression and crackdown on pro-democracy protesters.