Bahrain Activist Zainab Al-Khawaja Released

Bahrain's pro-democracy activist Zainab al-Khawaja has been released from jail after a year on multiple charges including taking part in an illegal gathering and insulting police.

"One year of prison is nothing," she said after her release. "We have a cause. This will not stop us."

The activist, who is daughter of jailed human rights activist Abdulhadi al-Khawaja who is himself serving a life sentence, faces two further trials on accusations that include damaging police property, defacing a picture of the king and insulting a police officer, according to her lawyer Mohammed al-Attiyah.

Zainab, who is popular on Twitter under the @angryarabiya profile, said international media should focus on the 3,000 prisoners still behind bars in Bahrain on politically related charges.

Her first tweet was:

Since the start of the uprising in February 2011, Zainab has been detained several times. She refused to appeal to higher courts because she said Bahrain's judiciary was controlled by the government. She was sentenced to four months in jail in January on a charge of "destroying government property". She was accused of ripping a photo of King Hamad in May 2012. Her sister Maryam, who is acting president of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights (BCHR), said Zainab might be arrested again:

Zainab's release came a day after thousands of Bahrainis rallied to mark the third anniversary of the uprising.