Photograph: Hasan Jamali/AP

On September 4, 2012, the Supreme Appeals Court in Bahrain upheld harsh sentences against 21 Bahraini activists who participated in protests last year. Seven were sentenced to a lifetime in prison, seven were sentenced with 5-15 year sentences, and the rest were tried as fugitives.  Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja, a prominent Bahraini human rights activist who hold Danish citizenship, was among the activists given a lifetime in prison.

Activists posted pictures on Facebook depicting demonstrations that took a place outside the Bahraini capital Al Manama following the appeals sentencing.

The February 14 Coalition, a Bahraini activist group, quoted Al-Khawaja’s wife, Khadija Al Mousawi, after she spoke to her husband following the court’s confirmation of the sentence:

خديجة الموسوي زوجة الحقوقي عبد الهادي الخواجة :- إتصل زوجي وسألته عن ردة فعلهم اتجاه الأحكام اليوم قال ما ان سمعنا الخبر حتى باركنا لبعضنا فوجودنا في سجن هذا النظام لهو فخرلنا- نكتة مكالمة الليلة كانت انهم قبل فترة منعوا عنهم القهوة دون سبب, واليوم منعوا عنهم الشاي. سألته لماذا؟

- قال: يخافون علينا ان

نشنق انفسنا بخيوط شاي اللبتون! فضحكنا. نعم وسنضل نضحك فموتوا بغيضكم. لقد انتصرنا.حتى بعد حكمكم الجائر نظل نضحك

"My husband called me and I asked him about his reaction with his colleagues regarding today’s sentences, to which he said: until we heard the news we congratulated each others, to be imprisoned under this regime makes us proud. He joked that a while before they banned them [the activists] from drinking coffee without reason, that today they banned us from the tea. I asked him why, so he said: 'They are afraid of us, and want to prevent us from hanging ourselves with the strings that hold the tea bags. We laugh. Yes we keep laughing. We won. Even after your unfair trial. We will keep on laughing.'"