A Bahraini appeals court has ordered a retrial in a civil court in the cases of 21 opposition activists, including hunger striker Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, alleged to have been involved in the Gulf kingdom's uprising last year.
The Court of Cassation accepted the appeal of the human rights activists who were convicted by a military court last year, they include Khawaja and Ibrahim Sharif.
"The court is [ordering] that the trial take place again and that testimony from prosecution and defence witnesses be heard once more as if it is a new trial," BNA, the country's official news agency, said.
"Cassation Court rulings do not allow for releasing defendants as long as they were imprisoned when presented to the first trial."
Their case will go back to the Appellate Court for a retrial. A date has yet to be set but a lawyer told Al Jazeera that it was expected within the next couple of weeks.
Defence lawyer Mohammed al-Jishi, who attended Monday's session, said the judge stated that the men would not be released. International rights groups have said they should be freed without condition.
The convicted men, none of whom appeared in court, are believed to be among hundreds that an international rights commission said in November were tortured during a period of martial law.
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[/table] They were sentenced by a military court last year for organising protests in the uprising that sought to give Shias a greater voice in the affairs of the strategic island nation, which is home to the US Navy's 5th Fleet.
The main charge was "forming a terrorist group with intent to overturn the system of government", but also included collaborating with a foreign state - an apparent reference to Shia power Iran. Seven of those have been tried in absentia.
Khawaja and seven other opposition figures were sentenced to life in prison last year for their roles in the protests.
Bahrain's leader say they have made critical reforms, but they fall short of opposition demands for a direct role in key political and security decisions.
Khawaja has been on a more than two-month-long hunger strike over his life sentence.
Responding to the announcement, Khawaja's daughter Maryam took her to twitter profile to say (https://twitter.com/#!/MARYAMALKHAWAJA/status/196851849943461888) the retrial would have little impact on her father's hunger strike.
"Abdulhadi Alkhawaja did not go on #HungerStrike saying death or retrial, he said death or freedom. A retrial doesn't mean much", Maryam al-Khawja said on the microblogging service.
At least 50 people have been killed in unrest since February 2011.
Al Jazeera