DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) - Activists say a court in Bahrain has refused to release a prominent activist and allow him to serve out at home the remainder of his five-year prison sentences for tweets.

The Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy said Tuesday the court refused the noncustodial sentence request for Nabeel Rajab.

Bahrain’s state-run media did not immediately acknowledge the decision.

Rajab has been detained since June 2016 as part of a wide crackdown on dissent in Bahrain, a small island-nation off the Saudi coast that’s home to the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet. He was sentenced February 2018.

Rajab was a major figure in the mostly Shiite-led protests in 2011 demanding greater rights from the Sunni-ruled monarchy. He separately received a two-year sentence over television interviews he gave that included criticisms of Bahrain.

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