Rajab, an outspoken critic of the Bahraini regime who played a prominent role in pro-democracy protests in 2011, is serving a five-year sentence over social media posts criticizing Saudi Arabia’s air strikes in Yemen.
"Our motion has been rejected," his lawyer, Mohamed Al Jishi, said, Reuters reported.
He added the motion was filed on Apr. 30 in a bid to benefit from an alternative punishment law which the kingdom introduced last year.
On December 22, 2016, Bahraini authorities accused Rajab of making comments that “harm the interests” of the Manama regime and other Persian Gulf kingdoms through an article attributed to him and published by French daily Le Monde.
The article slammed the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group for its crimes against humanity. It also condemned Persian Gulf Arab countries for their failure to stop the spread of the violent Wahhabi ideology.