Geneva, June 11 (RHC)-- The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has censured the Bahraini regime for human rights violations in the country. On Tuesday, 46 members of the international body expressed deep concern over the Al Khalifa regime's crackdown on peaceful protesters.

The OHCHR condemned the imprisonment of journalists and anti-regime demonstrator. It also expressed concerns over the torture of inmates who are in jail for exercising their human rights. The rights body called on the Al Khalifa regime to address these concerns and also asked for an office with a full mandate in the Persian Gulf country.

Earlier in the day, a Bahraini court gave 13 protesters jail terms of up to 13 years. The move meant to preserve a "highly repressive political order," as Human Rights Watch described it last month.

According to a judicial official, the 13 were arrested during clashes with the country's Saudi-backed security forces in the village of Sitra outside the capital Manama on August 6, 2012.

Since mid-February 2011, thousands of pro-democracy protesters have held numerous demonstrations in the streets of Bahrain, calling for the Al Khalifa royal family to relinquish power.

According to local sources, scores of people have been killed and hundreds arrested. Physicians for Human Rights says doctors and nurses have been detained, tortured, or disappeared because they have "evidence of atrocities committed by the authorities, security forces, and riot police" in the crackdown on anti-government protesters.