Fear for Bahraini academic’s life, Reprieve rushes to save two Saudis
Labour MP Wayne David and Lord Collins of Highbury have written to the UK government, asking them to interfere in Dr Abduljalil AlSingace’ prison treatment in Bahrain’s Jau Prison. The torture and sufferings inside the prison has made AlSingace to stay on hunger strike that he had started on 8th July. English PEN has taken up the case of Dr AlSingace, one of the most senior political figures in Bahrain. The renowned body tweeted: “Imprisoned academic, activist, and blogger Dr Al-Singace remains on hunger strike in Bahrain. Please join us in sending him messages of solidarity and hope.”
Bahrain (which has zero interest in investing in local research or building factories and jobs for Bahrainis) has had diplomatic talks where it agreed to invest in a vaccine plant in Israel. Ignoring tourism and secret defence deals, Israel expects $220 million from Bahrain. This policy of appeasement extends to other Western countries. Bahrain has been classified among the high spenders on military expenditure in relation to the GDP. In a survey published by The Economist for 2020 the khalifis spent 3.9 percent of the GDP on the military. The budget deficit for the first half of 202. amounted to 1.38 billion dollars.
Between June 2020 and February 2021, Bahrain surveilled human rights activists, dissidents, and members of political opposition, according to a new study by Citizen Lab named: “From Pearl to Pegasus; Bahraini Government Hacks Activists with NSO Group Zero-Click iPhone Exploits”. The study reveals that the Bahraini government is a client to NSO since 2017; an Israeli surveillance company regulated by Israel’s ministry of defense, which approves sale of NSO’s spyware technology to governments around the world. The new findings by Citizen Lab in relation to Bahrain point out that members of Waad, members of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, and a member of al-Wefaq were targets by Pegasus spyware. “While NSO Group continuously tries to deny any violation, their customer list contains several notorious misusers of surveillance technology. Selling Pegasus to Bahrain is worrisome knowing its longstanding history of oppression and misuse of technology, however the fact that Bahrain uses spyware to target political opposition and activists, given its record of repression is not quite a surprise. The real concern is: what now? Will all parties involved in these violations still enjoy impunity?” said Nedal Al Salman, President of Bahrain Centre for Human Rights.
Four American journalists left Bahrain this week after they were arrested by authorities who accused them of “participating with a group of saboteurs who were carrying out riot acts.” Their arrests made headlines – and drew swift attention from the U.S. government. Abduljalil AlSingace is in jail, sentenced to life. Most people have never heard of the Bahraini journalist and blogger. He has no backer to apply pressure for his release – or even to receive humane treatment in prison. His plight attracts virtually no international attention. AlSingace and other Bahraini journalists are languishing in jails more or less for the same reason the Americans were arrested: covering the fallout from the Arab Spring uprisings five years ago.
Many prisoners at the notorious Jau prison have entered into a hunger strike to protest the deteriorating conditions especially on family visits. Khalifi officials had promised to relax those visits once the political detainees had been vaccinated. But this did not happen. The political prisoners also protest against the sanitation and medical conditions in the filthy torture chambers.
This week Reprieve has begun collecting signatures of people on petitions calling for the release of two prisoners in Saudi Arabia. Hussein Abo al Kheir might never see his eight children ever again. He’s on death row in a Saudi jail and could be executed at any time. He was forced to ‘confess’ to drug smuggling after 12 days of torture. The conditions in which he is held are so brutal that he is going blind in his cell. Abdullah al Howaiti could be next. Saudi Arabia is executing child defendants – Abdullah was locked up in a secret location for months and tortured into ‘confessing’ when he was only 14 years old. He is now facing execution for ‘crimes’ he couldn’t have committed. Reprieve says Abdullah shouldn’t be facing execution. He has several alibis and was brutally tortured into a ‘confession’. The courts know this, but Abdullah is still facing execution. His mother hasn’t seen him in four years.
On 14 August Abdulwahhab al-Dowaish, son of the preacher Sulaiman al-Dowaish who has been forcibly disappeared since 2016 was arrested with no justifiable explanation. Dowaish was held in an unofficial detention facility in the basement of a royal palace in Riyadh, where high-ranking Saudi officials and rivals of royal family are imprisoned and tortured. MBS’ Tiger Squad oversaw the torture of Dowaish.
Abductions, forced disappearances, arbitrary arrests, murder and assassination attempts have become common against royal family members, Saudi human rights defenders and critics since Mohammed bin Salman became the crown prince. On 16th August the Saudi Appeal court increased the prison sentence of Khaled Al Omair from seven to nine years. The sentence may also increase because of Al Omair’s writings in jail.
Bahrain Freedom Movement
1st September 2021