Crackdown on Bahraini natives, fallouts of Saudi harsh policies intensify
Yesterday, a massive crackdown on native Bahraini youth was carried out by the khalifi regime. Scores of people have been detained and are undergoing severe forms of torture. From El Ekr town the arrests included Mahmood Abdul Latif, Mohammad Abdul Jabar and Hassan Al Mughani. From Duraz: Ahmad Abdulla Marhoon, Hassan Rahma, Mahdi Muslim, Hassan Muslim and Mohammad Habibi Baddaw. From Nuwaidrat: Mustafa Bahar, Fadel Abbas Abdul Jabbar, Mansoor Abdulla Abdul Jabbar and Abdul Jabbar Isa Abdul Jabbar. From El Ekr: Ahmad Adulla Mahroon, Hussain Rahma,Mahdi Muslim and Hassan Muslim. Four children from Malkiya were summoned for interrogation
Under-aged Bahraini native, Mohammed Kadhem was summoned for interrogation accused of taking part in a protest against normalization with Israel and abandoning the Palestinians. It is now four days since another young citizen, Mohammad Abdul Latif has been detained. No news about him have been received. His whereabouts or charges against him are also unknown. His family is greatly concerned as he suffers health problems including chronic asthma. The jailers refused to allow medicines provided by the family to him.
International concerns for the well-being and life of Dr Abdulajlil AlSingace, the former head of the Mechanical Engineering Department at the University of Bahrain is intensifying. He has now completed 140 days of hunger strike in protest against the khalifi authorities for confiscating his handwritten manuscript on Bahraini dialects. Statements, protests, tweets and expressions of support have risen sharply as his health rapidly deteriorates. The British Government is singled out for criticism for its unwavering support of a regime that had been found, by its own commission of investigation ten years ago guilty of administering “systematic torture”. In London the activist, Ali Mushaima is starting hunger strike outside the khalifi embassy calling for Dr Al Singace’s release.
On 28th November the khaifi court will decide the fate of two children who had taken part in a peaceful protest. Reda Hassan, 12 and Ali Yousuf, 15, were charged almost a year ago but their case was kept hanging for all this time. In a modern society these two children would not have been charged with any offence.
The children who started hunger strike last week to protest the conditions of their cells have reached serious stages of malnutrition. Sugar level has dropped to 2 percent. The regime’s GANGOs have ignored their plight and decided to defend the khalifi brutality against these children. As a punishment, khalifi torturers have denied the strikers the right of family contacts.
The woman who was engaged to marry Jamal Khashoggi has asked singer Justin Bieber to cancel his scheduled December 5 performance in Saudi Arabia’s second-largest city Jeddah, urging him to not perform for the slain Saudi journalist’s “murderers.” Hatice Cengiz wrote an open letter to the singer published last Saturday in the Washington Post in which she urged Bieber to cancel the performance to “send a powerful message to the world that your name and talent will not be used to restore the reputation of a regime that kills its critics.”
Reprieve has started raising funds to start a campaign to save the life a detainee in Saudi jails. In a statement it said: Hussain Abu al Kheir should be at home in Jordan with his eight children. Instead, he’s on death row in Saudi Arabia. He could be executed any day now for what he was forced to ‘confess’ to under brutal torture. That’s why Reprieve investigators, lawyers and campaigners are fighting Hussein’s case right now.
The Saudi activist, Areej Al Sadhan is appealing for an end to harassment of her relatives by the Saudi authorities. She tweeted: My brother and Red Cross worker Abdul Rahman alSadhan is barred from any calls or visits. It has been three years and eight months of arbitrary detention, torture and solitary confinement. Saudi courts have ignored the abuses and instead enabling more abuses. She asks: Why the continuing human rights violations against my brother and others in Saudi Arabia including torture enforced disappearance?
On 17th November English PEN tweeted its support of a UAE prisoner of conscience. It said: We condemn the imprisonment of Emirati academic, human rights lawyer and author Dr Mohammed Al-Roken and ask the UAE authorities to release him.
UK parliamentarians have written to Prime Minister Boris Johnson calling on the UK Government to oppose UAE official Ahmed al-Raisi’s bid to become Interpol president, as pressure builds against his candidacy ahead of this week’s vote. Margaret Ferrier Co-chair of All-Party Parliamentary Group on Human Rights who sent the letter, commented: “We believe that the UK should oppose al-Raisi’s candidacy and support a candidate from another country where fundamental rights and freedoms are enshrined and respected”. Elections for Interpol’s president is being held this week. Among the candidates is UAE Interior Ministry official Ahmed al-Raisi, part of a state apparatus that carries out systematic human rights abuses. It is vital that member states oppose his candidacy. The letter has received support from members representing both Houses of the UK parliament, including Peter Bottomley, Ben Bradshaw, Tony Lloyd, Kenny MacAskill and Baroness Stern.
Bahrain Freedom Movement
24th November 2021