Pressure to release Bahraini academic, anger as UAE general leads Interpol
The regime’s prison authorities have banned Dr Abdul Jalil Al Singace from contacting his family. They have not been informed of the decision. He has spent almost five months on hunger strike protesting the confiscation of his apolitical book. His health is deteriorating and his family are seriously concerned about his safety. As he completes five months of hunger strike, more international support to him has been forthcoming. MPs, MEPs, human rights bodies and politicians have called for his immediate and unconditional release. Ali Abdul EthnaAshar who had been arrested when he was 15 years old, has been on hunger strike for 8 days protesting prison conditions. Yesterday, his mother joined his hunger strike saying: “if you decide to go hungry then I’ll go hungry with you”
A professional beach ball player has been detained by the khalifi investigation office. On 24th November Isa Abu Ruwais, from Karranah town was arrested and disappeared. He was not allowed contact with family or lawyer.
Three under-aged native Bahrainis were snatched on Friday 26th November from the town of Karrnah. In dawn raids on their homes, Faris Hussain Habib, Abdulla Jaffar and Hassan Rashid were arrested and taken to unknown destination. Their families fear that they would be subjected to torture and abuse. Faris was subjected to severe abuse during earlier detention at the Dry Dock Prison when he was a juvenile, as documented by BIRD and Human Rights Watch earlier this year.
A Bahrain government report denying that police and detention center officers beat, insulted, and threatened to rape four boys, aged 15 to 17 while in detention in late 2020 and 2021 lacks any credibility in the face of compelling evidence, and is a blatant effort to whitewash serious human rights violations, Human Rights Watch and the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (BIRD) said yesterday. The boys’ statements and corroborating information contradict the March 14 report by the ombudsman of Bahrain’s Interior Ministry that said none of the boys were abused in custody, the groups said. The UK government, an ally of Bahrain, approvingly cited the misleading ombudsman’s report. “If the Bahraini authorities are given a green light to exonerate themselves for vicious child abuse with a sham investigation, there’s nothing to stop them from doing it again tomorrow,”
Abdulrahman al-Dowaish, son of the detained Saudi preacher Sulaiman al-Dowaish, was transferred to Malaz Prison in Riyadh on Sunday, 28 November, following two weeks in intensive care after he had become ill in solitary confinement. Abdulrahman had been forcibly disappeared since 18 October 2021, and on 5 November he was put on trial behind closed doors without his family’s knowledge in the absence of a lawyer. Abdulrahman was arrested for sending a text message to Badr al-Asaker, the director of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s private office, to ask about his father Sulaiman al-Dowaish, whose fate and whereabouts have remained unknown since he had been forcibly disappeared by the authorities in 2016. Al-Asaker then sent the order to the Public Prosecution for Abdulrahman’s arrest. Dr. Mahmoud Al-Mubarak, a senior academic at King Faisal University was arrested two months ago, and the reasons for the arrest are not yet clear.
Dr Aamer Al-Faleh, a US citizen is missing in Saudi Arabia. His wife had reported his disappearance to the security authorities when he failed to return home. His disappearance happened after he left his father’s home in Riyadh on 21st November for what is suspected to be a summon by security authorities. He holds a PhD degreed in Economics from Claremont University in California (2016) , Masters in Financial Economics from Polytechnic University, California (201) and a degree in finance from King Saud University (2005).
Maj. Gen. Ahmed Naser al-Raisi, inspector general at the United Arab Emirates’ interior ministry and a member of Interpol’s executive committee, has been elected for a four-year term, the global policing body announced. He has been accused by human rights groups of involvement in torture and arbitrary detentions in the UAE. Another contentious candidate, Hu Binchen, an official at China’s ministry of public security, was elected to join Interpol’s executive committee as a delegate from Asia. Hu was backed by China’s government, which is suspected of using the global police body to hunt down exiled dissidents and of disappearing its citizens. The Lyon, France-based agency acts as an intermediary for national police services seeking to hunt down suspects outside of their borders. Al-Raisi and Hu’s election comes as the international body has come under criticism that its “red notice” system is being used to go after exiled dissidents or political enemies instead of criminals. Interpol’s charter however, prohibits the use of police notices for political reasons.
Bahrain Freedom Movement
1st December 2021