Saudis and khalifis escalate detention and persecution of natives
Regime’s prosecutors have renewed the detention of seven natives for 60 days “pending investigation” They were detained last November from several towns; four from Duraz: Mohammad Habib Yahya Abdulla, Ahmad Abdulla Marhoon Rashid, Hassan Mohammad Muslim and Hussain Isa AbuRuwais. Two were from Karranah town: Abdulla Jaffar and Faris Hussain. The seventh is Mohammad Abdul Jabbar Mansoor Sarhan. The arbitrary detention of five children from Sitra has been renewed for the sixth time since their arrest on 27th December for taking part in a peaceful protest. They are: Mohammad Jaffar Al-Kuwaiti, 15 and his two brothers, Muqtada, 15 and Muntadar, 14, Ahmad Fadel Ahmad Hubail, 15 Mohammad Abdul Zahra Mansoor, 15 and Ali Hussain Mansoor, 14. On Thursday 27thJanuary regime’s forces detained native Bahraini Sayed Khalil Sayed Majeed from the town of Karzakkan. This is yet another arbitrary detention to satisfy the dictator’s desire to humiliate Bahrainis.
The international outrage at the decision by Serbia to deport a Bahraini citizen to face torture in his country has continued. Since his arrival more than one week ago he has not been allowed to see his family or lawyer. The extradition happened on 24th January despite an order by the European Court of Human Rights that specifically prohibited his extradition pending more information. Human Rights Watch (HRW) said: “Interpol and Serbian authorities have put a man who fled torture and life in a Bahraini prison and sought refuge in Europe at grave risk,” said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at HRW. “It is terrifying and inexcusable that Serbia and Interpol collaborated to return a dissident to face life in prison despite the European Court of Human Rights order halting his extradition.” HRW documented that khalifi authorities had tortured Muhammad while interrogating him following his arrest alongside other protesters in 2007 after participating in peaceful protests.
In a statement released on Monday, Al-Wefaq announced that it has recorded numerous violations against citizens and prisoners of conscience between January 22 and 28, and the figure stands at over 50 cases. The statement referred to the arbitrary detention of political dissident Ahmed Jaafar Mohamed Ali as the most egregious violation, after he was deported from Serbia and handed over to Bahraini authorities, despite a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) specifically forbidding this. Al-Wefaq referred to the recent detention of Sayed Khalil Majid and the repeated summoning of people for interrogation.
Saudi women’s rights activists have launched an online campaign to allow women to share their experiences of being “prisoners” in their own homes and highlight the social restrictions many still face in the conservative kingdom. On Twitter, activists used the hashtag #HomeDetainees to raise awareness about “women who languish at home”, a place that is both a “woman’s grave and a man’s paradise”. Saudi activists used the hashtag to demand the abolition of the “male guardianship system”, a structure that essentially gives a woman’s father, brother, or husband the right to decide her fate in terms of “education, work, and healthcare”. Conjointly, the campaign demanded Saudi women to be granted the right to “movement, independence, and decision-making”, stating that any woman or girl who feels “trapped in her home” should draw strength from the campaign’s experiences.
On 31st January Saudi authorities detained Shi’a cleric Kadhem al-Omari from the holy city of Medina. He had been a target for the Saudi regime for a long time. In 2010 he was detained during a raid on his father’s farm but released after a short detention. An eight-year prison sentence was also recently issued against another Shi’a Muslim cleric, Sheikh Abdul Latif al-Nasser. He was detained in June 2019 from the causeway linking Bahrain to Saudi Arabia. Saudi security forces have arrested young human rights activist Omran Al-Arkani, from his home in the holy city of Mecca. No specific reasons were given for this arbitrary detention.
Reprieve, which opposes the death penalty has issued a warning of the dangers awaiting Saudi scholar, Dr Hassan Farhan al Maliki. It said: He is at risk of a death sentence for “owning books”, “publishing books” and “publishing tweets”. Hassan peacefully expressed his opinions on religion and called for a more open society. His only crime is that his views aren’t shared by Saudi Arabia’s ruling elite. 13,587 people in this community signed the petition demanding Saudi Arabia drop Hassan’s case and release him.
State prosecutors in Abu Dhabi summoned people who shared videos on social media of Emirati defense forces intercepting missiles fired by Yemen’s armed forces at the capital. The move by prosecutors against social media users indicates the destabilizing potential of continued attacks on the United Arab Emirates. The UAE relies on millions of foreigners for its economic survival; a perception of instability threatens this business model.
Abdul Hafeez Zehri is a business owner, 10-year resident of the UAE and father of 8. Sources say men who identified themselves as state security took him away on Jan 27 and his family has not heard from him or been able to locate him since.
Bahrain Freedom Movement
2 February 2022