Bahrainis mark Saudi-Emirati aggression, Saudi HR crisis intensifies
Bahrainis have begun preparations to mark the 11th anniversary of the military incursion into their country by the Saudi-Emirati forces. On 14th March 2011 these invaders carried out brutal attacks on Bahrainis as they protested to call for democratic transformation. Unlike their stands on the Ukraine crisis, Western powers remain silent on the Saudi-Emirati criminal invasion of Bahrain. Activists have called on the West to end its double standards.
The visit to US by the khalifi crown prince and prime minister and the high level carpet reception by the Vice-President Kamala Harris has been widely criticized and considered another manifestation of the double standards of the US policy, Eric Umansky (deputy managing editor of ProPublica) used a quote from the Human Rights Watch report that says: Bahrain has “arrested, prosecuted, and harassed human rights defenders, journalists, opposition leaders, and defense lawyers, All independent Bahraini media have been banned since 2017 and all opposition groups dissolved.” Amnesty International called on the US government to raise the issue of human rights with their visiting guest. It urged US officials to call for the immediate and unconditional release of Sheikh Ali Salman, Naji Fateel, AbdulWahab Husain, Mohamed al-Muqdad, AbdulJalil al-Muqdad, Saeed al-Noori. AbdulHadi al-Mukhowder, Merza al-Mahroos, Mohamed Ali Ismaeel, Hasan Mushaima. AbdulHadi al-Khawaja and AbdulJalil al-Singace. Sarah Leah Whitson the former Director of MENA region at Human Rights Watch commented on the US stands on the Russian military incursion into Ukraine and compared it to its silence on Bahrain: She said: “It’s a stark double standard that whilst the US has been quick to condemn Russia’s gross human rights abuses and war in Ukraine, they remain silent in the face of Bahrain’s appalling rights record and violations of international law.”
This week, Khalifi regime forces arrested two native Bahrainis. Mohammad Habib Ali from Shahrakkan Town and Mohammad Abdul Nabi Al Sheikh from Karzakkan Town. They did not commit any crime punishable be law, but are known for their anti-regime views. The khalifis also refused to release four native Bahrainis from Duraz and extended their detention for one more month: Mohammad Habib Baddao, Ahmad Abdulla Marhoon, Hussain Isa Abu Ruwais and Hassan Mohammad Muslim have been in detention since November without charge or trial.
The khalifi clan has ordered the trial of the family of a young native Bahraini who escaped from the mental health hospital. Last month Sayed Mahmood Al Alawi was sentenced to 15 years on false charges. His mental condition deteriorated and was taken to hospital and sought shelter at the home of his relatives. Now three family members will face the wrath of the khalifi enemy for allowing him to stay at their house. They are: Fadeela Abdul Rasool, 52, Sayed Radhi Moosa Al Alawi, 56 and Sayed Jaffar Moosa Al Alawi, 59. Fadeela was detained for one week last month and was only released after an uproar by women human rights activists.
PEN America which campaigns on behalf of writers has called for the release of Dr Abdul Jalil Al Singace who has now spent more than 240 days on hunger strike. It tweeted: Abduljalil Al-Singace is currently on a hunger strike for 240 days to protest poor prison conditions and should be freed immediately!
On 4th March rights advocates accused the UK government of endangering six Bahraini boys who they say have been detained in an orphanage for two months and interrogated without lawyers. The boys are believed to have been detained by regime’s brutal forces on trumpeted up charges of damaging a car with Molotov cocktail in 2020. Human Rights Watch (HRW) and the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (Bird) say recent statements by British ministers supporting Bahrain’s justice system and Manama’s 2021 restorative justice law, under which the boys are held, have put them at risk of further abuse.
On Friday 5th March Sheikh Abdul Jalil Al Makrani from al-Ihsa Province in Eastern Arabia was detained by Saudi police for no obvious reasons. Meanwhile voices of condemnation has been raised after the Saudi authorities failed to release Ra’if Badawi who, on 28th February, had completed his ten years prison sentence
The two Bahraini youth sentenced to beheading and crucifixion by the Saudi authorities have repeated their pleas to be released. Sadiq Thamer and Jaffar Sultan said: We were arrested in May 2015 on King Fahd’s causeway which links Bahrain to Saudi Arabia. The Appeal court has endorsed our death sentence despite the abuses we had suffered including torture, solitary confinement and forced disappearance.”
A Saudi man has been sentenced to death for a second time after his original conviction for crimes he allegedly committed as a child was overturned. Abdullah al-Huwaiti was arrested when he was 14 and sentenced to death three years later in 2019 on murder and armed robbery charges. Al-Huwaiti had been arrested along with five others and Human Rights Watch and Reprieve have said all six defendants told court sessions that interrogators had coerced their confessions through torture or the threat of it.
Bahrain Freedom Movement
9th March 2022