New detentions, trials of Bahraini and Saudi pro-democracy activists
The International Day in Support of Torture Victims (26th June) was marked by Bahrainis inside and outside the country. Protesters raised slogans of support for torture victims, published articles and expressed views on social media. Mothers and relatives of torture victims issued brief clips describing the torture inflicted on their loved ones by the khalifi dictators. Outside the country there were online seminars, protests outside Bahrain embassies and plenty of comments in the virtual world.
A native Bahraini mother has spoken of the extreme forms of torture inflicted on her three sons. Abdul Zahra Mushaima was released in 2014 when his condition worsened. In a video clip to mark the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture his mother said: When they arrested him he was in excellent health as a young man with no health complaints at all. He had been repeatedly hit on the head during torture sessions. He suffered five strokes before his release. His brain is permanently damaged, and he lost his memory. He is now a cripple. My other son, Sami Mushaima was executed (15th January 2017). The third is still behind bars with a bullet in his body and damaged ears due to torture.
On 26th June Reprieve, which campaigns against capital punishment tweeted about the two native Bahrainis on death row. First it said: On the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture we demand justice for those tortured, forced to sign “confessions” and sentenced to death in Bahrain. Bahrain’s broken criminal justice system is sustained by taxpayer-funded support from the UK. It then said: Husain Moosa was arrested on 21 February 2014. His interrogators beat him with sticks and threatened him until he signed a “confession” for a crime he didn’t commit. This “confession” was used to sentence him and Mohammed to death. Husain remains on death row to this day. It added: Mohammed Ramadhan is a father to 3 young children. After attending peaceful democracy protests, he was arrested on 18 February 2014. He was tortured into “confessing” to being at the protests, then sentenced to death for a crime he didn’t commit. He remains at risk of execution.
In an audio message political prisoner, Ali Al Banna accused the regime of denying him medical treatment that led to deterioration of his health. In the message which was smuggled out of the torture chambers he complained of several illnesses in the heart, eyes and neck for which he has been demanding treatment. He said the swelling in the neck had started four months ago but received no treatment for it.
This week khalifi court issued prison sentences against four native citizens for opposing the hereditary dictatorship. Haidar Ali Nasser, Mohammad Al Aswad, Abdul Amir Abdul Karim and Sayed Hussain Ma’tooq were given three years in a brief trial that fell short of international standards of fair trials. Another khalifi court has upheld an earlier prison sentence against three under-aged children from the town of Samaheej: Hassan Mubarak: 3 years, Jassim Mohmmad, 10 years and Salman Ali Salman, 15 years. The Bahraini regime has arrested native Bahraini Hassan Ahmad from Bilad Al Qadeem town.
Political prisoner, Ahmad Sheikh Ali Rahmah has started a hunger strike in protest at the ill-treatment he suffered recently. He had refused to be held in the same cells as criminal offenders.
Several young men have been detained by the Saudi regime. They include: Sheikh Abdul Majid Al Ahmad from Ihsaa Province, Moosa Al Khunaizi and Hussain Rajab from Qatif. The detentions include also a woman: Sarah Al Ali from Ihsaa Province.
Amnesty International has launched a campaign to save the life of a Saudi national condemned to death after an unfair trial. It said: Abdullah Al-Hwaiti, Arrested at 14, tortured, now faces execution! Call on @KingSalman not to ratify the verdict, have his conviction overturned, and retry him under international fair trial standards:
Recently unsealed court documents revealed that a Saudi operative who was studying in Mississippi was allegedly using secret social media profiles to harass dissidents of the regime. Ibrahim Alhussayen was eventually arrested for lying to FBI agents about his use of pseudonymous social media accounts, the criminal complaint and affidavit say. Alhussayen, a 42-year-old Saudi citizen who has lived in the U.S. since 2013, had been obtaining his PhD at a Mississippi university when he allegedly sent threatening messages and comments to “harass dissidents and critics of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,” the filing says. One message in 2020 read, “Soon, I will know where you are and get you, b***h.” An Instagram comment in 2020 left on the page of a woman who had criticized some Saudi policies said, “I hope you will have the same fate/end up as Nada al-Qahtani”—a Saudi Arabian woman shot to death by her brother. The feds say Alhussayen lied to them in interviews and claimed he only operated accounts under his name.
Bahrain Freedom Movement
29th June 2022