More Bahrainis forcibly disappeared, Saudi woman given 45 years
The families of 14 forcibly disappeared Bahraini political prisoners have continued their campaign to know their fate. For the past three weeks those detainees have vanished from the face of the earth and no news about them has been forthcoming. Among them is Hussain Ali Al Shaikh, whose family have repeatedly called for news about him but received none. The last visit was on 10th August. Concerns are growing for their safety and well-being.
The khalifi regime has extended the imprisonment of four natives from Duraz for 10 more days. Mohammad Habib Baddao, Ahmad Abdulla Marhoon, Hassan Essa AbuRwais and Hassan Mohammad Muslim. These young men have been in regime’s custody since November 2021 but have not been charged or tried. Their. Because they are innocent their custody has been repeatedly renewed throughout this period. Another native Bahraini young man has been detained after being summoned by the regime torturers. Hussain Hani Marhoon from Sanabis is now behind bars for opposing the khalifi hereditary dictatorship
Another group of Bahraini Shiite Muslim religious pilgrims is facing harassment for traveling to Iraq. The pilgrims were ordered to appear for questioning at the General Directorate of Immigration & Passports, a branch of Bahrain’s interior ministry.
UK government funding for Saudi Arabia and Bahrain more than doubled this year through a £70m fund repeatedly criticised by MPs for its lack of transparency, Freedom of Information requests have revealed. Last August, in response to one such request, the UK government disclosed that the Gulf Strategy Fund (GSF) was funding Bahrain’s interior ministry and four oversight bodies that have responsibility, in some capacity, for political detainees whose treatment has been criticised by rights groups. Bird’s Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei said the price of the UK’s funding “will be paid by citizens like imprisoned Bahraini scholar Dr Abduljalil al-Singace, who has spent over a decade behind bars and more than 410 days striking from eating solid foods, in order to fight injustice and demand his most basic rights”.
Saudi authorities have sentenced Nourah bint Saeed al-Qahtani to 45 years in prison after the Specialized Criminal Court convicted her of “using the Internet to tear the [country’s] social fabric” and “violating the public order by using social media”. “Only weeks after this month’s shocking 34-year sentence of Salma al-Shehab, al-Qahtani’s 45-year sentence, apparently for simply tweeting her opinions, shows how emboldened Saudi authorities feel to punish even the mildest criticism from its citizens,” said Dr Abdullah Alaoudeh, Director of Research for the Gulf Region at DAWN. “It is impossible not to connect the dots between Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s meeting with President Biden last month in Jeddah and the uptick in the repressive attacks against anyone who dares criticize the Crown Prince or the Saudi government for well-documented abuses.”
Meanwhile international human rights bodies have reacted furiously to the jailing of Salma al-Shehab to 34 years. 30 NGOs have called on the international community to urge the Saudi authorities to immediately and unconditionally release women’s rights activist and academic. They said: It is the longest known prison sentence handed down against a peaceful activist for their free speech in Saudi Arabia, signaling an alarming deterioration of the human rights situation in the country. They called on the international community, especially states with diplomatic leverage such as the United States and the United Kingdom, to press the Saudi authorities to immediately and unconditionally release Salma al-Shehab and quash her conviction, as well as release all others currently detained in the kingdom for the peaceful exercise of their fundamental rights.
Saudi Appeal court has sentenced a young man to 18 years. He was appealing a lesser sentence but the court increased it substantially. Anyone who appeals his sentence in Saudi Arabia now gets a harsher one.
On 24th August, Saudi courts started the trial of under-aged boy, As’ad Al Shakhouri , from the Eastern Province. He was arrested in March in relation to the protests that had taken place several years ago. The boy is part of a persecuted family. His father and two of his uncles have been in jail for years. On 12th March 2022 two of his relatives were executed. Before that, his cousin, Sayed Akbar Al Shakhouri was killed by the regime’s forces while he was taking photos of protests.
Mary Lawlor UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders has tweeted about the illegal detention of a religious cleric by the Saudi regime: “I’m very concerned by news that the health of Human Rights Defender Sheikh Mohammed Hassan al-Habib is deteriorating in prison. Sheikh al-Habib is serving 12 years for denouncing religious hatred. Saudi Arabia should heed `@NazilaGhanea’s call yesterday.” She is Professor of International Human Rights Law, University of Oxford UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief
Bahrain Freedom Movement
31st August 2022