Serious HR rights crisis in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia as the year ends

This week, a Bahraini court upheld the politically-motivated prison sentences against four young prisoners from the  town of Duraz. Ali Ahmed, had been given three years jail sentence for opposing the regime. The other three: Yousuf Ali Zayed, Sajjad Moosa Al Mutaghawi and Qassim Mohammad Al Banna had one year jail sentence over their heads for joining peaceful protests.

On his return to Bahraini last week, Hussain Jawad Parweez was arrested and taken to serve a five year sentence imposed on him by the khalifi regime. He was a political exile in France and was given assurances that he would not be detained if he returned to the country. He was summoned by the court which confirmed an earlier sentence on him. He was immediately taken from the court to the torture dungeons.

Political prisoner Ahmed Shakir Al Shawk has been held in solitary confinement for more than three weeks. There are 13 others with him who are also subjected to enforced political disappearance and isolation. Bahraini political prisoner, Isa Ahmad Ali has confirmed that he is suffering from lack of medical care. He said it is clear that the officials of the notorious Jau Prison are adopting a policy of slow death towards the political detainees.

A former Bahraini parliamentarian and a vocal critic of the clampdown on regime critics had his eight-year prison sentence upheld by the khalifi appeals court. Osama Al Tamimi was falsely accused of arson and fraud after his position on the regime’s brutality was laid bare. He suffers kidney failure and partial paralysis due to a stroke.  He also has blood cancer. He is not receiving adequate treatment for these ailments and has been in and out of coma for more than one year.

On 28^th December, Sheikh Ali Salman, the Secretary General of Al Wefaq Society completed eight years behind bars. He led the society inside the regime’s parliament when it won 18 out of 40 of the “elected” members. He realized that the regime’s “parliamentary” experiment was hollow and deceptive. When Al Wefaq decided to boycott the regime’s ploys Sheikh Ali Salman was arrested. He stands defiant behind bars and has accepted nothing less than a serious political change.

People have been disgusted when it was announced last week that the dictator and his sons had travelled to Morocco for hunting and bird-catching. The cost of the trip is taken from the public purse at a time when the country has increased its borrowing. According to the regime’s own figures, the loans have now reached BD 17 billion ($45 billion). This is in excess of 130 percent of GDP.

Former British army officer Bob Stewart who is now a Conservative MP said he had been “kind of a torturer” when he was posted to Northern Ireland during The Troubles. “We don’t like torture,” he told Emma Barnett on BBC 5 Live. “No one likes torture. Not even Trump likes torture. But the fact of the matter is . . . sometimes it might work, and sometimes it might be justified. Asked about the types of torture techniques that might be suitable in those situations, he replied: “Sleep deprivation. Lack of food. Perhaps, as I’ve done, showing people pictures of their friends that have been blown up. That sort of thing.” He told the programme: “Technically as you look at it today, I was a kind of a torturer. Of course it was acceptable then. It’s now unacceptable and now it’s defined as torture.”

Last week Saudi academic Dr Khaled Al-Ajimi was given 23 year prison sentence. He was detained in November 2021. Saudi activists have called for the release of activist Abdullah al-Duraibi who was arrested in May 2022, with no news about him since. It’ has been 60 days since jailed Saudi activist Mohammad al-Qahtani was forcibly disappeared. It is one month since he was supposed to be released. He was detained for 3,575 days and torn from his family. Activists, including his wife, Maha have been asking: Where is Qahtani? The Director of Education Department at Khamis Mshait city in South Western Arabia has been arrested. Professor Safar Ben Saeed Ben Daraam was detained after he had expressed an opinion on Twitter.

The UK Government has been warned that Saudi Arabia plans to go ahead with several executions over Christmas in order to steer clear of a diplomatic ‘blowback’. In a letter to the Foreign Secretary James Cleverly British MPs said the Kingdom would use Christmas as ‘cover for committing atrocities’. This was the case in 2016 when almost 50 people, including children, were executed around late December. ‘We are gravely concerned that Saudi Arabia may carry out a mass execution over the holiday period, when the world’s eyes are elsewhere and Saudi authorities feel they will face less diplomatic blowback,’ stated the letter to Mr Cleverly.

On 21^st December MENA Rights group and 20 other NGOs urged the UAE government not to deport political commentator Sherif Osman to Egypt. An outspoken critic of the Egyptian government, Osman would be at high risk of being subjected to torture.

Bahrain Freedom Movement

28^th December 2022