More political arrests in Bahrain, more beheadings in Saudi Arabia
The spate of arrests and detentions by the khalifi regime in Bahrain has continued unabated. Mohammed ibn Sheikh Hassan Ali Radhi from Al Shakhoura town was arrested on 10th June. A day earlier Yousuf Ghalib from Karzakkan was detained after several houses were raided. From Samaheej town Hassan Abd Ali was detained and remanded in custody for one week. On 8th June Jaafar Muhammad, from the Town of Daih, was taken to the Criminal Investigation Department where interrogators routinely use torture. Nothing has been heard of them
Daily protests have continued in several areas of Bahrain over the past week. From Sanabis to Daih, Demstan, Abu Saiba and Shakhoura the people continued their strife. The protesters called for the release of political prisoners, fundamental political transformation and the end of normalisation with the occupiers of Palestine.
A UN Watchdog has urged Bahrain to release leading academic Dr Abduljalil AlSingace who remains on hunger strike without solid food after 700 days. In a report released on 25 May by a working group from the UN Human Rights Council, experts said Singace had presented a “credible” case of torture at the hands of the Bahraini government. The report also said that Singace was subject to enforced disappearance. He and his family were threatened at gunpoint and were not presented with a warrant or informed of the reason for his arrest. “Taking into account all the circumstances of the case, the appropriate remedy would be to release Mr. Al-Singace and accord him an enforceable right to compensation and other reparations, in accordance with international law” the report said. Husain Abdulla, the executive director of Americans for Democracy and Human Rights in Bahrain (ADHRB), said: “If the Bahraini government has any respect for the international community at all – or even if it just has any shred of common decency – it will release Dr al-Singace immediately,”
In a statement on Sunday 11th June, the Saudi Interior Ministry said that three men were executed. It claimed that the three men had killed an officer in the capital Riyadh and that they were involved in financing terrorism. The victims were: Abdul Malik bin Fahad bin Abdul RAhmman Al Ba’adi, Mohmmed bin Khalid bin Saud AlUsaimi and Mohammed bin Abdul Rahman bin Twairish AlTwairish. Last year, the Saudi regime put to death 147 people, 81 of them on a single day on false charges. The mass execution sparked an international outcry but has not been stopped. Two Bahrainis, Sadeq Thamer and Jaffar Sultan were beheaded on 29th May for their role in opposing the khalifi dictators of Bahrain. Saudi authorities have now executed 52 individuals this year alone. This makes a mockery of their promises to limit the use of the death penalty. On 2nd June Human Rights Watch said it had documented longstanding violations of due process and fair trial rights in Saudi Arabia’s criminal justice system, making it unlikely that Sultan and Thamer received a fair trial leading up to their execution.
On 7th June it was confirmed the Saudi young preacher Wahib bin Saleh Al-Sheikh had been detained. He has disappeared from all social media platforms since late February. Saudi dissident Colonel Rabih Al-Enezi received a phone call in which he was invited to the Saudi embassy in London to discuss an offer of $5m in exchange for his silence. Al-Enezi did not go, fearing the same fate as Khashoggi.
Human rights activists have raised the case of the disappearance for more than one year of a Yemeni human rights activist and her son in Saudi Arabia. On 17th April 2022, Samira Abdullah Hammoud Al-Houri and her son, Ahmed Mahmoud Ahmed Al-Halili, both Yemeni nationals, disappeared from their residence (located at Apt 113, Building No 1, 3602 Al-Qashashiya Street, Al-Nada neighborhood, Riyadh.) After their sudden disappearance and the subsequent unavailability of their cell phones, concerned relatives promptly reported the matter to the local police station in the area. The police station, upon discovering that the apartment was rented by a Saudi government agency, namely the Special Committee of Saudi Intelligence, decided against entering the premises.
In an interview with the ABC News channel today, Sarah Leah Whitson who is the Executive Director of DAWN. and former director of Human Rights Watch’s Middle East and North Africa said: “To have over 500 former senior American officials now on the payroll of Saudi Arabia and the UAE, compromises the very integrity of our democracy and the decision-making that our government officials, military and civilian, are elected to carry out”. She was referring to the Public Investment Fund (PIF) which is a global and domestic investor. PIF is a key driver of Saudi Vision 2030 led by Mohammed bin Salman.
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) sentenced Khalaf Abdul Rahman al-Romaithi to 15 years in prison on terrorism charges following a grossly unfair trial known as the “UAE94” Al-Romaithi was recently extradited from Jordan to the UAE.
Bahrain Freedom Movement
14th June 2023