Bahraini youths detained, Saudi PIF implicated in HR abuses
On Sunday 24th November three native youths were arrested. Sadeq Jaffar Sharaf, Ammar Sadeq Al Mulla and Hadi Saeed (from Nuwaidrat town) were summoned by the regime’s torturers and were subsequently detained.
Bahraini citizens have continued their protests against the banning of the Friday prayers at Imam Sadeq Mosque in Duraz. For nine weeks the ban has continued to punish the worshippers for showing support for the people of Palestine and Lebanon. The regime’s reaction was to besiege the mosque, arrest the prayers leader (Imam) Sheikh Ali Al Sadadi and besiege the area to prevent worshippers reaching the mosque.
The persecution of elderly activist, Hajji Sumood has continued. He has been summoned to appear at a police station for questioning about his peaceful protests. His real name is Abdul Majeed Abdulla and has shown great courage to appear at almost every protest in the country. So far he was summoned five times this year.
Persecution of the young political prisoners is escalating. The management of the Dry Dock prison is adopting repressive measures against the under-aged children detainees. Five of them who are awaiting trial at Cell No 10 of Bloc 17 have been subjected to severe punishment. Hadi Younus, Hassan Hamid, Mohammed Shawqi, Abdulla Abbas and Sayed Hussain Jawad were told on Thursday 21st November that they would receive punishment including; Denial of daily outing from their cells, they would not have meals and their phone calls to their families would be stopped.
Since their detention on 28th July two Bahrainis have been subjected to horrific treatment and several extensions of their detention. Mohammed Abdulla Mohammed Ahmed, 21 and Mohammed Jaffar Mohammed Abdulla Mohammed, 17 are being denied the right to continue their university studies.
Several reports have confirmed that former political prisoners in Bahrain are being denied their civil rights after leaving jail such as housing and social allowances. Abdulla Hassan Al Hamad whose detention and ill-treatment were documented by the Bissiouni report in 2011 had already served 12 of his 15 years prison sentence when he was released in 2023. He is now serving the remaining three years within the “alternative sentencing” scheme. In 2000 he had applied for social housing. In 2018 his application was frozen. The housing allowance that was paid to his family was also stopped causing them severe hardship. This is seen as a punishment not for the person but his family as well. The predicaments of the political prisoners thus continue, sowing the seeds for future uprisings against the inhumane dictatorial khalifi regime.
The political prisoners at the notorious Dry Dock prison have issued a statement to express solidarity with those on death row. They re-iterated their support of their struggle to achieve their legal rights. They also expressed support to their daily protests at which they wear their death dress (white shroud) to show their determination to pursue the people’s aims of freedom, rights and dignity. The statement also urged the activists, scholars and writers outside prison to take the case of the death row prisoners seriously.
New directives from the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) have led the media outlets to promote normalisation with Israel and criticise the Palestinian movements. Simultaneously, sympathetic voices to Palestine and Palestinians are criminalised. These directives are applicable to the native Saudis as well as the residents and pilgrims.
Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund (PIF), has facilitated and benefited from human rights abuses, Human Rights Watch said in a report released on 20th November. The 95-page report, “The Man Who Bought the World: Rights Abuses Linked to Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund and Its Chairman, Mohammad bin Salman,” found that Saudi Arabia’s vast fossil fuel-derived state wealth is effectively controlled by one person, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Human Rights Watch found that the crown prince wields this enormous economic power in a largely arbitrary and highly personalized manner rather than for the Saudi people’s benefit and that the PIF is used to whitewash the Saudi government’s abuses. “Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has unchecked control over the country’s nearly trillion dollar Public Investment Fund,” said Joey Shea, Saudi Arabia researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The crown prince has used the Saudi sovereign wealth fund’s economic power to commit serious human rights violations and whitewash the reputational harm from these abuses.”
The Saudi human rights body (Alqst) has documented the first death of a migrant worker on a Neom site, highlighting human rights and environmental concerns. Woman human rights activist and former political prisoner, Lina Alhathloul described Neom as being “built on the blood of Saudis”,
Bahrain Freedom Movement
27th November 2024
