Covid-19 spread in Bahraini prisons, execution of Saudi boy condemned
Grave concerns for the life of senior political leader, Hassan Mushaima are rising. For more than two weeks he has been in isolation without access to appropriate medical treatment. Alarm was raised two days ago when the pain in his feet and leg intensified and spread to the thighs. He is now unable to move. He also fees dizzy most of the time. Despite calls from international bodies for his release, the regime has refused to let him free or provide him with adequate necessary medical care.
Hassan Al Mawali, a photographer has been suffering from Covid-19 while serving his long prison sentence behind bars. His family pleads for his immediate and unconditional release. Another political prisoner, Hussain Aman, is fighting for his life as he struggles for breath after catching Covid-19. He needs a ventilator and proper treatment after his condition had deteriorated in recent days. The mother of Ali Hassan Ashoor is pleading to spend her last days with her son who was arrested when he was a young boy.
The wife of martyr Hussain Barakat who died in jail last week after catching Covid-19 has spoken of her broken heart after his demise: They have deprived me of the best days. They took everything and left me with nothing except grief and the pain of eternal separation from my husband. She said when she spoke to him few days before his death he had been extremely weak, unable to breathe or communicate. Then he was transferred to hospital where he died on 8th June.
Two days ago seven native Bahrainis were remanded in custody for one week for taking part in a symbolic procession for a martyr who was left by the khalifis to die in their jails. Among them is Jaffar Ramadan, brother of death row victim, Mohammed Ramadan. Senior cleric, Sayed Majid Al Mash’al was also summoned by the regime’s torture apparatus and interrogated about is participation in the symbolic funeral of the martyr.
It has been ten days since the detainee Ahmed Mirza was cut off from contact, and there are ears that he will be attacked again by the security forces. Victims of the 17th April attack at Jua prison are fearful of severe retributions if they revealed what had happened to them.
In a snub to the world, the House of Saud executed a young innocent man for taking part in anti-regime protests several years ago. Mustafa Hashem al-Darwish,26, was murdered in cold blood without giving his family advance notice, They found out that Mustafa had been executed by reading the news online. Mustafa was arrested in May 2015 and charged with offences related to his participation in protests, many of which occurred when he was 17 years old. He was placed in solitary confinement and tortured so badly that he lost consciousness several times. To make the torture stop, he confessed to the charges against him. At his trial, Mustafa told the court that he had been tortured and recanted his confession. The court was also aware that Mustafa was a child at the time of many of the alleged offences. Yet it issued the death sentence against him. Despite pleas from human rights bodies including Reprieve, the Saudis went ahead with their heinous crime.
On 12th June Zuhair Ali Sharida, a political prisoner, died in Saudi jail after catching Covid-19. He was detained in 2017 for his writings and died at al-Ha’ir prison near Riyadh after contracting COVID-19 amid an outbreak in prison earlier this year. He was held in the same ward where Covid-19 patients are held. Other prisoners of conscience including human rights defender Mohammed al-Qahtani also became infected. Following a decline in Zaheer Ali’s health he was transferred to hospital, where he stayed for over a month until his death. His family were not given any news about his illness, and had been denied any visits or communication with him since February. They received his body the day after his death. Earlier, in March 2021, Zuhair Ali and more than 30 other prisoners of conscience in al-Ha’ir prison had staged a hunger strike in protest against harassment.
A lawsuit in the US against Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has been launched. Initially it related to a Caribbean oil refinery, but unexpectedly highlighted something else, the disappearance of his main rival. Former crown prince Mohammed bin Nayef (MBN), who had been unseated as heir to the throne by his cousin Prince Mohammed in 2017, has not been seen in public since his detention in March last year. MBN, long seen as the CIA’s most trusted Saudi ally, served as the kingdom’s interior minister from 2012 before becoming crown prince three years later. The lawsuit pointed to government efforts to keep a tight lid on his whereabouts, with documents showing the detained royal was represented by a US law firm that works for his rival. The man behind the lawsuit, Saudi businessman Nader Turki Aldossari, is barred from leaving the kingdom along with his family members, according to letters from his lawyer to President Joe Biden and other US officials.
Bahrain Freedom Movement
16th June 2021 (info@vob.org, www.vob.org