It has been nearly a month now that a protest movement has affected the central prison of Bahrain. At the Jau penitentiary center, in the south of the country, around fifty detainees refuse to return to their cells and camp in the corridors. They demand an improvement in their conditions of detention, regularly denounced by organizations for the defense of human rights.
They had gone out for their daily walk on March 8. Since then, around fifty detainees from Bahrain’s central prison have refused to return to their cells and have occupied the corridor of their building. Sayed Ahmed Al Wadaei, Advocacy Manager of the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy, testifies:
” They have been leading a protest sit-in since March 8. They demand an end to the humiliating treatment by the prison guards, to be able to leave their cells longer because they are only allowed to spend one hour a day outside their cells, and they demand access to real medical care. »
The floor of this prison accommodates a hundred detainees, imprisoned mainly for political reasons. In response, the prison administration banned other inmates from leaving their cells and banned all contact with the outside.
” There are more than 50 prisoners who have been locked up in their cells for 28 days. They no longer have the right to make phone calls to their loved ones. So they are cut off from the world. And the only way to hear from them is through the inmates on the floor above them. Sayed Ahmed Al Wadaei continues.
” Slow death »
The families of the detainees seized the mediator of the Ministry of the Interior on Tuesday, April 4. Their request has been registered but has not yet received a response. According to a British study, Bahrain is the country in the Middle East with the most detainees per capita. And for Sayed Ahmed Al Wadaei, the fight of these prisoners is revealing of the conditions of detention in the country:
” The situation in prisons in general is really problematic. It is very worrying that many elderly prisoners do not have access to proper medical care. The prisoners call it ”death by a slow fire”. By refusing treatment, they kill little by little. »
On Tuesday, the UN Human Rights Commissioner expressed concern about the deteriorating state of health of a Bahraini human rights defender, Abdulhadi Al Khawaja. He was sentenced to life in prison for ” have exercised their rights to freedom of assembly and expression according to the High Commissioner, who called for his release.
#Bahrain: We’re deeply concerned at reports of worsening health of detained rights defender Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja, serving life imprisonment for exercising rights to freedom of assembly & expression. We call on the Govt to provide urgent medical care & immediately release him.
— UN Human Rights (@UNHumanRights) April 3, 2023