Hunger Striker Exposes Systematic Denial of Religious Freedom in Bahrain’s Prison
9 October 2019 – Political Prisoner Ali AlHajee wrote a letter exposing the dire conditions of Bahrain’s Jau prison and the numerous violations prisoners have
The freedom of expression, assembly and association continues to be severely restricted in Bahrain, where human rights defenders, opposition activists and religious leaders face arrest and harassment for speaking out against the government. Both the 2002 Press Law and the 2006 Anti-Terrorism Law, exploiting the law’s broad definition of terrorism, are employed to target the media.
In the country’s most famous freedom of expression case, Nabeel Rajab is charged with criticising the government on social media, for publishing a letter in the New York Times, as well as for criticising the government in a televised interview.
Other high-profile cases of free expression and association include opposition acitivst Ebrahim Sharif, who is charged with “incitement to hatred and contempt of the regime”, Sheikh Ali Salman, who is charged for calling for change of the regime, and Zainab al-Khawaja, who is charged for tearing up a picture of the king.
After the government has partially suspended al-Wasat newspaper, Bahrain’s only independent newspaper, a free media in Bahrain is de facto non existent. Prior government harassment against al-Wasat encompassed intimidation and the prosecution of key staff, one of whom, Karim Kakhrawi, died under torture.
9 October 2019 – Political Prisoner Ali AlHajee wrote a letter exposing the dire conditions of Bahrain’s Jau prison and the numerous violations prisoners have
9 October 2019 – Liberal Democrat Peer, Lord Scriven has accused Formula One of complicity in the “prolonged and arbitrary detention” of Bahraini activist Najah
8 October 2019 – Bahrain’s authorities are failing to provide adequate medical care to high-profile prisoners, Human Rights Watch and the Bahrain Institution for Rights and Democracy
24 September 2019 – The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) has found the detention of recently-released Bahraini activist Najah Yusuf, who was
17 September 2019 – Bahrain’s High Appeals Court refused to grant a non-custodial sentence to the country’s most prominent human rights defender, Nabeel Rajab, who
16 September 2019 – Political Prisoner Ali Al-Hajee issued a statement last week from Jau Prison exposing the inhumane conditions that he has faced for
12 September 2019 – Yesterday, during the 42nd session of the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council (HRC) in Geneva, the Bahrain Institute for Rights
11 September 2019 – Women political prisoners in Bahrain have been subjected to abuse at every stage of the criminal procedure, including illegal arrests, physical,
13 August 2019 – Yesterday, fourteen NGOs including BIRD, Amnesty International and Reporters Without Borders (RSF) delivered a joint-letter to Amal Clooney urging her to speak
07 August 2019 – New evidence obtained by BIRD has emerged implicating Bahraini Embassy staff in the assault of a protester who had scaled the