BIOGRAPHY
Date of Arrest: 22 March 2011
Prison Sentence: 15 years
Torture: Sleep depravation, severe battery, electrocution, hanging, sexual harassment
Health: Needs specialist health care. Has severe mobility issues and is suffering health complications as a result of torture.
Mohammed Hassan Jawad Parweez is a well-known, independent human rights activist, who has campaigned specifically for human rights on behalf of detainees and prisoners. Jawad was arrested several times during the 1980s and 1990s due to his work as a human rights defender and once again in 2007, during which he was subjected to torture that included being suspended by his hands for prolonged periods. After his arrest in 2007, Jawad remained unemployed, as the government blacklisted his name and informed all public and private institutions to not provide him with a job.
On 15 December 2010, armed forces raided his home and forcefully took him without justification or an arrest warrant. The day before his arrest, Jawad had taken part in a peaceful protest in Manama where he was seen holding a banner with pictures of detained human rights defenders and calling for their release. His daughter, Ramla Jawad, who was 32 years-old at the time, was also arrested and severely tortured.
Jawad was arrested again on 22 March 2011, at a checkpoint near Naim police station after he had attempted to receive his car. At the checkpoint, he was reportedly beaten and abused. Speaking of his treatment while in detention, Jawad stated: “After my arrest on 22 March I stayed for 15 days in Al Qal’ah prison with other detainees which I could not recognize. I was hung from the hands and beaten with hoses as well as electrocuted on my legs with marks still showing on my body. I was also sexually harassed and they took off my clothes and tried to insert a stick into my anus but I fiercely resisted which resulted in me being beaten severely.”
While in prison, Jawad has continued to be subjected to physical and psychological torture and his health condition has deteriorated significantly. Jawad reported that while at Manama Fort prison clinic on 9 April 2012, he was treated by the King’s son who flogged, beat, and kicked him along with pulling his hair and beard. Speaking about his experience, Jawad stated that “the torture continued for almost half a day until dawn.” After vomiting blood and losing consciousness on 30 August 2012, he was allowed to visit the hospital for three days. Jawad was tried in a special military court in what is widely regarded as an unjust trial, and was sentenced to 15 years in prison on charges of “conspiring to topple the regime forcibly and collaborating with a terrorist organization working for a foreign country.”
In 2013, Jawad’s son, Hussain Jawad, also a human rights activist and Chairman of the European-Bahraini Organization for Human Rights, was arrested when filing a complaint against a smear campaign published by one of the government newspapers. Hussain Jawad was charged with “inciting hatred against the regime” after giving a speech in Manama in which he criticised the Bahraini authorities and called for the Bahraini people to demand their rights peacefully and without fear.
Mohammad Jawad’s daughter stated to EBOHR: “My father is an old man who should be amongst his children and his grandchildren in his home, but he is prison only because he expressed rightfully his opinions and demanded political and economic changes for all citizens. His work was in the area of defending basic human rights such as justice, freedom, and democracy. We ask that he is released immediately and hold responsible the Bahraini government for any harm that is caused to him.”
Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry
(Examined by forensic team)
Date of statement: 3 August 2011
Two weeks after his arrival at Al Qurain, he was taken to the Military Prosecution where his statement was taken. He was subsequently taken to court on various occasions. Towards his third month of detention, he was hooded and taken to a military court where he was given a sentence of 15 years imprisonment. At the trial, the detainee and other detainees in his wing began to chant, “Peaceful, peaceful, the people want freedom”. As a result, they were taken out of the courtroom and beaten until one of them fell to the floor. There was also an attempt at sexual assault, which the detainee fiercely resisted.
Download Mohammed’s card here.