The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) adopted an opinion on the case of Dr Abduljalil AlSingace during its ninety-sixth session on 27 March–5 April 2023, the decision was published this week as he reaches 700 days of hunger strike.
Dr. Abduljalil Al-Singace, an academic, award-winning activist and blogger who is serving a life sentence in Bahrain solely for exercising his human rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly. He suffers from polio syndrome and requires crutches to walk. He continues to be denied adequate medical care and is prevented from leaving his room in what his family describe as effective solitary confinement.
Last year, he received the PEN international writer of courage award last year and has already spent over 12 years in arbitrary detention despite repeated calls for his release by several different UN mandates.
The Working Group ruled that the ongoing detention of Bahraini academic and former blogger Dr Abduljalil AlSingace is arbitrary in relation to four of the five available categories, representing the highest level of classification an individual not seeking asylum in a foreign country can receive.
The health status of Dr AlSingace is currently very fragile, as of today, 8th June 2023, he has now spent 700 days on hunger strike without solid food where he is “receiving intravenous solutions, according to need, of milk, water, tea and proteins provided by a nutritional formula”, as the Bahraini government has stated in their response to the Working Group.
The key points of the opinion are as follows:
The ruling supports Dr AlSingace’s repeated allegations of torture at the hands of the Bahraini government stating “The Working Group thus considers that the source has presented a credible prima facie case that Mr. Al-Singace suffered torture and ill-treatment.” (Para 103).
The ruling states that the circumstances of Dr AlSingace’s arrest “whereby he was threatened at gunpoint, his family was insulted and he was neither presented with a warrant nor informed of the reason for his arrest, his detention can be considered unlawful.” (Para 35).
The opinion further finds that following his arrest, Dr AlSingace was “subjected to enforced disappearance” (Para 80) and “Holding Dr AlSingace at a secret undisclosed location before his trial unable to challenge the lawfulness of his detention before a court” (Para 81) in clear violation of his rights under international law.
The Working Group repeated calls for Dr AlSingace to be released “The Working Group considers that, taking into account all the circumstances of the case, the appropriate remedy would be to release Mr. Al-Singace and accord him an enforceable right to compensation and other reparations, in accordance with international law.” (Para 116).
Dr AlSingace’s family commented: “Our father has already suffered twelve years of arbitrary imprisonment and continues to suffer from the consequences of the torture he endured in 2011 in the weeks following his arrest. Now, as he almost completes two years of his hunger strike, his health condition is extremely worrying and there seems to be no progress on his demand to return his work to us. We hope that this decision by the UN will compel the Bahraini government to change track to return his manuscripts to end his suffering and free him.”
Husain Abdulla, Executive Director, ADHRB commented: “The Working Group reiterates what everyone already knows: Dr. al-Singace has been imprisoned for over a decade on a sham conviction resulting from sham charges and a sham trial. If the Bahraini government has any respect for the international community at all – or even if it just has any shred of common decency – it will release Dr. al-Singace immediately.”
Sayed Ahmed AlWadaei, Director of Advocacy at the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (BIRD): “This decision demonstrates that there is an increasing international consensus on Dr AlSingace’s case that the UK Government must now accept instead of continuing to fund the bodies responsible for his imprisonment of over 12 years. The U.K. government must demand their allies in Bahrain end his suffering and release him immediately.”
consensus on Dr AlSingace’s case shows that the UK Government’s decision to continue funding the bodies responsible to be
The full opinion can be found here
