The administration of Al-Qurain Prison of the Bahraini authorities has continued to deny political detainees access to visual contact for more than a year.
Detainees are prohibited from family visits and meetings with their detained relatives in prisons, under the pretext of the Coronavirus crisis. The prison administrations invoke the application of COVID-19 restrictions, stifling the tragedy for prisoners and their families.
In addition, the administration is taking advantage of the epidemic to further harass the prisoners in different ways. Al Qurain Prison is one of 21 prisons in Bahrain and is run by the Bahrain Defense Force, (the Kingdom’s regular armed forces).
The Peace Organization for Democracy and Human Rights has called on the concerned authorities to allow the detainees to make visual contact with their relatives. It mentioned in particular detainees: Syed Alawi Syed Hussain Al Alawi, Muhammad Abd Al-Hassan Al-Mutagwi, Muhammad Abdul-Hussein Al-Shehabi, Fadel Abbas.
The Bahraini Ministry of Interior does not hesitate to devise new brutal torture methods against prisoners of conscience, activists or human rights defenders. The kingdom has suddenly turned into a police state, especially after the popular protests in 2011.
Local and international human rights organizations confirm that Bahraini prisons are filled with more than 4,000 detainees. Most of whom are imprisoned against the background of opinion or the demand for political reform.
Activists and human rights activists wonder about the reality of rights in Bahraini prisons, which are flagrantly violated without control or oversight.
According to a study by the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, 74 Bahraini political detainees have died in prisons since 2011. Also, there are 52 detainees suffering from various diseases.13 of them suffer from difficult and serious diseases such as cancer, and 17 others suffer from chronic diseases such as diabetes.
This is due to deliberate ill-treatment by the authorities, meant to extract confessions from prisoners. The inhuman treatment of detainees further includes denying them health care and medical negligence. Such medical negligence is especially aimed at detainees who suffer from severe diseases that require regular treatment.
The authorities also refrain from carrying out surgical operations for detainees that need it. Additionally, they do not provide respirators for detainees suffering from asthma and chest infections.
