A petition signed by dozens of deputies in the British House of Commons exposed the reality of the Khalifa regime’s dictatorship in Bahrain and its gross human rights violations.
In the petition, the deputies expressed solidarity and support for the demands of democracy in Bahrain in conjunction with the twelfth anniversary of the start of the February 14, 2011 revolution.
In the petition, the deputies announced their support for the pro-democracy Arab Spring uprising in Bahrain, which protested more than two hundred years of the dictatorship of the ruling Al Khalifa family.
The petition called for an end to the Bahraini authorities’ brutal suppression of the protest movement, political reforms in the country, and a shift towards democracy, social justice, and respect for human rights.
The deputies raised concerns about the continued deterioration of the human rights situation in Bahrain, the continued detention of opposition leaders and human rights defenders, and their exposure to torture and imprisonment because of their role in this uprising.
It referred to the prisoners of conscience in the prisons of the Al-Khalifi regime, Hassan Mushaima, Abdul-Jalil Al-Singace, and Abdul-Hadi Al-Khawaja. It demanded their immediate release and all prisoners of conscience without restriction or condition.
The petition expressed fears that hundreds of political prisoners would be subjected to medical negligence and discrimination, noting that academic prisoner of conscience Al-Singace has been on hunger strike for more than nineteen months to demand the return of his confiscated research.
The petition also affirmed the rejection of the results of the recent legislative elections that took place in 2022, as they are sham elections and are not considered an accurate representation of the Bahraini people.
The deputies condemned Bahrain’s abandonment of a moratorium on the death penalty in 2017 by executing six individuals, five of whom were subjected to torture. They indicated that there are 26 detainees at imminent risk of execution after being tortured, including Mohammed Ramadan and Hussein Mousa.
The MPs demanded that the British authorities stop paying taxpayers money for technical assistance to Bahrain, which has failed to achieve clear improvements in human rights or democracy.
They called on their country’s government for more transparency regarding British funding to Bahrain through the Integrated Activity Fund and the Gulf Strategic Fund and for its support to Bahrain to be conditional on tangible improvements in the human rights situation in the Gulf country.