Bahraini activists organized a stand in front of their country’s embassy in the British capital, London, during which they demanded the release of prisoners of conscience.
Activists raised pictures of political detainees, especially icons among them. This is on the occasion of 10 years since the authorities of Hamad bin Isa arrested them for political motives. The protesters demanded effective European pressure on the Khilafite regime to release the detainees.
So far, there are over 4 thousand detainees in Bahraini prisons.
Last week, the European Parliament voted during a session held under the second item on a draft resolution criticizing the “dire situation” of human rights in Bahrain.
The draft resolution called on the government of Bahrain to immediately and unconditionally release all human rights defenders and prisoners of conscience, including Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja, Dr. Abdul-Jalil Al-Singace, Naji Fateel, Abdul-Wahab Hussein, Ali Hajji, Sheikh Ali Salman and Hassan Mushaima.
The resolution condemned the continued use of torture and other cruel and degrading treatment or punishment against detainees, including peaceful protesters and civilians.
It further stressed the need for thorough and credible investigations into all torture allegations, with a view to holding those responsible accountable.
It is noteworthy that the aforementioned stand came one day after a similar stand in front of the Saudi Embassy in London.
The earlier came on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the invasion of Bahrain by the Saudi and Emirati Peninsula Shield forces. The symbolic stand was attended by Bahraini activists exiled abroad.
They raised banners and chanted slogans denouncing the crimes of the Peninsula Shield Forces in Bahrain.
The stand was limited to a few numbers of participants due to the wide spread of the Corona pandemic and the embargo measures imposed in Britain.
Activists emphasized that this sit-in is to denounce the crimes of the Saudi and Emirati forces in Bahrain. The sit-in demanded Saudi Arabia withdraw its forces from Bahrain as soon as possible and let the people of Bahrain decide their own fate.
Meanwhile, a joint human rights report sheds light on the methods of torture used in Bahrain’s prisons. A few days later, a documentary book was published that monitored similar crimes committed against prisoners of opinion and expression in the Kingdom.
The report entitled “Patterns of torture in Bahrain: perpetrators must face justice was prepared by Americans for Democracy and Human Rights in Bahrain drafted this report in cooperation with the Gulf Center for Human Rights, the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, the International Federation for Human Rights and the World Organization Against Torture.
The report relies on live statements of torture survivors. It is a comprehensive study on the specific ways and means by which torture is perpetrated in Bahrain.It focuses particularly on the period since the popular movement in 2011 and the violent crackdown that followed.
The organizations stress that the report does not only seek to describe how torture is committed in Bahrain. Rather, it goes a step further by examining the concrete steps that need to be taken at the local and international levels, to end the culture of impunity that facilitates the use of torture and prevents accountability.