The Bahrain Forum for Human Rights: Information on 5 prisoners of conscience has been cut off since July after a hunger strike for demanding the right to treatment and to practice religious rites 

The Bahrain Forum for Human Rights (BFHR) said that the families of five prisoners of conscience are concerned about the conditions of their relatives as a result of the lack of news about them from Jaw Central Prison. The prisoners are: Sheikh Zuhair Ashour (39 years old), Ali Abdul Hussain Al-Wazeer Ali Ramadan (32), Mr. Muhammad Ahmad Sarhan (45), Sadeq Al-Ghasra, and Muhammad Fakhrawi. There was no news about them after they were transferred to cell 1 in Building 15 as a punitive measure, after they were accused by the prison administration of having incited the detainees in building 14 to start a hunger strike due to demands related to the right to receive treatment and to practice religious rites on August 9, the BFHR added.

In details, six prisoners of conscience were transferred, on August 10, 2020, from Building 14 to Building 15, cell 1, the BFHR explained. Each of them was placed in a cell with three foreigners, namely cells 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 as a punitive measure. They are the previously-mentioned five prisoners in addition to human rights defender Naji Fateel, the BFHR said.

“As for Sheikh Zuhair Ashour, his last communication with his family was via a voice call on July 10, 2020, and his family submitted complaints about the matter of his transfer to Building 15 and the lack of news about him to the Ombudsman and the National Institute for Human Rights, without reaching any real result to date,” the BFHR further said.

The BFHR pointed out that on August 18, 2020, the director of the prison, Hisham Abdul Rahim Al-Zayani, responded to the six prisoners’ request to return to Building 14 and ordered their return. However, during their return, the Affairs Director of Building 14, officer Al-Emadi, refused to admit them except for human rights defender Naji Fateel, so five of them were returned, on the same day, to Building 15, and each of them was placed again in one cell, like the first time, with three foreign detainees, the BFHR added.

The families of the five prisoners said that communication with them is now completely cut off and their news is almost cut off, because the prisoners refuse to make calls in protest against arbitrarily transferring them to Building 15, isolating them from each other, placing them in cells with foreign prisoners – to prevent them from meeting with Bahraini prisoners – and preventing them from meeting with each other. The detainees of each cell are allowed to go out to the prison yard alone without the other detainees, for one hour a day, then they return to their cell, after that, the detainees of another cell go out, as a form of punishment and isolation. They are also deprived of practicing Ashura religious rites, and they insist on their demand that they be returned to Building 14.

The BFHR pointed out that the last communication of Mr. Muhammad Sarhan (45 years old) with his family was via a voice call on July 11, 2020. His family contacted the administration of Jaw Central Prison, and the administration promised them to follow the issue, but it did not respond to their demands to return him to Building 14, the BFHR added.

“In addition to the six cases, prisoner of conscience, Hassan Attia, was also punished with solitary confinement and ill-treatment due to the charge of assaulting a security man 7 days ago, after Attia objected to the insults directed at one of his fellow sick prisoners by a security guard,” Ghina Al-Rebai, a researcher at the BFHR, said. “The guard refused Hassan Attia’s request to give his own medical appointment to that prisoner who was suffering from severe pain as a result of injury and the lack of medicine,” she added. “Detainee Hassan Attia is still isolated from the rest of the detainees. He is only allowed to go out to the prison yard for 20 minutes a day, while being handcuffed. During the time he spends in his cell, he is not allowed access to worship books. He is being harassed by the security forces with humiliation, knocking on the doors forcefully, and promising of more harassment,” Al-Rebai added.

The BFHR restressed that the deteriorating prison conditions in Bahrain represent the other side of arbitrary detention, since prisoners are placed in correctional institutions that, on one hand, do not meet the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners and provide a fertile environment for torture and ill-treatment to extract confessions, and on the other hand, represent a way for revenge against the masses of the opposition. The BFHR also stressed, "While we condemn the continued violations against prisoners of conscience, we emphasize their right to freedom."

The Bahrain Forum for Human Rights

August 28, 2020