News / Persian Gulf

Hunger-striking Bahraini prisoners denied medical treatment: Activists

Saturday, 19 October 2019 5:46 PM [ Last Update: Saturday, 19 October 2019 5:57 PM ]

This file picture shows a view of a cell at the notorious Jaw Prison, south of Manama, Bahrain.

Social media activists say hunger-striking inmates at Bahrain’s notorious Jaw Prison are being denied medical treatment and their overall health condition is getting worse, as the ruling Al Khalifah regime presses ahead with its heavy-handed clampdown on political dissidents in the Persian Gulf kingdom.

The activists expressed serious concern over the wellbeing of the detainees as their action entered the tenth day on Saturday, the Arabic-language Lualua television network reported.

The campaigners said the prisoners are being told to end their strike as a condition for any kind of access to health care services.

The London-based Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy reported earlier this week that at least 26 Bahraini prisoners are currently on hunger strike. Among them are 13 death row inmates.

They are demanding better conditions, including at least two one-hour visits per month, and unobstructed family visits.

The [Persian] Gulf Institute for Democracy and Human Rights said in a report on October 15 that the Bahraini regime’s courts handed down 271 life sentences to dissidents between January 2018 and May 2019.

PressTV-‘271 Bahraini dissidents given life terms since Jan. 2018’

An independent human rights group says Bahraini courts have sentenced 271 anti-regime dissidents to life imprisonment since January 2018.

The report added that a total of 130 life sentences were issued by Bahraini courts between January and December last year – at an average of 10.8 cases per month. May 2018 set a record high then, when 43 life sentences were issued in just one month.

It further noted that the frequency of life sentences increased significantly in 2019, and a total of 141 Bahraini activists were sentenced to life in prison between January and May at a rate of 28.2 cases per month. The process reached its peak in April, when 63 Bahrainis were sentenced to life imprisonment. All those people sentenced to life in 2019 were revoked of their Bahraini citizenship as well.

PressTV-Bahrain urged to stop trying civilians in military courts

A rights group urges Manama to put an end to the trial of civilian defendants before military courts.

Thousands of anti-regime protesters have held demonstrations in Bahrain on an almost daily basis ever since a popular uprising began in the country in mid-February 2011.

They are demanding that the Al Khalifah regime relinquish power and allow a just system representing all Bahrainis to be established. Manama has gone to great lengths to clamp down on any sign of dissent. On March 14, 2011, troops from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were deployed to assist Bahrain in its crackdown.

On March 5, 2017, Bahrain’s parliament approved the trial of civilians at military tribunals in a measure blasted by human rights campaigners as being tantamount to imposition of an undeclared martial law countrywide.

Bahraini King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifah ratified the constitutional amendment on April 3, 2017.

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