ADHRB Weekly Newsletter #394
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** Bahrain
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** Bahrain Arrests Families of Political Prisoners Over Peaceful Protests
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Family members of several prominent political prisoners have been detained in Bahrain over their participation in peaceful demonstration’s calling for the release of political prisoners, including Mohammed AlDaqqaq and death row inmate Mohammed Ramadhan, amid a crackdown on protests sparked by a severe and ongoing outbreak of coronavirus at Jau Prison, the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (BIRD) and Americans for Democracy and Human Rights in Bahrain (ADHRB) stated today.

Jafar Ramadhan and Ramadhan Isa were summoned for questioning on 6 April after staging a small protest in al-Dair calling for Mohammed Ramadhan’s release. Despite being temporarily released that day, both men were recalled to Samaheej Police Station in the early hours of 9 April. Jafar attended the station and was arrested on suspicion of three separate cases of illegal gathering.

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** Continued Medical Negligence Claims the Life of a Political Prisoner, ADHRB Demands the Immediate Release of All Political Prisoners
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On the morning of April 6, 2021, the family of Bahraini political detainee Abbas Malallah, who had been serving out a 15-year sentence in Jau prison, read the shocking news of his death on the website of the Bahraini Ministry of the Interior. The statement listed a heart attack as the cause of death, and failed to mention the chronic diseases that Malallah had suffered during his 10 years in prison. Despite Malallah’s and his family’s repeated requests for treatment, he received no medical attention during this time.

The truthful circumstances around the death of Abbas Malallah also appear not to have been mentioned in the announcement. According to a cellmate of Abbas, the prison administration failed to treat him promptly, delayed transferring him to the hospital after he became unconscious, and ignored other prisoners’ demands for him to be transferred to a doctor, clinic, or hospital. The severe procrastination surrounding his death raises serious concern about the extent of willful negligence exhibited by the prison authorities. It also sheds light on the possible negligent approach to prisoners who test positive for COVID-19. Given the presence of COVID-19 in prisons, it raises the utmost concern for prisoners who remain in this kind of environment with these kinds of officials.

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** Bahrain Orders Detention of Brothers of Political Prisoner Over Peaceful Protests
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Bahrain’s Public Prosecutor has ordered the detention of three brothers from Karbabad this morning on suspicion of illegal gathering over their participation in a peaceful demonstrations calling for the release of their brother, political prisoner Mohammed Hameed Abdulla Hasan AlDaqqaq, as protests continue across the country over an outbreak of coronavirus at Jau Prison, with two other individuals arrested and dozens more summoned for questioning, Americans for Democracy and Human Rights in Bahrain (ADHRB) and the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (BIRD) and stated today.

A family member informed BIRD that Yunes Hameed Abdulla Hasan AlDaqqaq (46) was summoned to Exhibition Police Station in Sanabis this morning, where he was asked to call his brothers, Yasser Hameed Abdulla Hasan AlDaqqaq (35) and Anwar Hameed Abdulla Hasan AlDaqqaq (44), and request they immediately join him for interrogation.

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** Profile in Persecution
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** Ali Naser Ahmed
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Ali Naser Ahmed, the grandson of the spiritual leader of the Shia community in Bahrain, Sheikh Isa Qasim, was a 22-year-old Industrial Secondary School student when he was arrested without a warrant by Bahraini authorities during a raid on his home. Ali was tortured, forced to sign a confession to crimes he did not commit, and sentenced in a mass trial marred with fair trial violations. He is currently held in Building 16 of Dry Dock Detention Center.

On 16 January 2020, at 2:30 a.m., civilian officers, Commandos forces, and security officers, all masked and armed, stormed the house. They searched Ali’s room for 45 minutes, closing the door of the bedroom so that the family could not see what was happening. Outside, there were Nisan Patrols, Jeeps, civilian cars, and two small buses along with officers filling the neighbourhood. When Ali and the officers emerged from the room, the officers were carrying Ali because he could not walk on his own, and they claimed he was sick. Ali called his family approximately an hour and a half after the arrest, telling them that he is at the investigation building. Following this call, he was forcibly disappeared for 26 days. The family submitted a complaint to the Ombudsman on 19 January regarding Ali’s mistreatment and disappearance, but the Ombudsman found no offense to be committed.

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** ADHRB at the HRC
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** A Summary of ADHRB’s Engagement at HRC46
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In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, the 46th Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) was held virtually between 22 February and 23 March 2021. Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain (ADHRB) welcomed the 46th session as an opportunity to draw attention to the deteriorating human rights condition in Bahrain and the Gulf states, especially amidst the fatal pandemic. During the 46th session, ADHRB submitted four written statements to the Council denouncing humanitarian abuses in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen. ADHRB also delivered seven virtual oral interventions condemning the human rights abuses in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen, and calling on the council to hold their governments accountable for their actions.

Concerned about the humanitarian crisis in Yemen as well as the involvement of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), ADHRB submitted a written statement to the HRC during its 46th session. In the statement, ADHRB expressed its concerns about the “ongoing famine, COVID-19 pandemic, economic crisis, and outbreak of cholera in Yemen”. ADHRB expressed its concern about the violations of international humanitarian law committed by the Saudi-UAE led coalition. ADHRB urged the governments of Saudi Arabia and the UAE to “halt all airstrikes until an international, independent and impartial commission can investigate all the allegations of attacks against civilians” and work to end the conflict through a political settlement. ADHRB also urged the two governments to ensure the provision of clean water, fuel, and other “life-saving imports”. On 16 March, ADHRB delivered a virtual oral intervention under item 4 condemning the Coalition blockade on basic necessities, which caused malnutrition
diseases that led to hundreds of thousands of deaths in Yemen, and calling for a recommendation to the Security Council to transfer these crimes of genocide and crimes against humanity to the International Criminal Court (ICC). On 19 March, ADHRB also delivered another virtual oral intervention under item 9 denouncing the mobility restrictions and discriminatory arbitrary detentions by the coalition.

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** GCC in the Wire
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- Saudi Court Jails Saudi-American Doctor Despite U.S. Pressure (New York Times) ([link removed])

BEIRUT, Lebanon — A Saudi court sentenced a prominent Saudi-American doctor to six years in prison on Tuesday despite pressure from the Trump administration to drop the charges against him and allow him and his family to travel.

- Bahrain is the second country to approve a Chinese vaccine, and other news around the world. (New York Times) ([link removed])

Bahrain said on Sunday that it had approved the use of a Chinese vaccine against the coronavirus, after the United Arab Emirates became the first government to do so on Wednesday ([link removed]) .

- U.S. Senate defeats effort to block Trump-backed drone sale to UAE (Reuters) ([link removed])

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate on Wednesday defeated an effort to block the Trump administration’s plan to sell billions of dollars worth of Reaper drones to the United Arab Emirates.

- UAE sees 'seeds of progress; on Gulf row, says envoy to U.S. (Reuters) ([link removed])

DUBAI (Reuters) - The United Arab Emirates’ ambassador to Washington said there were “seeds of progress” in resolving a long-running Gulf Arab row and a commitment to “tone things down” as the parties work for a solution to end the rift with neighbouring Qatar.

- F1 star Hamilton vows to fight to improve human rights (AP) ([link removed])

World champion Lewis Hamilton vowed not to ignore pleas to improve human rights in Bahrain and other countries where Formula One hosts races, after reading letters from alleged torture survivors and being sent a drawing from the young son of a Bahraini man on death row.

- ‘External source’ causes oil tanker blast off Saudi Arabia (AP) ([link removed])

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — An oil tanker off Saudi Arabia’s port city of Jiddah suffered an explosion early Monday after being hit by “an external source,” a shipping company said, suggesting another vessel has come under attack off the kingdom amid its yearslong war in Yemen.


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Are you a victim of a human rights abuse in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, or other GCC states?

Document your case with the Special Procedures of the United Nations through
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