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.

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.

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.

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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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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