Prisoners: Bahrain prisoners on starvation strike over jail circumstances
DUBAI: Inmates at a Bahrain jail have launched a starvation strike over harsh jail circumstances, together with 23-hour cell confinement and restrictions on prayer, kin and authorities mentioned Thursday.
A press release from the prisoners, printed by the banned Al-Wefaq opposition group, first reported the starvation strike in Jau jail which holds dissidents detained throughout a 2011 crackdown on Shiite-led protests.
The Britain-based Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (BIRD) mentioned “lots of of political prisoners” are collaborating.
Bahraini authorities have downplayed the incident, saying that “some inmates… returned their meals on August 8” on the jail close to a southeastern village.
The Basic Directorate of Reform and Rehabilitation mentioned “the well being and security of all inmates is a precedence and… all inmates have the identical entry to major and secondary care as all residents in Bahrain”.
However within the assertion printed by Al-Wefaq on Monday, the inmates mentioned they had been saved of their cells for 23 hours a day. They known as for correct medical care, entry to schooling and permission to hope collectively at a jail mosque.
“For a few years, political prisoners have endured degrading remedy and extended confinement in cells alongside the systematic denial of medical remedy,” mentioned BIRD advocacy director Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei.
Audio recordings of prisoners confirming the starvation strike had been posted by activists on social media.
“I’m frightened for my father’s life,” Maryam al-Khawaja, daughter of one of many inmates on strike, informed AFP in an emailed assertion.
“I do not need my father to be launched to us in a coffin,” mentioned Khawaja, whose father has been detained for 12 years and is allegedly being denied medical remedy.
Bahrain is a key regional ally of the US and is dwelling to the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet.
It has imprisoned scores of dissidents since 2011, when authorities backed by a Saudi army power crushed Shiite-led protests demanding a constitutional monarchy and an elected prime minister.
