Yusuf Al-Jamri (Claimant)
Yusuf Al-Jamri uses his social media as a platform to raise awareness about human rights and political status in Bahrain. He has gained a following and prominence as a credible source of information. Yusuf currently has over 53.7K followers on Twitter.
At the age of 16, Yusuf was detained and subject to torture at the hands of the Bahraini authorities. After the Arab Spring in 2011, Yusuf became politically active and participated in pro-democracy protests in the country.
In August 2017, Yusuf was summoned, detained and tortured three times by the Bahraini National Security Agency headed at the time by Sheikh Talal Al-Khalifa. He was blindfolded, insulted, beaten up, tortured, sexually assaulted and threatened with rape. Yusuf arrived in the UK in October 2017 to claim asylum. In March 2018, he was granted political asylum by the UK Home Office. Since arriving in the UK in 2017, he has never travelled abroad.
Yusuf’s iPhone was infiltrated in August 2019, when he was in England. Around that time, he had been tweeting about an incident which occurred on 26 July 2019, in which police had to forcibly gain entry to the Embassy of Bahrain in London in order to save a protestor, Moosa Mohammed (another past victim of spyware targeting by Bahrain), who had climbed on to the roof and was allegedly assaulted by embassy staff. The protest was to try to prevent two high-profile executions due to take place in Bahrain, against which there was widespread outcry from international human rights organisations, along with dissidents and activists, including Yusuf. Yusuf was streaming coverage of the protest on his Twitter account, some of which had over 160,000 viewers. Between 26 and 28 July 2019, Yusuf’s Twitter account had over 2 million viewers of his coverage of the events surrounding these executions. Just over one week later, his iPhone was infected by Pegasus spyware.
Yusuf Al-Jamri commented: “Since I was a child, I was subjected to psychological and physical torture at the hands of Bahraini officials. After my last torture experience in 2017, where I had my family members threatened with rape, I knew I could no longer stay in the country and so I left to seek asylum in the UK.
I can’t express the pain I felt when I discovered that the Bahraini government had hacked my mobile phone. I couldn’t bear the guilt of knowing that the people I had contacted could have been placed in harm’s way due to the regime’s surveillance of my iPhone. I hold King Hamad of Bahrain responsible for this malicious act and for the torture I was put through by his agents. The Bahraini regime would not be able to commit this crime and violate my privacy without the tools provided to them by the NSO Group. I am determined to hold them both accountable so that I can protect myself and prevent others from suffering the same fate.”
“I lived my last few weeks in Bahrain in 2017 under terror. The National Security Agency was headed by a member of the ruling family, Talal AlKhalifa, and his agents made it clear to me that no one could stop them and that they could destroy my life and those who are close to me. I was living in fear that they might take me for more brutal interrogation and torture at any moment. My life in Bahrain was in real danger, I took the earliest opportunity to leave the country with my family through King Fahd Causeway, then to Kuwait and from there to the UK where I claimed asylum.
It was not a light decision to take, I was a civil servant in Bahrain and I was surrounded by a loving family; all of this was gone and I had to start a new life in the UK.
The UK authorities granted me asylum and this gave me a real sense of safety. I thought the Bahraini authorities would not harm me further, until they hacked my iPhone.”
Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei, Director of Advocacy at the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (BIRD), commented: “Yusuf has undertaken a heroic action by taking on both the Bahraini government and NSO Group and starting the process of launching a lawsuit against them, despite the grave risk of reprisals for himself and those close to him. It is the right decision to take. While there is a precedent set by UK courts which gives individuals the right to sue states for hacking their devices, the case against NSO Group is yet to be tested.”
Monika Sobiecki, Partner of Bindmans LLP, commented: “We all have the right to feel safe in our homes and in our adopted countries.
Yusuf’s case is important because it seeks to uncover how the long arm of authoritarian governments, such as in the Kingdom of Bahrain, operate to continue the abuse of activists beyond their borders using new technologies.
The complacency of world governments in failing to reign in or even regulate intrusive surveillance spyware, in the face of the evidence emerging from Pegasus spyware litigation globally, is deeply concerning.”
Summary of the claim
Lastly, the claim argues that this damage to or loss of tangible property, personal injury, and other unlawful acts, were caused by acts or omissions in the United Kingdom, meaning that Bahrain is not immune, see section 5 of the State Immunity Act 1978 (“SIA”) and the recent decision of Mr Justice Julian Knowles in Al-Masarir v Kingdom of Saudi Arabia [2022] EWHC 2199 (QB).
The claimant is represented by Monika Sobiecki, Tamsin Allen, Tayab Ali, and Bartosz Kruk of Bindmans LLP, together with Siobhán Allen and Dearbhla Minogue of GLAN.
Richard Hermer QC, Ben Silverstone and Darryl Hutcheon of Matrix Chambers are instructed as Counsel.
“Orange” of Reckon Digital and Bill Marczak (Senior Research Fellow at Citizen Lab) are providing digital imaging and forensics support.
The Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (BIRD) has closely advised Yusuf and has been his first point of contact. BIRD documented the abuses he faced in Bahrain since 2017 and supported him after his arrival to the UK, including in making this legal challenge.
Read more on this story:
The Guardian: No safe haven? The Bahraini dissident still menaced after gaining UK asylum
Forbes: Bahrain Latest Country To Be Hit By Legal Action Over Cell Phone Spyware In UK
Middle East Eye: Pegasus spyware: Dissident launches lawsuit against NSO Group and Bahrain
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Crown Prince and Prime Minister, Shaikh Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa
13 August 2022
Your Majesties,
We, the undersigned, are writing to you concerning Dr. Abduljalil Al-Singace, an academic, activist and blogger imprisoned in Bahrain whose health is declining rapidly. We respectfully urge you to secure Al-Singace’s immediate and unconditional release, and in the meantime, ensure he receives proper medical care, is protected from torture and other ill-treatment, and that his academic work is transferred to his family.
Abduljalil Al-Singace, 60, is serving a life sentence for his role in peaceful protests calling for democratic reform in Bahrain in 2011. He has been imprisoned for almost 12 years solely for exercising his human rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly.
Al-Singace has been on hunger strike since 8 July 2021 and has now exceeded 400 days without solid food. We are deeply concerned by the current state of his health as his blood sugar has reached an extremely low level. We are especially concerned that in flagrant disregard of his physicians’ orders, the delivery of multiple essential prescribed medicines has either been delayed or denied, including pills necessary for his nervous system and bodily functions, and eye drops.
Al-Singace suffers from post-polio syndrome and multiple other health problems, including severe intermittent headaches, a prostate problem, arthritis in his shoulder joint, tremors, numbness, and diminished eyesight. In January 2022, his neurologist requested a CT scan, but the authorities have reportedly refused the request to have the procedure performed at the Salmaniya Medical Complex, run by the Health Ministry. Instead, the authorities insist that the test be conducted at the King Hamad Military Hospital. But he does not believe that he would receive adequate and timely healthcare at King Hamad Military Hospital, given that he has yet to be informed of the result of an MRI scan of his shoulder taken there in October 2021. This delay amounts to a deliberate failure to provide healthcare in line with Bahrain’s obligations under international law. Given his fragility and pre-existing health problems, this denial of healthcare puts his life at risk and may lead to irreversible damage. Therefore, we call on the government to immediately provide him with adequate healthcare.
Al-Singace’s hunger strike is in response to the prison authorities’ confiscation of his book on Bahraini dialects of Arabic that he spent four years researching and writing by hand.
On 18 July 2021, the authorities transferred him from Jau prison to the Kanoo Medical Centre, where he continues to be held. The same month, the Bahrain Ministry of Interior Ombudsman declared that his book could not be turned over to his family until a “legal decision” about its contents was made. In November 2021, a legal decision clarified the apolitical nature of the book, but government authorities have yet to return the book to his family. In March 2022, an Ombudsman representative visited Al-Singace, made baseless allegations about the book’s content and asked him to edit and resubmit the book for the authorities to review.
In July 2022, the UN Human Rights Committee repeated its call to the government of Bahrain to release Al-Singace along with other unjustly imprisoned human rights defenders including Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja and Naji Fateel. Today, on 13 August, Al-Singace marks 12 years since his initial arrest in 2010. He was subsequently unjustly re-imprisoned after a brief hiatus of 21 days in early 2011 and was re-arrested on 17 March 2011 during the uprising. Today also marks the 401st day of Al-Singace’s hunger strike.
We call upon you to release Dr. Abduljalil Al-Singace immediately and unconditionally. We also urge you to ensure he receives his medication without delay and has access to adequate healthcare, in compliance with medical ethics, including the principles of confidentiality, autonomy, and informed consent, and is protected from torture and other ill-treatment. We also call on you to ensure that his work is immediately handed over to his family.
Sincerely,
Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain (ADHRB)
Amnesty International
Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (BIRD)
Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS)
CIVICUS
Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)
Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN)
English PEN
European Centre for Democracy and Human Rights (ECDHR)
Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR)
Human Rights Watch
Freedom House
PEN International
Project on Middle East Democracy (POMED)
Scholars at Risk
Background
Upon his return from London with his family, Dr. Al-Singace was arrested at the Bahrain International Airport on 13 August 2010. A detailed account of his torture allegations can be found in a report by Human Rights Watch published on 1 September 2010, which states:
“Al-Singace, who had spent the previous 15 days in incommunicado detention, told al-Buainain of having been handcuffed and blindfolded the entire time. Al-Singace said that his captors beat him on his fingers with a hard instrument, slapped him around, and pulled and twisted his nipples and ears with tongs.”
When the Arab spring erupted in Bahrain, government authorities released Al-Singace on 24 February 2011. However, he was soon rearrested 21 days later, on 17 March 2011. Since then, Al-Singace has remained in arbitrary detention.
In November 2011, the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry documented in a report that the police subjected Dr. Al-Singace to nightly beatings for two months while they held him in solitary confinement. The commission said that the authorities targeted his disability by confiscating his crutches, making him “stand on one leg for prolonged periods” and by pushing his crutch “into his genitals.” The commission also found that the authorities “threatened him with rape and made sexually explicit comments about his wife and his daughter.”
]]>We are writing to raise serious concerns about your confirmed participation in the upcoming Jeddah Summit on 15 and 16 July given that the leaders attending this summit are some of the most brutal authoritarian rulers today. We understand that one-on-one bilateral meetings between heads of state often accompany summits such as this, and we urge you in the strongest of terms not to entertain such a meeting with the King Hamad bin Isa Al Kahlifa of Bahrain unless the country demonstrates concrete progress on human rights, as outlined in our below requests.
We fear that unconditionally affording Bahrain’s King an in-person meeting will serve to legitimize the continued repression of his ruling dictatorship in Bahrain.
When King Hamad personally met with President Trump in 2017, it was followed by the deadliest attack on peaceful protestors in Bahrain’s recent history. Trump emboldened Bahrain’s rulers by publicly promising that “there won’t be strain with this administration.” Less than 48 hours later, Bahrain security forces opened fire on a peaceful sit-in, killing five people in the deadliest incident of political violence since the 2011 Arab Spring pro-democracy protests. We are thus concerned that your upcoming visit has the potential to trigger further repression and could act as another offer of a blank check for human rights abuses.
During last year’s Summit for Democracy, you rightly emphasized that democracy around the world is “essential to meeting the unprecedented challenges of our time” and launched the Presidential Initiative for Democratic Renewal, with the aim to bolster “Democratic Reformers” and “defend human rights globally”. We believe your visit represents a U-turn to this pledge.
Prominent political leaders & human rights defenders arbitrarily detained
Political opposition leaders and human rights defenders who called for democratic change in 2011 remain behind bars after over a decade having endured torture, ill-treatment, and systemic medical negligence. In spite of upcoming elections set to take place in November this year, Bahrain has failed to take any steps to build confidence in the election process.
Further, there is no indication of any political will to unconditionally release the most prominent arbitrarily detained political opposition leaders and human rights defenders. This is in spite of the unanimous and persistent calls by the international human rights community, including UN Special Procedures.
Dr Abduljalil AlSingace, blogger, human rights defender and opposition activist imprisoned in 2011, began a hunger strike on 8 July 2021 to protest the confiscation by Jau prison authorities of an apolitical book on Bahraini dialects that he spent the last four years researching and writing. He has now been on hunger strike for more than one year, most of which he has spent in a hospital due to his deteriorating health.
Other human rights defenders and opposition activists in prison include Hasan Mushaima, Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja, Sheikh Mohamed Habib AlMuqdad, Sheikh Ali Salman, Abdulwahab Husain, Ali AlHajee, and Naji Fateel.
As you may know, last November marked ten years since the publication of the government-commissioned Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI), which revealed shocking accounts of torture, military trials of civilians, and state-sanctioned killings. The report noted that “many detainees were subjected to torture and other forms of physical and psychological abuse while in custody”. The Bahraini King vowed to implement its recommendations in 2011. More than a decade later, this promise has yet to be fulfilled; no senior officials have been held accountable and those subjected to torture still languish unlawfully behind bars.
Shrinking Civil Society and Curtailed Freedom of Expression
Since 2017, Bahrain’s civil society has faced intimidation and harassment, and come under sustained attack, including in reprisal for engaging with the UN. All independent media outlets have been outlawed and all political opposition parties dissolved, with many of their leaders imprisoned and the country scoring a paltry 2/40 for political rights on Freedom House’s Freedom in the World 2022 report. There are at least ten journalists are currently imprisoned for their work in Bahrain, which is ranked 167/180 on the Reporters Without Borders (RSF) 2022 World Press Freedom Index. The CPJ has documented retaliation against an imprisoned journalist Mahmoud al-Jaziri for his reporting on the risk of COVID-19 in prison, and with the closure of Al-Wasat newspaper in 2017 the government has all but stamped out independent media.
Use of the Death Penalty in breach of international law
Furthermore, Bahrain abandoned a de facto moratorium on the death penalty in 2017 and has since conducted six executions, five of which were condemned as arbitrary by the former UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial executions Agnes Callamard, in 2017 and 2019 respectively. According to research by the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (BIRD) and Reprieve, there are 26 inmates on death row, all of whom face imminent execution and nearly half of whom were convicted on the basis of confessions allegedly extracted under torture in cases related to political unrest. In May 2021, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention found death row inmates and torture survivors Mohamed Ramadhan and Husain Moosa arbitrarily detained and called for their immediate release and compensation. Yet, they remain in prison unable to even hold the hands of their family members during visitations.
Key Requests
Ahead of your trip to Jeddah, we urge that you consider meeting with independent civil society organizations to discuss how to prioritize human rights issues. During your participation at the Jeddah Summit, make any meeting with the Bahrain King conditional upon the following:
We would be delighted to provide any further information or assistance that you may require regarding considerations around human rights in Bahrain and would be happy to attend a meeting with your office to this effect. We thank you in advance for taking our concerns and requests into consideration ahead of your visit to Saudi Arabia and we look forward to receiving a response from you.
Yours sincerely,
Americans for Democracy and Human Rights in Bahrain (ADHRB)
Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (BIRD)
PEN America
Reprieve
Today, activists and NGO representatives gathered outside the Bahraini Embassy in London to mark the 11-year anniversary of the conviction and sentencing of high-profile Bahraini opposition figures and human rights defenders, to protest their ongoing arbitrary imprisonment and call for their release.
The event also came ahead of the UN International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, on 26 June 2022, highlighting the imminent risks faced by prisoners like Mohammed Ramadhan and Husain Moosa, who were convicted and sentenced to death on the basis of a ‘confession’ obtained through torture following their attendance at peaceful, pro-democracy protests. Despite the UN human rights watchdog calling for their immediate release and for them to be afforded compensation, they face imminent execution by firing squad.
Speakers included Katie Fallon, Campaign Against the Arms Trade, Daniel Gorman, Director of English PEN, Melanie Gingell from the Gulf Centre for Human Rights, Jawaid Fairuz of Salam for Democracy and exiled Bahraini activist Ali Mushaima, with the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (BIRD) moderating the event.
The cases of Hasan Mushaima, Abdulhadi AlKhawaja and Dr Abduljalil AlSingace, who has been on hunger strike for almost 1 year demanding the return of his arbitrarily confiscated research, were highlighted during the event as attendees called for their immediate and unconditional release.
Alistair Carmichael MP could not be in attendance due to an urgent matter but sent speaking notes read out by BIRD where he expressed his solidarity with all political prisoners in Bahrain, highlighting the UK’s failure to call for the release of the political leaders arbitrarily imprisoned and deemed prisoners of conscience despite condemning their sentencing by a military court in 2011.
The death sentences against the two men are related neither to the Saudi penal code nor the Sharia law. The sentence is based upon Taazeer – the judge’s personal opinion on what punishment should be implemented. If the executions take place, this will be a clear breach of Saudi domestic laws as well as international laws. The State has backtracked on its previous statement that it will refrain from punishment if no explicit reference is made in the penal code or Quran (Alhad).
Case Background
● On 7 October 2021, the Specialized Criminal Court in Saudi sentenced Thamer and Sultan to death after an unfair trial; neither received the right to adequately defend themselves in court.
● On 11 January 2022, the sentences were upheld by the Court of Appeal.
● On 31 May 2016, the two men were sentenced to life imprisonment in absentia by a
Bahraini Court, on the basis of similar charges. The Court also stripped them of their citizenship.
● Since their arrest in Saudi on 8 May 2015, the men have been subjected to human rights violations, including enforced disappearance, torture, and being forced to certify coerced statements.
26 January 2022 – UN Special Rapporteurs Communication
● On 26 January 2022, the United Nations special rapporteurs sent a letter to the government of Saudi Arabia, calling on it to immediately halt the execution of death sentences against both Jaafar Sultan and Sadiq Thamer. The following allegations were noted:
○ Being held incommunicado for several months,
○ Torture
○ Being held in solitary confinement for one hundred days (Thamer)
○ Being forced to sign incriminating confessions.
○ Having no access to a lawyer until after the trial began.
● The rapporteurs noted that if the allegations made by Sultan and Thamer are correct the they “were sentenced to death without due process and fair trial”, “did not have access to a lawyer upon their and could not resort to any remedy to challenge the lawfulness of their detention”, “were subjected to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment and were forced to sign a confession under torture”, stating that the imposition of the death sentence would be an “arbitrary killing”.
24 March 2022 – Saudi Government’s response:
● In its response, published on 24 March 2022, the Saudi government failed to adequately respond to the questions raised.
○ There is no indication of an investigation into torture allegations
○ There is a failure to illustrate that the men were not subjected to enforced disappearance
16 March 2022 – Today, 90 politicians have written to President of the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA), Mohammed Ben Sulayem, stating that the FIA and Formula 1 (F1) are “actively facilitating sportswashing in Gulf countries” and their failure to raise abuses committed by Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the UAE creates a “stark double standard” in comparison to the FIA’s position on the war in Ukraine, calling on the FIA to “apply the same moral standards” everywhere and adopt a human rights policy.
The letter comes days ahead of the F1 Gulf Air Grand Prix in Bahrain, with the following race set to take place in Saudi Arabia, and highlights the participation of Gulf states in the ongoing military campaign waging a “catastrophic” war in Yemen. Politicians commended Ben Sulayemen on the FIA’s s condemnation of the Russian war in Ukraine, but called upon him to ensure that the FIA take a “public stance” on the 7-year-long war in Yemen too. The FIA was told to “publicly sympathise with these victims”, as they had done with victims in Ukraine
The letter’s signatories include members of the UK, EU, Spanish, French, Irish, Italian, and German parliaments, and was sent by Brendan O’Hara MP, Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Democracy and Human Rights in the Gulf.
Signatories raised cases of individual victims to human rights violations in Gulf states where F1 races, including that of opposition leader and human rights defender, Dr Abduljalil AlSingace, who has been wrongfully imprisoned for 11 years this week and on hunger strike for over 250 days in Bahrain. The cases of arbitrarily detained children and death row inmates Mohammed Ramadhan and Husain Moosa in Bahrain were also raised in the letter.
Brendan O’Hara MP, Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Democracy and Human Rights in the Gulf, commented: “Mohammed Ben Sulayem’s affiliations with King Hamad and Mohammed Bin Zayed shouldn’t prevent him from standing up to violations committed by their regimes. The FIA and F1 simply should not be sportswashing mass executions in Saudi Arabia, systematic repression in Bahrain and the ongoing catastrophic war in Yemen. It is high time the FIA ends their hypocrisy and cancels their races in abusive Gulf regimes.”
Husain Abdulla, Executive Director of Americans for Democracy and Human Rights in Bahrain (ADHRB), commented: “This landmark call adds to the mounting pressure on F1 and FIA to take human rights seriously. One rule for Europe and another for the Middle East simply cannot stand any longer. Their hypocrisy has been laid bare as lawmakers have rightly united to demand that they act. This call shows there is a clear international consensus that the FIA will be on the wrong side of history if they continue to turn a blind eye to the egregious abuses of their business partners in the Gulf.”
Lord Scriven, Liberal Democrat Peer and Vice-Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Democracy and Human Rights in the Gulf, commented: “For years, many have called for F1 and the FIA to do the right thing but our demands have fallen on deaf ears. F1 has taken a clear human rights stance and cancelled their contract with Russia. Why, then, have they not applied the same standards to Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the UAE? The FIA must put an end to their blood-stained business with Bahrain and its abusive Gulf neighbours, and cancel F1 races there. The FIA should finally put their morals where their mouth is and take action to end their role in sportswashing deplorable human rights violations in the Gulf.”
Jeed Basyouni, Head of Reprieve’s work in Middle East and North Africa, commented: “Lawmakers across Europe are urging FIA and F1 not to allow next week’s races in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia to sportswash their horrific human rights violations. By choosing to race in the Gulf, FIA and F1 have a responsibility to speak out. A failure to do so will be seen as an effective endorsement of the torture and execution of pro-democracy protesters and child defendants in the countries they have chosen as partners.”
Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei, Director of Advocacy at the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (BIRD), commented: “The FIA and F1 have taken a principled stance against the atrocities perpetrated by Russia. To not take the same stance on atrocities perpetrated by the Gulf states would send the message that our lives matter less.”
“I was tortured at the hands of Bahraini officials and members of my family are imprisoned, in retaliation for my human rights work, including urging F1 to adopt a human rights policy, which F1 has still failed to apply. My case is just one example among thousands of the repression within Bahrain and across the Gulf.”
Full letter here.
]]>15 March 2022 – 27 NGOs wrote to the CEO of Formula 1 (F1), Stefano Domenicali, to condemn the company’s “clear double standard” on Ukraine in comparison to Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the UAE ahead of the Bahrain Grand Prix this weekend. Rights groups raised concerns over F1’s failure to engage with rights groups in spite of “continued institutionalized repression” in Bahrain, whilst calling on F1 to use their platform to secure redress for victims in Bahrain, reconsider their policy on racing in Gulf states due to their role in waging war in Yemen, and evaluate their contract with Bahrain, said the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (BIRD) and Americans for Democracy and Human Rights in Bahrain (ADHRB) today.
Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei, Advocacy Director at the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy, commented: “Formula 1 must uphold values of peace and unity everywhere, particularly in the countries where they are racing. At present the F1 races in the Gulf are only enabling Bahrain and Saudi to sportswash their abysmal human rights records which continue to deteriorate. How long will F1 fans allow their sport to be exploited by abusive regimes? Rewarding Bahrain with one of the longest contracts in racing history speaks volumes about how they dismiss human rights concerns and prioritise profit. This hypocrisy must end.”
Husain Abdullah, Executive Director of Americans for Democracy and Human Rights in Bahrain (ADHRB), commented: “When Formula 1 finally adopted a human rights policy, it failed to make any meaningful impact on the victims who have suffered due to the staging of their races in the Gulf. We once again call upon F1 to refrain from sportswashing and to stand up for the victims of abuse and war in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Yemen once and for all, just as they have done in Ukraine.”
Full letter can be read here.
]]>(Beirut, February 8, 2022) – Bahrain authorities are detaining six boys, ages 14 and 15, in a child welfare facility, the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy and Human Rights Watch said today. The authorities have not provided the boys or their families with any written justification for their weeks-long detention and have denied parents’ requests to be present during their interrogations and to visit their sons.
The boys, from the Sitra area, are being held on the orders of the public prosecutor’s office at the Beit Batelco facility in Seef district, which a government website describes as an “institution … for children of unknown parentage, orphans and children of broken families up to the age of 15.” The children’s alleged offenses appear to have occurred in December 2020 or January 2021, when they were 13 and 14, based on the boys’ recollections of their interrogations. A statement by the Office of the Public Prosecution alleges they threw Molotov cocktails that damaged a car near a police station.
“Last year Bahrain touted its legal reforms for children, but locking up children in an orphanage instead of a jail is hardly an improvement when their detention is arbitrary in the first place,” said Bill Van Esveld, associate children’s rights director at Human Rights Watch. “The treatment of these boys is a test of Bahrain’s respect for children’s rights, and so far the authorities are failing.”
Bahrain’s 2021 Restorative Justice Law for Children sets the minimum age of criminal responsibility at 15 but permits authorities to “place the child in a social welfare institution” for renewable weekly periods “if the circumstances require.”
The children, from three families, were first summoned by the public prosecutor for questioning in June 2021. Some were questioned at least eight times, and sometimes detained overnight at a police station, before their arrests, parents from two families said. “We received a call from Sitra police station to bring them, and then from there they took them to the Office of the Public Prosecutor without letting me go with them,” one family member said. “I was never allowed to be present in the interrogations. They said I needed to have permission from the prosecutor. We didn’t even know what the [alleged] crimes were.”
Another boy’s father said the allegations changed over the course of the interrogations, based on what his son told him: “First it was about burning a tire, then it was attacking a police station, and then it was throwing a Molotov cocktail. My son told me that when they asked him a question they screamed at him not to lie. The father said he told the director of the Sitra police station, “‘These are kids, don’t destroy their future,’ but the director said, ‘Your son is a vandal.’”
On December 27, the Public Prosecution summoned five of the boys and arrested them. The sixth boy was arrested on January 9.
The children were first transferred from the police station to Dar Al Karama, which a government website describes as a “care home for beggars and the homeless,” then transferred on January 5, to Beit Batelco. Their detention has been renewed by the prosecutor weekly, most recently on February 2. “Every time they renew their detentions we feel shocked,” another family member said in a televised interview. “We are not able to offer a life with freedom and peace to our children.”
One boy’s father traveled to both locations and asked to see his son but was refused without explanation. He appealed to the prosecutor and the attorney general’s office for his son’s release, “but they ignored it,” he said. “They say, ‘Look, they are in a care center,’ but they allow him only one telephone call [per week], they don’t give him any [family] visits. Effectively he’s a detainee, the doors are shut on him.”
Another man said the authorities at the two facilities told him that family visits were prohibited “because of orders from the Office of the Public Prosecutor.” The children are allowed one 10-minute phone call each Monday.
A defense lawyer for five of the boys said they “are accused of obtaining and manufacturing Molotovs, but it is unclear if there is a specific incident attributed to them, or [if] they [are accused of having] used them.” The lawyer has not been informed of the legal basis for detaining the children or why they are being detained at the Beit Betelco orphanage. At their hearing on January 24, he said, the boys were taken to court wearing t-shirts and were visibly cold, but a social worker and a judge did not respond to concerns that they needed warmer clothing.
It was not until February 1 that the Office of the Public Prosecution released a statement about the case, which the rights groups reviewed. It said that prosecutors had ordered the children detained for allegedly throwing Molotov cocktails at Sitra police station, which damaged a civilian car, and that their detention had been extended pending their referral to the Child Correctional Court. One boy’s father contacted the two rights groups to share the statement, which he said provided more information about the case than the families have received.
Bahrain should revise Law No. (4) of 2021 Promulgating the Restorative Justice Law for Children and their Protection from Maltreatment to clearly provide for a child’s right to have their parents and a lawyer present during interrogations, and to challenge their deprivation of liberty, the organizations said. Bahrain should also revoke the law’s determination that children who participate in unlicensed public assemblies may be considered “endangered” and deprived of their liberty.
International law prohibits detaining children except if necessary as a last resort and for the shortest appropriate period, due to the inherent harm and risks of abuse. The authorities have not explained why it was necessary to detain children who had repeatedly appeared when summoned. Their detention also contradicts guidance from UNICEF for governments to impose a moratorium on detaining children during the Covid-19 pandemic.
“The reality is that if the government of Bahrain doesn’t like your children, they can be taken away and locked up and you won’t even be told why,” said Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei, advocacy director at the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy. “Bahrain’s allies should demand the release of these six boys – even if they’d prefer not to discuss human rights, harming children undermines Bahrain’s stability.”
For more Human Rights Watch reporting on children’s rights, please visit:
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For more Human Rights Watch reporting on Bahrain, please visit:
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For more information, please contact:
For Human Rights Watch, in Athens, Bill Van Esveld (English): +1-917-535-3647 (mobile); vanesvb@hrw.org. Twitter: @billvanesveld
For the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy, in London, Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei (English, Arabic): +447445382565 (mobile); sayed@birdbh.org.
Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei, Director at the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (BIRD), commented: “This scandalous extradition by the Serbian government that condemns someone to torture and life imprisonment is utterly devastating. Ahmed, the victim of sham trials, has already suffered torture at the hands of Bahraini officials and now fears violent interrogation and abuse. INTERPOL and Serbia are both deeply implicated in any abuse that Ahmed suffers as a consequence. This misuse of INTERPOL’s powers is what we feared following Al-Raisi’s election as President and marks the launch of an even darker era governed by authoritarian policing.”
Timeline of Ahmed’s Arrest in Serbia and Extradition to Bahrain
Background: Facts About Ahmed’s Case
Facts on INTERPOL
The below is the letter sent to the United Kingdom’s Foreign Secretary.
17 January 2022
Dear Secretary of State Liz Truss,
We, the undersigned human rights organisations, are writing to call for the immediate and unconditional release of respected Bahraini academic, blogger, and human rights defender, Dr Abduljalil AlSingace, who is serving a life sentence for his peaceful role in Bahrain’s 2011 uprising. He turned 60 on 15 January 2022 and has been in prison for over a decade in violation of his rights to freedom of expression and assembly.
We are further concerned that Dr AlSingace has been on hunger strike for over 190 days since 8 July 2021 to protest the confiscation of his academic research on Bahraini culture. In addition to the health consequences of not eating solid food for more than six months, Dr AlSingace also suffers from chronic medical conditions including post-polio syndrome, requiring crutches or a wheelchair since birth.
We understand that the UK is in the process of negotiating a Free Trade Agreement with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), including Bahrain, and has recently met with Bahrain’s Foreign Minister to this effect. We urge you to make any agreement contingent upon Bahrain’s immediate and unconditional release of Dr Abduljalil AlSingace and the return of his confiscated research to his family. Doing so would help to fulfill the UK’s recent promise to “actively call out human rights violations and abuses wherever they occur” and to work with “human rights defenders, civil society and the media to uphold democracy based on the rule of law, human rights and fundamental freedoms” in 2022.
In line with this, we kindly urge you to take immediate and appropriate measures to raise Dr AlSingace’s case with the Bahraini authorities at your earliest convenience.
Other human rights defenders and activists in prison include dual national Danish-Bahraini human rights defender Abdulhadi AlKhawaja and Swedish-Bahraini Sheikh Mohamed Habib AlMuqdad, as well as the Secretary-General of the dissolved Al-Wefaq National Islamic Society (Al-Wefaq), Sheikh Ali Salman, Abdulwahab Husain, Hasan Mushaima, Ali AlHajee, and human rights defender Naji Fateel.
Last November marked ten years since the publication of the government-commissioned Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI), which revealed shocking accounts of torture, military trials of civilians, and state-sanctioned killings. The report noted that “many detainees were subjected to torture and other forms of physical and psychological abuse while in custody”.
The BICI report documented how police subjected Dr AlSingace to nightly beatings for two months while placed in solitary confinement, how authorities targeted his disability by confiscating his crutches, making him “stand on one leg for prolonged periods” and, horrifically, pushing his crutch “into his genitals”, and how authorities “threatened him with rape and made sexually explicit comments about his wife and his daughter”.
The Bahraini King vowed to implement its recommendations in 2011. More than a decade later, this promise has yet to be fulfilled; no senior officials have been held accountable and those subjected to torture still languish unlawfully behind bars.
Dr AlSingace began his hunger strike on 8 July 2021 to protest the confiscation by prison authorities of an apolitical book on Bahraini dialects that he spent the last four years researching and writing. He has now been on hunger strike for more than 190 days, most of which he has spent in a hospital due to his deteriorating health.
In July 2021, the Bahrain Ministry of Interior Ombudsperson declared that AlSingace’s work could not be given to his family until a “legal decision” was made. In November 2021, a legal decision clarified the apolitical nature of the book. Despite this determination, Dr AlSingace’s research remains in the hands of authorities and as a result, he has continued his hunger strike.
Towards the end of November 2021, authorities arbitrarily suspended Dr AlSingace’s weekly video calls to his family. In response, Dr AlSingace escalated his hunger strike by refusing to take IVs, supplementary vitamins, and oral medication. Family members report that he has since lost a considerable amount of weight, appearing even more fragile and pale. His sugar levels remain low and his immunity is weakened due to a low white blood cell count.
Despite Dr AlSingace also suffering from medical conditions including severe intermittent headaches, a prostate problem, arthritis in his shoulder joint, tremors, numbness, and diminished eyesight, he has not received the expected medical care. Dr AlSingace reports that he has still not been informed of the outcome of an MRI scan taken over two months ago and that no progress has been made on giving him a CT scan as requested by his doctor.
Dr AlSingace’s numerous requests to receive adequate medical treatment whilst in a medical facility have been repeatedly ignored in spite of his fragile condition; this rejection amounts to deliberate failure to provide medical treatment in line with Bahrain’s obligations under international law.
According to an expert opinion by the US-based Dr Qasim Omran, despite being detained in the Kanoo Medical Centre medical facility, Dr AlSingace is receiving treatment that is “not […] appropriat[e]”. Prison authorities are refusing his previous requests for painkillers and for over two months, Dr AlSingace has been excluded from daily medical check-ups by his doctor, the on-duty doctors, and the chief nurse, except in rare emergency situations.
Hunger striking prisoners must be able to effectively exercise their right to health. They should have adequate access to qualified health professionals providing health care in compliance with medical ethics, including the principles of confidentiality, autonomy, and informed consent. A person’s hunger strike must not prejudice any other aspect of their health care.
Over the past decade, there has been an international consensus calling for the release of Dr AlSingace. More recently, on 22 June 2021, Mary Lawlor, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders issued a statement raising alarm at the prolonged imprisonment of Dr AlSingace and calling for his release along with other human rights defenders imprisoned in Bahrain. Since Dr AlSingace’s hunger strike, similar calls have been made by members of the UK and EU Parliaments, Members of the US Congress, 16 leading international NGOs, and over 100 global academics.
The prolonged and arbitrary confiscation of Dr AlSingace’s book is an unjust punishment and Bahraini authorities must ensure the protection of his rights, including the return of his intellectual property and the resumption of his weekly video calls to his family.
We urge you to call for Dr AlSingace’s immediate and unconditional release, for his work to be immediately handed over to his family, and for the release of all those imprisoned for exercising their rights to freedom of association, peaceful assembly, opinion and expression, including human rights defenders, opposition activists, and journalists.
Please consider taking the following urgent actions:
Yours sincerely,