The Bahraini prominent human rights advocate and President of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights Nabeel Rajab’s health has seriously worsened since his arrest in the summer of 2016. Rajab told his son, Adam Rajab, during a telephone conversation on Wednesday that he was “prepared for the worst and death in prison.”
Rajab is serving a pre-trial detention for exercising his right to freedom of expression, amid the international calls to, immediately and unconditionally, release him. Allegedly, he had been found guilty of “organizing unauthorized protests, insulting the government, insulting the Central Jau Prison administration, insulting a statutory body, undermining the war in Yemen, spreading false news, offending a foreign country.”
On 15 January 2018, the High Criminal Court sentenced Rajab with five years in prison over tweets alleging prison torture in his country and misconduct in Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen, despite wide international criticism of his trial. At the time of his conviction, Rajab was already serving a two years sentence over television interviews and faces additional charges for op-eds published in the New York Times.
According to his son, Rajab was returned to his prison cell after being rushed to the hospital due to prolonged dizziness. He was hospitalised for months after authorities failed to provide him with proper medical care following a surgery last April. Adam Rajab sais that his father was meant to undergo surgery at the hospital but the authorities removed him from the operating room at the last minute, arguing that he must receive treatment at a military hospital instead.
Charges brought against Nabeel Rajab have impulse his unbreakable steadiness and he has repeatedly demonstrated his firm stance to endure until the last breath. He has been a human rights advocate for over 15 years, he emphasises, “I’ve spent a great part of my time in jail for the last few years because of my criticism against the government. However, it is a price I’m willing to pay for the freedom I’m fighting for.”
Following the eruption of 2011 popular uprising against government corruption and persecution, the situation for human rights defenders in the tiny Persian island of Bahrain has become even more problematic. The regime has reacted with harsh measures and a crackdown on the peaceful protesters, civil society leaders, human rights defenders and pro-democracy activists.
Rajab’s arrest has received widespread international attention as the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights ZeidRa’ad Al Hussein warned, “Repression will not eliminate people’s grievances; it will increase them.” The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a partnership of FIDH and the World Organisation against Torture (OMCT) said, in a joint statement, that Rajab’s sentence is “surrealistic” and that it came after a trial that was by itself a mockery of justice. Amnesty International stressed that the sentencing illustrates the Bahraini authorities’ utter contempt for freedom of expression.
European Union called for the release of Rajab, commenting on sentencing him to additional five years in prison. Alistair Burt, UK Minister for the Middle East expressed his concern about Rajab’s sentence. Spokesperson Heather Nauert stressed that “the US Department of State will continue to have conversations with the Government of Bahrain about its very serious concerns about Nabeel Rajab case.” Additionally, Germany appealed to Bahrain “to fulfil its obligations to protect human rights and fundamental freedoms.”
Amid the international silence and the culture of impunity, Human rights defenders in Bahrain are tried in military courts for their criticism of the government; often charged with fabricated crimes, given hugely disproportionate sentences, ill-treated, tortured in detention, held incommunicado and denied access to family and lawyers. Their alleged confessions which are extracted under duress are been admitted as evidence in court, in contravention of international laws.
Articles 19 and 22 of the International Protocol on Civil and Political Rights guarantee the right to freedom of expression. Although it is an internationally protected right, that government acceded to; this right has become a crime in Bahrain. Bahrain has shown an unwillingness to comply with international legal standards, despite the 2017-UPR recommendations, which urged the government to “re-evaluate its adherence to international human rights standards.”
