UK gov refuses to condemn human rights abuses inflicted on 70 y/o political prisoner by Bahraini regime

Sarah Jane Brennan
Sep 8, 2018 · 10 min read

Westminster has turned a blind eye to Bahraini authorities’ cruel and inhumane treatment of a 70-year-old political prisoner by failing to meaningfully intervene in his case and demand an immediate end to his suffering, a prominent human rights organisation says.

The London-based Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (BIRD) unleashed a firestorm of criticism at Britain’s Foreign Office, after political activist, Ali Mushaima, fell critically ill and was hospitalised following a long-running hunger strike.

The protest was triggered by Bahraini authorities’ draconian treatment of his father, Hassan Mushaima, who was imprisoned in the Gulf state in 2011 over his leading role in anti-government protests. Since being sentenced to life in prison, Hassan has been denied vital medical assistance, dignified family visits, and access to reading and writing materials.

Human rights activist, Zainab Alkhawaja, whose involvement in Bahrain’s pro-democracy movement has landed her in prison twelve times, joined Mushaima on Tuesday, and is now also on hunger strike.

After beginning her protest in support of Mushaima’s father, she said the 70-year-old represents “thousands of political prisoners suffering in Bahraini prisons.”

UK government inaction

Britain’s Foreign Office has failed to denounce the inhumane treatment Hassan is subject to, despite the fact his case has sparked condemnation from human rights groups in Britain and Bahrain. On the question of medical care, the UK government body has accepted Bahraini authorities’ hollow assurances that his healthcare needs have been met.

BIRD accuses the UK Foreign Office of allowing the political prisoner’s suffering, and that of his family, to fester in the face of an effective establishment cover-up orchestrated by Bahraini authorities.

In a letter sent to the human rights group on August 21, the UK foreign office said it was informed Hassan had “received appropriate attention for his health issues.” The letter, which was signed by the UK Foreign Office’s Gulf Team, said the British government was also told the political prisoner had declined to attend appointments with specialist doctors that had been organised for him.

The UK Foreign Office claimed this information was reflected in statements issued by the Bahrain embassy in London, a Bahraini watchdog called the National Institute for Human Rights (NIHR), and Bahrain’s Ministry of Interior.

Britain’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Photo © HOK

Mushaima began his hunger strike after his father was denied cancer treatment because he refused to wear chains and shackles while receiving this care. Mushaima maintains it is unacceptable that Hassan, who was diagnosed with cancer a few years ago, was unable to get vital medical assistance without being forced to endure such humiliation.

Mushaima’s father was eventually screened for cancer, without shackles and chains, on August 28. But BIRD says he had been requesting to see an oncologist for over 24 months. He is still being denied access to a diabetes specialist, despite having been told by a doctor in January 2018 he urgently needs to see one.

Hassan has been subject to other punitive conditions in Jau central prison, where he is serving a life sentence. Sentimental belongings, including books, writing equipment and the Quran, were seized from him in October 2017 by prison staff. The former English teacher is also being refused his right to dignified family visits devoid of demeaning practices such as shackling. He has not seen his family since February 2017.

Mushaima’s demands concerning his father have received support from diverse pockets of Britain’s political landscape. UK Green Party co-leaders Caroline Lucas and Jonathan Bartlet have written to Britain’s Minister of State Alistair Burt, demanding he intervene. SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford has also called on UK Secretary of State Jeremy Hunt to take action and call for Hassan’s release. Nevertheless, the British government’s response to the political prisoner’s suffering has been resolutely muted.

Britain and Bahrain’s special relationship

Whitehall and Downing Street handed over £5 million in support of a reform program set up in Bahrain in the aftermath of the state’s 2011 anti-government protests. The funding was specifically directed towards a new ombudsman for Bahrain’s Ministry of Interior, Bahraini human rights watchdog the NIHR, Bahrain’s Prisoners’ and Detainees’ Rights Commission, and broader efforts to train the kingdom’s police and judiciary.

The reform program was designed to bolster the rule of law, create effective institutions and dramatically improve the Gulf state’s criminal justice system. But it has merely served to legitimise an anti-democratic system that crushes dissent and brutally punishes political dissidents.

Bahrain’s police and judiciary are the subject of caustic international criticism, particularly in the face of arbitrary arrests, torture and extrajudicial killings that have recently occurred in the kingdom. UK-funded oversight bodies such as the ombudsman for Bahrain’s Ministry of Interior, the NIHR and Bahrain’s Prisoners’ and Detainees’ Rights Commission have also been lambasted over their complicity in human rights abuses, and their lack of independence from government.

The King of Bahrain receives NIHR Commissioners. Photo © Bahrain’s National Institute of Human Rights (NIHR)

According to BIRD, the NIHR has been complicit in the denial of adequate healthcare urgently required by Bahraini citizens, a right that is enshrined in international law. The human rights group argues the NIHR’s testimony concerning Hassan’s health requirements — and that of Bahrain’s government — should be sharply questioned by the British government.

But the UK Foreign Office is unwilling to jeopardise UK-Bahraini relations by making such a manoeuvre. The UK Foreign Office’s letter concerning Hassan, which was sent to BIRD in August, confirmed the British government did not intend to mount a significant challenge to the Bahraini regime’s harsh treatment of the political prisoner.

The letter concluded by merely insisting the UK Foreign Office encourages Bahraini watchdogs to conduct prompt and comprehensive probes into complaints concerning inmates’ rights. It also stated the UK Foreign Office urges the Bahraini government to act in a lawful manner.

In its refusal to question claims concerning Hassan offered by the NIHR and Bahraini government officials, the UK Foreign Office has wilfully ignored the watchdog’s questionable record, the Bahraini regime’s poor international reputation, and worldwide calls for meaningful intervention in Hassan’s case.

Ali Mushaima protests outside the Bahrain embassy in London over serious human rights violations his imprisoned father, Hassan Mushaima, is subject to in Bahrain. Photo © the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (BIRD).

BIRD Director of Advocacy Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei says the British government has blindly accepted blatant fabrications hatched by a Bahraini government that is wilfully violating Hassan’s human rights.

“The UK has now become part of the problem, rather than a solution. It’s been a month since Ali started his hunger strike, only to find out that the UK will not call for an end to the cruelty Bahrain is subjecting him and his family to,” he said after Mushaima was released from St Thomas’s Hospital in London.

“Instead, the UK has decided to back the lies of a government that is deliberately denying a 70-year-old man his most basic human rights.”

Oppressive regime

Bahrain’s oppressive regime has long been denounced by UN officials and human rights organisations across the globe. A startling 21 people are currently on death row in the Gulf state, many of which are political prisoners.

Four of these inmates could be maimed by Bahrain’s firing squad any day, without prior warning. One such case concerns Mohamed Ramadhan, a father of three, who was stripped naked, blindfolded and assaulted with iron rods by Bahraini police, according to international human rights group Reprieve. Reprieve says a false confession was extracted from him during this brutal treatment.

Head of Protocol and representative of the King of Bahrain, Brigadier Sheikh Nasser bin Hamad al Khalifa, inspects an armoured military ballistic helmet during a 2017 inauguration of Bahrain International Defense Exhibition in Manama. Photo © Reuters.

Britain faced calls to loosen ties with Bahrain last year, after three Shia Muslim men were executed in the Gulf state. They had been accused and convicted of murdering two Bahraini police officers and an Emirati officer in a 2014 bomb attack. Their confessions were also extracted under torture, and the subsequent trial was a sham. Agnes Callamard, the UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions, accused the Bahraini government of “extrajudicial killings” at the time, saying the men were tortured and subjected to an unfair trial.

Bahrain’s resumption of brutal executions is a grim reflection of a human rights situation in the kingdom that is sharply deteriorating. The confiscation of Hassan’s reading and writing materials, and other punitive conditions he has endured, cast a sordid spotlight on an oppressive regime bent on brutally punishing political dissidents.

Hollow rhetoric

The UK Foreign Office claims it has raised Hassan’s case with senior members of Bahrain’s government. It also insists it has urged Bahraini authorities to comply with their obligations under domestic and international law. But in reality, the British government’s interest in Bahrain’s human rights crisis sharply declined after a controversial 2014 deal to build a £40m Royal Navy base in the kingdom was brokered. Bahrain’s government paid the majority of the costs for the British naval base, which was opened last April.

Prince Andrew Duke of York meets UK personnel at the opening of the United Kingdom Naval Support Facility in Bahrain. Photo © Britain’s Ministry of Defence (MoD).

As Washington’s focus on the Asia-Pacific region prevails, the British government is seeking to amplify its role east of Suez in the Gulf, the Near East and north Africa. The recently built UK Royal Navy base at Mina Salman in Bahrain is part of that strategy. As is the UK government’s refusal to robustly challenge the Bahraini regime’s repeated breaches of international law.

Serious human rights violations, including arbitrary arrest, extrajudicial killings and torture, continue to be inflicted on Bahraini citizens. The UN special rapporteur on torture has also been repeatedly denied entry into the troubled state. Despite mounting international criticism of Bahrain’s abysmal human rights record, the British government’s rhetoric addressing the regime’s human rights abuses has been markedly subdued, consisting of carefully couched recommendations concerning international law. Meanwhile, UK-Bahraini arms trade relations have thrived, with Britain licensing over £80 million worth of military wares to the Gulf state since 2011.

‘Non-negotiable rights’

Mushaima’s father, who is serving a life sentence in prison, was accused of playing a leading role in Bahrain’s anti-government demonstrations in 2011. Mushaima, who was also a political activist in Bahrain, fled to Britain as a political refugee in 2006. The 35-year-old had been sentenced to 45 years in prison in his homeland.

Although Mushaima’s hunger strike has taken a toll on his health, his courageous protest has had an impact. His father’s shackle-free cancer screening only transpired after the Bahraini activist began fasting. Hassan had also been denied access to vital medication before the political protest cast a global spotlight on his plight, mobilising cross-border pressure that forced Bahraini authorities to adopt a policy shift.

Zainab Alkhawaja joins Ali Mushaima outside the Bahrain embassy in London to protest against the injustice political prisoners in Bahrain face. Photo © The Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (BIRD)

Determined to defend his father’s basic human rights, Mushaima made his way back to the Bahrain embassy in Knightsbridge, London, on August 31 just 24 hours after receiving emergency medical care.

Mushaima has lost a total of 14 kg since beginning his hunger strike. After returning to the Bahrain embassy in London on August 31, he vowed to persist with his protest until his father’s human rights are restored.

“I am returning to the embassy today to continue my protest. My demands are so basic and could all be granted tomorrow. The way the regime has treated my father is appalling,” he said.

“My body is weak, but this protest is my last resource, and if this is what it takes for them to treat my father humanely, then I will not stop until he is given the treatment he needs, family visits and access to his books. These are non-negotiable rights that should be afforded to all prisoners.”

Hassan Mushaima, a political prisoner who is imprisoned in Jau central prison, Bahrain, over his leading role in 2011 anti-government protests. Photo © the Gulf Institute for Democracy and Human Rights.

Four prominent Bahraini human rights groups sharply condemned the harsh conditions Hassan is subject to in a statement released in July. The human rights organisations held the Bahraini authorities responsible for a deterioration in the imprisoned opposition leader’s health, saying he had not received treatment he required for several chronic diseases.

The statement, which was signed by the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, the Bahrain Forum for Human Rights, the Gulf Institute for Democracy and Human Rights, and SALAM for Democracy and Human Rights, also lambasted officials at Jau central prison for arbitrarily confiscating Mushaima’s books, pens, notes, and papers. It said the 70-year-old’s fellow opposition leaders had also been subjected to this degrading treatment.

The signatories noted calls issued by the Mushaima family for prison officials to take account of Hassan’s health status had been met with silence. The human rights organisations demanded Bahraini authorities take urgent steps to end Mushaima’s suffering, and release all prisoners of conscience residing in the kingdom.

An anti-government demonstration in the centre of Manama, the capital of Bahrain, in 2011. Photo © Hamad Mohammed/Reuters

The Arab Spring protests, led by Bahrain’s Shia majority, were quashed by Bahrain’s Sunni-ruled government, with the assistance of neighbouring Middle Eastern states in February 2011. But residual undercurrents of the uprising, amplified by human rights activists opposed to the regime’s policies, have continued to ebb and flow in its wake.

Bahrain’s government unleashed a carefully calculated assault on political dissidents in a bid to crush this anti-government sentiment in 2016. As part of this hostile crackdown, Bahrain’s main opposition group, al Wefaq, was shut down, and a prominent Shia spiritual leader had his citizenship stripped.

Veteran human rights campaigner Nabeel Rajab, who spoke out against torture and the Yemen war, was also imprisoned, despite UN calls for his release. Charges levelled against him related to peaceful expression. In February 2018, Rajab was sentenced by the High Criminal Court of Bahrain to a further five years in prison for tweets that were critical of Bahrain’s government.

Sarah Jane Brennan

Written by

Independent Journalist. Ex-’Kremlin Asset’. Unwavering Sceptic || Security, Human Rights, Politics, Global Affairs || MA in International Relations.

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