News / Bahrain Uprising / Human Rights

UK MPs urge release of activist’s relatives detained in Bahrain

Friday, 27 October 2017 10:36 PM [ Last Update: Friday, 27 October 2017 11:27 PM ]

Bahraini protesters run for cover during anti-regime protests in Sitra on January 1, 2016. (Photo by Reuters)

Fifteen organizations and 27 MPs have called on the British government to request the release of three Bahrainis detained in the Persian Gulf country.

Sayed Nazar Alwadaei, Hajar Mansoor Hasan and Mahmood Marzooq Mansoor were arrested in March in Bahrain and their trial is due in two days.

Amnesty International, UK legal charity Reprieve as well as MPs, including Caroline Lucas and Andy Slaughter, sent a letter to Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson on Thursday, saying the three had been "ill-treated, tortured and interrogated" before being served with terrorism charges based on "coerced confessions."

They added that the trio had been arrested because they were relatives of a London-based activist Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei and his wife Duaa Alwadaei.

Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei is the head of advocacy at the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy, which is a group campaigning for political change in Bahrain.

“We therefore urge your government to request Bahrain to immediately release Mr. and Mrs. Alwadaei’s relatives ahead of their October 30 trial and drop all charges against them,” the letter read.

It called the case “part of a pattern of abuse and harassment against human rights defenders and their families in Bahrain.”

“Bahrain is punishing his innocent family as retribution for his peaceful activism,” said Maya Foa, director of Reprieve.

Sima Watling, a campaigner, described the situation as "very worrying" and said, “We know these interrogations took place and they did not take place in the way they are supposed to.”

"It seems to have been a targeting of Alwadaei because he is so outspoken," Watling told Middle East Eye.

Thousands of anti-regime protesters have held demonstrations in Bahrain on an almost daily basis ever since a popular uprising began in the kingdom in mid-February 2011.

They are demanding that the Al Khalifah dynasty relinquish power and allow a just system representing all Bahrainis to be established.

Manama has gone to great lengths to clamp down on any sign of dissent. Scores of people have lost their lives and hundreds of others sustained injuries or got arrested as a result of the Al Khalifah regime’s crackdown on anti-regime activists.

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