News / Persian Gulf

Over 160 Bahraini inmates lodge complaint over degrading prison conditions

Monday, 16 January 2023 6:20 PM [ Last Update: Monday, 16 January 2023 6:20 PM ]

This undated file picture shows a view of inmates at the notorious Jau Prison, south of Manama, Bahrain. (Photo via Twitter)

More than 160 imprisoned Bahraini political opponents and pro-democracy activists have protested against humiliating treatment, inhumane conditions, and abusive treatment inside the kingdom’s notorious Jau Prison, and filed a complaint in the hope that their situation would improve.

The 162 detainees, who are being held in Building No. 10 of the detention center, located south of the capital Manama, demanded that all prisoners should be treated humanely, and that sustainable guarantees to the full resolution of their problems should be provided, the independent online newspaper Manama Post reported.

منتدى #البحرين: «أكثر من 160 معتقلًا سياسيًا يطالبون بتوفير ظروف إنسانيّة لما يتعرّضون له في السجون»#Bahrain @moi_bahrain @hrw_ar @AmnestyAR @USAbilAraby @BahrainCPnews @UNarabic @nihrbh @aibahrain | منامة بوست https://t.co/5NafhNScCP
— Manama Post (@manamapostNP) January 15, 2023

The prisoners went on to point to the deepening gap between the prison administration and inmates, and pleaded for an optimal and effective solution to their miseries, which are said to be exacerbating day by day.

They also called for the abolition of solitary confinement, adequate healthcare in Bahraini jails, permission to perform religious rituals and participate in the burial ceremonies of their relatives, and a reduction in the cost of contacting their families.

Earlier this month, an informed source warned about inhumane conditions at Bahrain’s Jau Prison, saying more than a dozen prisoners had been brutally beaten and subjected to various forms of physical torture there.

Lebanon’s Arabic-language al-Manar television network, citing the unnamed source, reported that officials at the prison had viciously beaten up 14 inmates, some of whom had suffered some kind of head injury.

The source expressed hope that the case would go to legal institutions inside and outside of Bahrain, and that prisoners would endure less torment at detention centers across the Persian Gulf kingdom.