Hunger striking-inmates’ health critically worsening in Bahrain’s infamous prison: Report

Rasa - The health conditions of Bahraini political activists Naji Fateel and Ali Haji have been increasingly deteriorating over the past weeks due to a hunger strike the pair have joined to voice their strong dissent against the dire living conditions in Bahrain’s notorious Jaw prison, a new report says.

News ID: 442514

Date: 19 December 2018 - 19:43

According to a report by the Britain-based Arabic-language Bahrain al-Youm news agency on Tuesday, the authorities of the prison are indifferent to critical conditions of Fateel, a human rights activist and member of the board of directors of the Bahraini human rights NGO Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights (BYSHR), and Haji, a political activist.

The report, citing a an unnamed source from within the prison, also reported that the activists, who are strongly against the policies adopted by the Al Khalifah regime in the Persian Gulf island country, have already entered their fourth week of hunger strike.

The sources further said that the inmates were suffering from pains in different parts of their bodies, particularly in stomach, adding that they were suffering from dizziness most of the time.

Fateel and Haji had previously joined other rounds of hunger strikes in protest against the non-fulfillment of their natural rights to treatment, demanding improvement of the service situation inside the jail.

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

They are demanding that the Al Khalifah regime 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. On March 14, 2011, troops from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were deployed to assist Bahrain in its crackdown.

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 March 5, 2017, Bahrain’s parliament approved the trial of civilians at military tribunals in a measure blasted by human rights campaigners as being tantamount to imposition of an undeclared martial law countrywide.

Bahraini monarch King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifah ratified the constitutional amendment on April 3 last year.

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