2017 Worst Year for Human Rights in Bahrain: Activist
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Chairman of an organization advocating democracy in Bahrain described 2017 as the worst year in the history of the Al Khalifa regime’s violation of human rights, saying the number of Bahraini nationals stripped of citizenship by the Manama regime in 2017 exceeded 150.
In an interview with the Arabic-language Lualua TV network, Jawad Fairooz, chairman and a founder of SALAM for Democracy and Human Rights, said 2017 was the most terrible year in terms of human rights violations in Bahrain.
Three Bahraini citizens and a foreign national were executed in 2017 and 14 others were sentenced to death, Fairooz noted, saying a total of 504 Bahraini people have been stripped of their citizenship so far, including 154 in 2017.
He also condemned the Manama regime for revoking the citizenship of people as a weapon to suppress protests, slamming it as spiritual execution of citizens.
While the Bahraini government’s harsh crackdown on peaceful protests has drawn international concerns, Lualua TV quoted sources from inside the Jau prison south of Manama as reporting an escalation of pressure on the inmates and the outbreak of a new skin disease in the prison.
Activists say prisoners in Jau are being kept in terrible hygienic conditions as many of them have caught the new disease that causes severe irritation to skin and hemorrhage.
According to local sources, the prison officials also deprive the inmates of water for nine hours every day.
Bahrain, a close ally of the US in the Persian Gulf region, has been witnessing almost daily protests against the ruling Al Khalifa dynasty since early 2011, with Manama using heavy-handed measures in an attempt to crush the demonstrations.
Scores of Bahrainis have been killed and hundreds of others injured and arrested in the ongoing crackdown on the peaceful demonstrations.
