MANAMA (Dispatches) – The al-Wefaq National Islamic Society, Bahrain’s main opposition group, has expressed serious concern about the unhealthy conditions in the tiny Persian Gulf kingdom’s detention centers, saying that political prisoners suffer high rates of chronic health conditions.
Al-Wefaq, in a statement released on Saturday night, announced that the imprisoned campaigners are exposed to various forms of mental and physical health conditions, denouncing their mistreatment as criminal and potentially fatal.
“Leaked documents from dozens of political prisoners indicate that the inmates are being kept in very terrible conditions,” the statement read.
The Bahraini opposition group criticized the international community’s indifference to the miserable condition of imprisoned political inmates and deplored Western governments’ ‘fake’ advocacy for human rights.
“Depriving inmates of drinking water, treatment and medical supplies, heat and hot water, sunlight and contact with family, in addition to other inhumane conditions amount to a crime and represent a systematic assault on the lives of political prisoners. These detainees are being held behind bars for their advocacy of human rights, and fighting for legitimate political and humanitarian demands as well as civil liberties,” al-Wefaq said.
“Political prisoners in Bahrain have been arrested, tortured, and sentenced to lengthy jail terms, stripped of their citizenship and isolated politically and socially, only because they demanded democracy, justice, freedom, and respect for human rights,” the statement added.
The Bahraini opposition group denounced the Al Khalifah regime’s heavy-handed clampdown as suffocating and atrocious, stating that continuation of the status quo will shut the door to reconciliation.
Anti-monarchy demonstrations began in mid-February 2011 and have been held on a regular basis ever since the popular uprising started.
Demonstrators demand that the Al Khalifah regime relinquish power, and a democratic, just system representing all Bahrainis be established.
The Manama regime, however, has responded to demands for social equality with an iron fist, clamping down on voices of dissent.
In March 2017, Bahrain’s parliament approved the trial of opposition civilians at military tribunals in a measure blasted by human rights campaigners as being tantamount to the imposition of an undeclared martial law.
The monarch, King Hamad, ratified the constitutional amendment in April 2017, bringing about further suppression of political dissent in the tiny Persian Gulf Island under the strong influence of the Saudi regime.