MANAMA (Dispatches) – 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.
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.
Meanwhile, over twenty international human rights organizations have called for immediate and unconditional release of prominent Bahraini human rights activist Abduljalil al-Singace, who is serving a life sentence following the 2011 popular uprising.
The 23 groups, which include Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (BIRD), Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain (ADHRB), Bahrain Press Association (BPA), Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), PEN International and Project on Middle East Democracy (POMED), called on Bahraini authorities to immediately release the 61-year-old academic, award-winning activist and blogger.
The rights organizations referred to a letter they wrote on August 13 last year, in which they requested the immediate and unconditional release of Singace, as well as measures that he would receive adequate healthcare, be protected from torture and other ill-treatment, and his academic work be transferred to his family.
None of those requests have so far been met or acknowledged, and Singace’s situation remains one of increasing concern, they lamented.
Demonstrations have been held in Bahrain on a regular basis since a popular uprising began in the Arab country in mid-February 2011.
People demand that the Al Khalifah regime relinquish power and allow a just system representing all Bahrainis to be established.
Manama, however, has gone to great lengths to clamp down on any form of dissent.