LONDON (Middle East Eye) – British lawmakers, trade unions, NGOs, academics, and lawyers are calling on the government to push Bahrain to release a key opposition figure who has been on hunger strike for months over his “ill-treatment” in prison.
In a joint letter addressed to Foreign Secretary Liz Truss on Saturday, they accused the UK of turning a blind eye to the case of Abduljalil al-Singace.
“16 rights groups, 101 global academics, and numerous British parliamentarians have called on Bahrain, a close UK ally, to meet Singace’s demands and order his release.
“Yet despite calling for the release of prominent human rights defenders imprisoned by hostile states, the UK government has made no substantive statement, instead repeating false assurances from Bahrain about his case,” said the statement, which has 77 signatures and was released by the office of Liberal Democrat MP Alistair Carmichael.
Since beginning the hunger strike, Singace has lost over 20kg and been hospitalized since 18 July, the letter said.
“This silence risks emboldening Bahrain in their criminalization of peaceful dissent and torture of dissidents. The UK government must condemn Bahrain’s persecution of Singace, call for the return of his intellectual property, and immediate and unconditional release. This miscarriage of justice must end,” the letter read.
Singace launched his hunger strike on 8 July “in response to degrading treatment he was subjected to by a prison officer, to protest the restriction of being permitted to call only five numbers during the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic”, rights groups said in a statement at the time.
The 59-year-old is also demanding a book he has been working on for at least four years be returned to him after it was confiscated by prison guards on 9 April.
Singace, an academic and blogger, has said the book was about linguistic diversity in Bahraini Arabic dialects and had no political content.
A decade ago, Singace was among 13 anti-government protesters who were arrested and convicted on charges that included “setting up terror groups to topple the regime”.
He was sentenced to life imprisonment and has been in prison since.
In July, rights groups reported that Singace was suffering from chronic illnesses and facing “sustained medical negligence”.
Human rights activists have been calling on the UK and the U.S. - both allies of Bahrain - to take action on Singace’s case.