Bahrain Political Prisoner Dies From ‘Medical Negligence’: Opposition

Date: 07 April 2021 - 21:28

News ID: ۸۸۹۱۰

MANAMA (Dispatches) – A Bahraini political prisoner has died at a detention center, which the regime authorities have claimed was due to "natural causes.”
However, the main opposition group Al-Wefaq, which was dissolved in 2016, has claimed that he died "as a result of dangerous, inhumane conditions [and] medical negligence.”
A statement was issued by Al-Wefaq on Tuesday, following reports that Abbas Malallah passed away at the notorious Jau Prison.
His funeral procession brought out protestors around the country as he was laid to rest in his home village of Nuwaidrat, approximately 10 kilometers south of the capital Manama. He is survived by his wife and three children.
Malallah was arrested on May 17 in 2011 after being accused of taking part in anti-regime demonstrations during the Bahraini Uprising earlier that year.
He was sentenced to 15 years and 6 months in prison. However, his health is said to have deteriorated since 2019 and his body is said to have been lodged with pellets as a result of shots fired by the regime’s forces.
His family had reportedly raised his plight with the authorities to provide him with adequate healthcare.
Separately, detained opposition figure and former member of parliament, Sheikh Hassan Issa, has been admitted to the hospital after he reported chronic fatigue and muscle weakness because of COVID-19 infection.
On Monday, Bahrain’s most prominent cleric Ayatollah Sheikh Isa Qassim expressed concern over the poor healthcare situation in the country’s prisons and jails, renewing his call for the immediate release of political inmates in light of the deadly coronavirus pandemic.
Demonstrations in Bahrain have been held on a regular basis ever since a popular uprising began in mid-February 2011.