On 06 December 2024, another political prisoner, Hussein Ali Aman, died due to medical negligence in Jaw prison in Bahrain. Aman was one of the political prisoners who protested the death of other imprisoned political prisoners in what they described as a slow-death policy.

Last month, the Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR) reported on the dire conditions at Jaw prison where many political prisoners are held. The deteriorating conditions led to the death of a young political prisoner, Hussein Khalil Ibrahim Kadhim, due to medical negligence in March of this year.  Prisoners have since been protesting to demand better conditions and access to their legal rights to no avail.

Shortly before his death, Aman sent a voice message demanding a stop to the slow-death policy of the state against political prisoners, in which the prison authorities deny many basic rights, including access to adequate and timely medical care.

While protesting his death, prisoners managed to reach the electronic monitoring rooms and obtain many official documents. Other prisoners in different buildings have also joined the protests after the death of Aman, to seek an immediate response from the authorities to their demands. Security forces have since forced them out with few exceptions. Those who managed to call their families reported use of excessive force by the authorities against the protesting prisoners, including beating and deprivation of food for days. They also report that there was no possible negotiation with the authorities around the demands of the prisoners.  

Families of the prisoners were alarmed about the news of deaths and riots, while they couldn’t verify the status of their loved ones because prisoners were cut off from communications. Family members organized several protests across the country to demand communications with their imprisoned family members.

Ali Muhanna, the father of one of the protesting prisoners, Hussein Muhanna, couldn’t communicate with his son for 63 days. He then received a call from his son on 08 December 2024, informing him that he was severely beaten along with others by the security forces, who stormed in to end the protests. The father sent several appeals online for the authorities to allow him access to his son and went to the police station to file a complaint to no avail. Instead, the authorities have summoned him to the Sitra police station and informed him that he is charged with incitement to protests in front of the police station and joining an unauthorised gathering.

The use of excessive force against prisoners, who are demanding their basic rights of medical care, adequate diet, access to calls and visits, and an end to targeting people for political reasons, is reprehensible and must end.

GCHR has documented for years cases of several human rights defenders in Jaw prison who are suffering deteriorating health without access to proper care, including its co-founder, Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja, who remains in prison for almost 5000 days. GCHR is deeply concerned about the rising death rate among political prisoners and the absence of meaningful channels for the families and prisoners to negotiate their situations and needs with the Bahraini authorities.

Recommendations

GCHR demands the following:

1. For the Bahraini authorities to immediately investigate the use of excessive force against prisoners and restore their access to calls and visits with their families;
2. For the Bahraini authorities to respect the prisoners’ basic rights and provide adequate medical care to avoid further deaths and deterioration of the prisoners’ health conditions;
3. For the Bahraini government to end targeting of citizens who exercise their rights to express their opinions and peacefully protest the policies of the state; and to unconditionally release all political prisoners who are in prison for exercising those rights; and
4. For the international community to support prisoners of conscience by organising protests in front of Bahraini embassies in their countries and to call on the Bahraini authorities and their representatives to respect civil and political rights.