Bahrain: Prisoner Of Conscience Denied Health Care
Prominent human rights defender and prisoner of conscience Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja, aged 61, co-founded both the Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR) and the Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR). Until early 2011, he worked as MENA Protection Coordinator for the human rights group Frontline Defenders. He also previously took part in an Amnesty International fact-finding visit to Iraq in 2003 and is a member of the International Advisory Network of the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre. He is a peaceful advocate of human rights and the recipient of several human rights awards, including the Dignity - World without Torture Award which he received in October 2013. Most recently, in 2022, he obtained the prestigious Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders. Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja is serving a life sentence in Jaw prison for his role in leading peaceful protests during the 2011 popular uprising in Bahrain. He was convicted and sentenced following a military trial in 2011 and later at a retrial in 2012 by a civilian court on charges including “setting up terror groups to topple the royal regime and change the constitution”.
On 4 May 2023, the United Nations published a joint communication sent earlier in the year by the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders and five other UN experts to the government of Bahrain, expressing their utmost concern over Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja’s case, including his arbitrary detention and renewed allegations of torture, and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment and punishment. On 17 April 2023, the Bahrain government responded to the letter not recognizing Abdulhadi al-Khawaja as a human rights defender, rather labelling him as a “terrorist”. It also said that he was enjoying his rights, including healthcare and legal representation.
On 9 May 2023, Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja began a daily protest in front of the CCTV cameras in the prison yard in order for him and his fellow prisoners to access the necessary medical appointments. He would hold up written signs that read: “Preventing medical treatment is slow, systematic murder” and “You commit torture and prevent medical treatment”. On 14 May 2023, he told his family that he was temporarily suspending his protest as the prison administration had promised to improve conditions and allow him access to adequate treatment, but he is yet to see the specialists who were meant to examine him.
On 6 November 2022, during a call with his daughters who live abroad, Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja said that he was facing a number of new trials. He told them that the first trial began on 3 November 2022 in his absence before the Second Lower Criminal Court for allegedly breaking a plastic chair and insulting a police officer in Jaw prison in November 2021 after being denied phone calls with his daughters. His second trial began on 21 November 2022, on charges of “insulting a public servant”. The case relates to an incident on 30 March 2022, when Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja protested against the normalization deal with Israel (Abraham Accords) and told a prison officer “You are a dirty and unclean person. You have a way of treating people like animals”.
On 28 November 2022, the court convicted and fined Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja in both cases. The two cases were taken before the Second High Criminal Court of Appeal. On 29 December 2022, the court ruled that Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja did not have the right to appeal his conviction and 100 Bahraini dinars (equivalent to 265 US dollars) fine in relation to the second case for insulting a public servant. On 5 January 2023, the court upheld his conviction and the fine of 60 Bahraini dinars (equivalent to 160 US dollars) in the first case for breaking a chair and insulting a public servant.
Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja was not allowed to attend any of the courts’ proceedings.
On 15 December 2022, the European Parliament adopted an urgent resolution highlighting Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja’s case and those of other political prisoners and calling for his release.