UK’s Hammond under fire for secret visit to Manama

British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond has come under fire for a secret visit to Bahrain on the same day that the Manama regime extended the detention of a prominent opposition figure.

Bahraini dissidents and human rights activists as wells as politicians from the UK’s center-left Labor Party argue that Hammond’s last week visit to Manama and his exchange of pleasantries with Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa came on the same day as Manama extended Nabeel Rajab’s detention for another 15 days.

“It’s clear that the UK policy has failed in Bahrain and only serves to whitewash violations,” Sayed Alwadaei, director of advocacy at the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy said about the recently publicized trip.

Alwadaei, whose Bahraini citizenship was revoked by the Al Khalifa regime earlier this year, added, “Hammond rubs shoulders with members of Bahrain’s ruling family about further military and economic cooperation. What message does that send?”

Allan Hogarth, the head of policy and government affairs at Amnesty International, also criticized Hammond’s visit amid deteriorating human rights situation in Bahrain and the flagrant human rights abuses occurring on a daily basis in the tiny Persian Gulf kingdom.

“It’s hard to see what’s right about a direction of travel which is leading to the jailing of government critics, the holding of prisoners of conscience, and persistent reports of torture in detention. Hammond needs to urgently revise his rose-tinted view of Bahrain,” he said.

Meanwhile, Kerry McCarthy, British shadow foreign minister for human rights, questioned why the trip and its details have remained in secrecy.

“People will rightly ask why, unlike other international trips he has undertaken since parliament rose, he has so far made no public statement on the visit,” she said.

McCarthy added, “In recent months, the government has failed to explain why Bahrain is not classified as a ‘country of concern’ by the Foreign Office (FCO) annual human rights report, and it is in this context that questions will now be asked about his visit.”

Manama’s prosecutor Nawaf al-Avazi said in a statement on April 26 that Rajab was remanded in custody for a further two weeks, pending conclusion of more inquiry.

Avazi said the 51-year-old Bahraini human rights activist and opposition leader is charged with “spreading tendentious rumors” about Bahrain’s support for Saudi Arabia in its military aggression against Yemen and “attacking a state institution.”

Rajab’s family, however, say he was arrested on April 2 for allegedly posting comments on Twitter denouncing torture in a regime detention center where Shia activists are held. Bahrain first extended Rajab’s period of detention for 15 days on April 11.

Rajab, the director of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights and a co-founder of the [Persian] Gulf Center for Human Rights, was sentenced in January to six months in prison for posting tweets deemed critical of the Al Khalifa regime. He is awaiting the result of an appeal in that case, expected on May 4.

MP/MKA/HMV

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