News / Persian Gulf

5,000 prisoners of conscience in Bahraini regime’s detention, says rights group

Saturday, 19 January 2019 3:18 PM [ Last Update: Saturday, 19 January 2019 3:43 PM ]

In this file picture, Bahraini regime forces arrest a protester during a demonstration against the ruling Al Khalifah regime in the village of Shakhurah, west of Manama. (Photo by AFP)

An independent human rights group says it has documented the arrest of more than 5,000 prisoners of conscience in addition to 200 victims of excessive use of force, murder and torture in the tiny Persian Gulf kingdom, as the ruling Al Khalifah regime presses ahead with its heavy clampdown on political dissidents and pro-democracy activists.

The head of the Bahrain Center for Dialogue and Tolerance, Sheikh Maytham al-Salman, said in a statement during a conference held in Lebanese capital Beirut that "human rights as well as civil and political situation in Bahrain have deteriorated."

Continued deterioration of the human rights situation in Bahrain is taking place amid silence from the international community, including the United Kingdom and the United States of America,” Salman added.

مركز البحرين للحوار والتسامح وثق اعتقال أكثر من 5000 سجين رأي في البحرينhttps://t.co/qgiRmcp9QG
— BahrainMirror (@BahrainMirror) January 18, 2019

Salman then called on international diplomatic missions to investigate the trials of political and human rights activists in Bahrain, record the violence they face in prisons, and use diplomatic visits to examine the status of detainees.

Thousands of anti-regime protesters have held demonstrations in Bahrain on an almost daily basis ever since a popular uprising began in the country in mid-February 2011.

They are demanding that the Al Khalifah regime relinquish power and allow a just system representing all Bahrainis to be established.

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Manama has gone to great lengths to clamp down on any sign of dissent. On March 14, 2011, troops from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were deployed to assist Bahrain in its crackdown.

Scores of people have lost their lives and hundreds of others sustained injuries or got arrested as a result of the Al Khalifah regime’s crackdown.

On March 5, 2017, Bahrain’s parliament approved the trial of civilians at military tribunals in a measure blasted by human rights campaigners as being tantamount to imposition of an undeclared martial law countrywide.

Bahraini monarch King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifah ratified the constitutional amendment on April 3, 2017.

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