At least 500 prisoners are on hunger strike inside a Bahraini prison primarily used to detain prisoners of conscience, refusing food in protest at their detention conditions.

Detainees began refusing food on 7 August, and increasing numbers have joined since.

Sayed Alwadaei, at the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (Bird) and a former inmate at Jau prison, said: “This is probably one of the most powerful strikes that has ever happened inside the Bahraini prison system; the scale of it is overwhelming.”

According to a statement from the inmates released through the outlawed Al-Wefaq opposition party, the hunger strike includes demands for increased time outside their cells, currently limited to an hour a day, prayers in congregation at the prison mosque, changes to constraints on family visits, improvements to education facilities and access to proper medical care.

Detainees at Jau prison that mainly houses prisoners of conscience began refusing food on 7 August

“These are not frivolous demands, but necessary ones required for human life,” the prisoners added.

The tiny Gulf island of Bahrain, population 1.5 million, has one of the highest incarceration rates per capita in the Middle East. An estimated 3,800 people are behind bars, of which Bird estimates that 1,200 are prisoners of conscience.

Since pro-democracy protests against the ruling Al Khalifa family swept Bahrain in 2011, a large number of people connected with demonstrations have been incarcerated. The government has launched sweeping crackdowns on activists, civil society and opposition political groups, including banning two political parties.

Most of the 1,200 political prisoners held in Bahrain are in Jau prison. Former inmates such as Alwadaei say political prisoners are housed in separate blocks and subjected to especially harsh treatment.

Prominent political prisoners, including the veteran human rights defender Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, are among the hunger strikers in Jau. His daughter, the activist Maryam al-Khawaja, said her father, who has been incarcerated since 2011, launched his own hunger strike to demand adequate medical treatment for a heart condition, after he was denied an appointment with a cardiologist on 11 occasions.

She said her father believed he had been singled out for additional punishment after demanding that prisoners received proper medical attention.

The lack of medical care, she said, was putting his life at risk. “He has a heart arrhythmia and he is at risk of a heart attack or a stroke at any time. We believe my father needs urgent surgery to install a pacemaker.”

Prisoners say denial of medical treatment, use of punitive solitary confinement and abuse are common. The family of Ahmed Jaafar Mohamed Ali, a dissident extradited from Serbia to Bahrain last year in contravention of a ruling by the European court of human rights because of fears he would be tortured in Bahrain, said he had joined the hunger strike.

His family say that after Ali demanded to see the duty officer at Jau on 15 August, the officer arrived and instructed other guards to pepper spray Ali in the face. He was then bound, with his arms behind his back and on his legs, before being taken to solitary confinement.

The national communication centre of Bahrain told the Guardian after publication: “The government of Bahrain is committed to protecting human rights and ensuring that international standards are met for all dealings with inmates at its reform and rehabilitation facilities”, and repeatedly asserted there were no prisoners of conscience held within its system.

Officers and other employees at Jau prison “are fully committed to dealing with inmates in accordance to the law,” it added.

The office of Bahrain’s interior ministry ombudsman said it had conducted investigations to “ensure the inmates obtain all their rights, whether from health care, visits or contact with their families, and are not being subjected to ill-treatment”.

Maryam al-Khawaja pointed to the broad international assistance received by Bahraini authorities from abroad, including Britain. The UK prime minister, Rishi Sunak, met the crown prince of Bahrain, Salman Bin Hamad Al Khalifa, in July. Britain also increased funding to the Bahraini interior ministry and security bodies to £1.8m last year through its opaque Gulf strategy fund.

She said: “The ruling family know they are incredibly dependent on their western allies … in many ways they [the allies] have enabled the Bahraini regime to stay in power.”

By Ruth Michaelson – Theguardian.com

L’article At least 500 Bahraini prisoners on hunger strike over conditions est apparu en premier sur زوايا ميادين | Mayadin Columns.

Mays Abu Ghosh, a 22-year-old Palestinian student, was released by Israeli forces on Monday, 15 months after she was arrested.

Abu Ghosh, a journalism student at Birzeit University, was arrested in August 2019 and charged with being a member of the Democratic Progressive Student Pole, a student bloc banned by Israeli military orders, and taking part in student activities against Israeli occupation.

She was also charged with “communicating with an enemy” – she took part in a conference on the Palestinian right of return – and contributing to an allegedly Hezbollah-affiliated news agency.

Abu Ghosh was fined 2,000 shekels ($600) and released from Damon prison at the Jalameh checkpoint, north of the illegally occupied West Bank city of Jenin, where her family and friends received her.

Israeli border policemen detain a Palestinian protester at a demonstration in support of Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike in Israeli jails, in the illegally occupied West Bank town of Bethlehem [File: Ammar Awad/Reuters]

Several human rights groups said Abu Ghosh told them about the physical and psychological torture she suffered for more than a month at the notorious Maskobiyeh interrogation centre in Jerusalem.

The groups added that she was forced into several stress positions for extended hours and was threatened that she would go home either paralysed or mentally broken. She was also forced to listen to the cries and screams of other prisoners undergoing interrogation, and faced repeated slaps to her face as Israeli soldiers shouted obscenities at her.

“I want to tell everyone what happened with me during the interrogation and torture period,” Abu Ghosh told Al Jazeera a day after she was released. “Not as something that has happened to me but for any Palestinian to know what to expect when Israel arrests them.”

Israeli military courts, which Palestinians in the occupied territories are tried by, have a 99.74 percent conviction rate.

“The military prosecution charged Abu Ghosh over acts related to her student union activities at the university in addition to her media action,” said Addameer, a prisoner rights group. “Such a practice demonstrates the occupation authorities’ criminalisation of fundamental human rights through military orders.”

Palestinians stage a demonstration in support of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah in December 2019 [File photo]

Abu Ghosh added that the message she carries from other female prisoners is one of “national unity”.

“They also have demands regarding living conditions, especially for those who are serving long sentences,” she said. “Cameras in the prison courtyard are on all the time and violate their privacy.”

Family targeted

In January 2016, Abu Ghosh’s older brother Hussein was killed by Israeli forces for allegedly carrying out a stabbing attack.

Israeli forces then demolished their family home.

In August 2019, Abu Gosh’s then home was raided at dawn by Israeli forces accompanied by military dogs.

She was taken to a separate room and ordered to switch on her laptop and phone. Following her refusal, she was blindfolded, handcuffed and arrested.

A month later, her 17-year-old brother Suleiman was arrested to pressure Abu Ghosh into a confession. He served four months under administrative detention – imprisoned by Israel without charge or trial. Her parents were also summoned for interrogation.

According to Addameer, 40 Palestinian women are imprisoned by Israel. The total prison population currently stands at 4,500 – including 170 minors and 370 administrative detainees.

In Damon prison, seven prisoners have taken up university courses but a raid on their cells by the Israeli Prison Service last week resulted in their books being confiscated.

Following her release, Abu Ghosh said she wants to finish her studies and continue with her media training.

“The prison authorities threatened to isolate prisoners who continue their studies,” Abu Ghosh said.

“We [with other prisoners] formed a small programme to study philosophy, Arabic literature, and poetry. We also had certain rituals we did together, like getting ready before a family visit.”

SOURCE : AL JAZEERA

L’article Palestinian student released from Israeli jail after 15 months est apparu en premier sur زوايا ميادين | Mayadin Columns.