Wstern Puppet Al-Khalifa Regime Bars Entry of HRW’s Envoy to Manama

The al-Khalifa regime did not allow a Human Rights Watch (HRW) envoy to visit Manama to meet a number of human rights activists in the country.

“The officials of Bahrain’s international airport prevented the entry of Nicholas McGeehan, a member of the Human Rights Watch (HRW), last Friday night,” Bahrain’s Al-Wasat newspaper wrote on Sunday.

Informed sources told the newspaper that McGeehan had traveled from Doha in Qatar to the Bahraini capital, Manama, to meet a number of human rights activists, including the family of Nabeel Rajab, a jailed activist, but the Bahraini airport officials barred his entry.

Nabeel Rajab, who heads the Bahrain Center for Human Rights and has a popular Twitter account with more than 158,000 followers, was arrested in June on charges of “insulting in public” after tweeting:

“Khalifa, leave the residents of Al Mahraq, its Sheikhs and its elderly. Everyone knows that you are not popular here, and if there wasn’t a need for money, they wouldn’t have gone out to receive you. When will you step down?”

This wasn’t the first time that Rajab has felt the wrath of Bahraini authorities after speaking out against the regime’s human rights abuses and subordination tactics throughout the Bahraini uprising. Rajab led several of the anti-government protests that began in 2011, and was detained the same year after publicly criticizing the Bahraini security forces for attacking demonstrators.

Anti-government protesters have been holding peaceful demonstrations across Bahrain since mid-February 2011, calling for an end to the al-Khalifa dynasty.

Violence against the defenseless people escalated after a Saudi-led conglomerate of police, security and military forces from the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council (PGCC) member states – Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Qatar – were dispatched to the tiny Persian Gulf kingdom on March 13, 2011, to help Manama crack down on peaceful protestors.

So far, tens of protesters have been killed, hundreds have gone missing and thousands of others have been injured.

Police clampdown on protesters continues daily. Authorities have tried to stop organized protests by opposition parties over the past months by refusing to license them and using tear gas on those who turn up.

The opposition coalition wants full powers for the elected parliament and a cabinet fully answerable to parliament.