Al Khalifa to continue its ill-treatment: Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei

Press TV has conducted an interview with Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei, human rights activist, about Bahraini demonstrators who have, once again, staged protests against the ruling Al Khalifa family across the country.

What follows is an approximate transcription of the interview.

Press TV: There has been a wide array of new tactics of intimidation, prosecution and persecution by the security forces in Bahrain.

How far are the Al Khalifas willing to go with their crackdown on the demonstrations?

Alwadaei: As long as Al Khalifa is being backed up by the Saudis and they are still provided with the political coverage from the United States, from the United Kingdom, then we will see these kind of acts continue in Bahrain.

And unfortunately the people of Bahrain will have to continue their suffer in order to reach their goal of having full democracy in their country.

Yesterday what has happened, a woman in her home trying to protect her son, the police raided the house and beaten[sic] the woman and then get her son arrested. This kind of ill-treatment in 2013, two years after Bassiouni [Report] where the systematic torture was confirmed and this kind of ill treatment continued to happen in the country and the people are so angry about what happened especially when it comes to women and you know we as Muslims, how much we give respect to those women basically, culturally and religiously.

So seeing them beaten and this time it has been filmed and there are some photos of how this woman was beaten in front of her son and how she had seen her son being taken away and beaten in front of her.

This kind of ill-treatment will not stop until we see a serious pressure to the Bahraini government. However the Bahraini people are still insisting to fight for their freedom.

What is happening to Mr. Abdulwahab Hussain, a prominent opposition which is serving life imprisonment only for opposing the regime and calling for the right of self determination. Mr. Abdulwahab Hussain continued to suffer from a number of issues. Recently from the last visit of the family, he was told they have taken a lot of tests on his heart as it is becoming really tiring because of the blood stability. There has been a record of six to eight Hp level on blood which is very low and that causes him a new issue with heart which he never had in the past.

At the same time he had an operation for the eye where there was a detachment on the retina and that could cause blindness. Unfortunately the regime in Bahrain is not providing the family with any medical record and that is making it very difficult to follow up with other doctors for consultation.

Mr. Abdulwahab [Hussain] had been sent to the United Kingdom for a medical treatment. That was in 2005 until 2007 and it seems he got an issue with the nerve and it seems all the symptoms have returned back to him without seeing any…, the country has not got any specialize[sic] which could look at his case and give him the right course of treatment.

Press TV: Mr. Alwadaei, one last question briefly before we leave you, how do you see these silence of mainstream Western media and also the governments of some of those Western countries with regards to the constant rights violations that have been taking place in Bahrain?

Alwadaei: For instance if we look at the case of Nabeel Rajab as an example, a prominent human rights defender, so I mean I would presume the Western countries would be pushing for his release by this time especially he had been arrested for a tweet, solely related to freedom of expression.

We have not seen the right pressure by both the United Kingdom or the United States calling for his immediate release specially he has spent over third of the period, so he is subject to a release [order] by the prison administration.

But without seeing any pressure from those Western countries, most likely the Bahraini regime will continue to ignore all the calls from the people and all the calls from the human rights organizations.