‘Torture of Bahraini detainees persist’

Concerns grow over the health condition of detained Bahraini opposition leaders amid continuing reports of ongoing torture in the country’s prisons, Press TV reports.

“Fears for the lives of the opposition leaders jailed for their opinion and political demands have grown in the past two weeks,” Bahrain Freedom Movement said in a statement on Thursday, referring to recent reports of “criminal behavior” by Saudi-backed regime forces against political prisoners.

The human rights group highlighted the case of Hassan Mushaima, the leader of Haq Movement, whose health has been deteriorating due to the refusal of the Bahraini regime to arrange treatment for his cancer.

Last year, Mushaima was treated at the Royal Brompton Hospital in London and was completely cleared of cancer.

However, the abusive treatment he underwent following his arrest last March and the refusal of the US-backed Bahraini regime to offer him access to proper medical care has led to serious concerns about his health condition.

Bahrain Freedom Movement has called on international human rights organizations to take the cases of Bahraini detainees seriously, especially those of Hassan Mushaima and Abdul Wahab Hussain, who suffers from a serious nervous disease.

Bahraini people have been protesting the ill-treatment of their jailed leaders by staging street rallies in the past few days, while renewing their call for a regime change and an end to King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa’s despotic rule.

On Wednesday night, anti-regime protesters in Dair were attacked by Bahrain’s Saudi-backed security forces, who have employed a sort of chemical weapons in the form of tear gas canisters.

Activists accuse the Al Khalifa regime forces of attacking homes of Bahraini civilians with chemical tear gas, noting that at least seven people have been killed by the compounds in the fired canisters.

They complain that despite repeated calls to Britain and United States to stop supplying Riyadh and Manama with lethal weapons, there has been little response from either.

Scores of people have been killed and hundreds more arrested in a brutal crackdown on peaceful protesters in Bahrain since mid-February, when protests erupted against the decades-long rule of Al Khalifa royal family in the Persian Gulf kingdom.