Nabeel Rajab subjected to ill-treatment in prison – solitary confinement

Update: Human Rights defender Nabeel Rajab subjected to ill-treatment in prison and placed in a solitary confinement
21 August, 2012 – Bahrain Center for Human Rights

Further to our joint appeal on 16 August 2012 (Kindly see the following link: Bahrain, emboldened by international silence, sentences Nabeel Rajab to 3 years imprisonment), the GCHR and BCHR express their concerns over the recent confirmed information that leading human rights defender Nabeel Rajab has been placed in solitary confinement and banned from making unmonitored telephone calls to his family following the 3 years imprisonment sentence against him on Thursday 16 August 2012.

On 20 August 2012 evening the human rights defender called his family for the first time since the day in which the sentence was imposed. He was cautiously informing his family for being threatened that the call will be cut if involved news about Bahrain. He also confirmed to his wife that the authorities have put him in a solitary confinement and have not had access to any newspapers during the past days. The call, which lasted less than two minutes, was cut suddenly.

The GCHR and BCHR condemn the ill-treatment of leading human rights defender Nabeel Rajab and are very concerned about placing him in a solitary confinement. The GCHR and BCHR believe strongly that the authorities have violated the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners that states in article 30.1 “No prisoner shall be punished except in accordance with the terms of such law or regulation.” And in article 32.1 “Punishment by close confinement shall never be inflicted unless the medical officer has examined the prisoner and certified in writing that he is fit to sustain it.”

In addition, GCHR and BCHR have also received information that the prison administration is monitoring the calls of the detained human rights defenders and leading activists. Its reported that an officer had interrupted a call between a detained leading activist, Ebrahim Sharif and his wife Mrs Fareeda Ghulum, then the call was cut while she was describing the situation in Bahrain after the alleged kiling of 16 years old child Hussam AlHaddad by the security forces, on 18 August 2012. …more