“This time the sacrifice may be too high” – we care deeply about our friend Abdulhadi

“This time the sacrifice may be too high”
Mary.Lawlor’s blog – Front Line Defenders – 16 March, 2012

It is so difficult trying to keep thinking of new things we can do to secure the release of our friend and ex employee Abdulhadi now on his 36th day of hunger strike. Dealing with the Bahraini authorities and those designated to talk to us is so frustrating. We both politely go through the motions . But this is not a game – we care deeply about our friend Abdulhadi – and his health and life are at stake. We are waiting for a crack of light to appear.

I try and extract some hope that they will allow Abdulhadi go to Denmark for medical treatment. I try to emphasise how much damage allowing Abdulhadi to die in prison will do to Bahrain – for starters they can say goodbye to Formula 1 if Abdulhadi dies before then . Bahrain’s economy has suffered significantly due to the impact of the uprising on the financial sector, and the Economist Intelligence Unit “forecasts growth of just 2.4 percent, compared to nearly four percent in 2010″ More importantly continued instability will further damage Bahrain’s reputation as a financial hub and as we’ve seen in Ireland lead investors to move operations.

Abdulhadi is naturally thin, he was brutally tortured, he is not a good candidate for a hunger strike. He has never used violence. He was sentenced to life imprisonment after an unfair trial before a military court.

I cannot imagine the stress and fear that Khadija, his wife and 4 daughters, Maryam, Zainab, Fatima and Batool are going through. I know that Abdulhadi asked Khadija the night before he went on hunger strike was she ready because ” this time the sacrifice may be too high”. …more