Urgent Intervention Requested on behalf of Human Rights Defender, Abdulhadi Al Khawaja
April 21, 2011
The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint programme of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), has received new information and requests your urgent intervention in the following situation in Bahrain.
New information:
The Observatory has been informed by reliable sources about the ongoing incommunicado and arbitrary detention of Mr. Abdulhadi Al Khawaja, former Regional Protection Coordinator at Front Line and former President of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights (BCHR).
On April 20, 2011, Mr. Abdulhadi Al Khawaja was allowed to make a one-minute phone call to his wife. He informed her that he was supposed to appear on April 21, at 8.00 am before the military court. Before this call, Mr. Alkhawaja’s daughter received a call from the military asking her to bring clothes for him.
When his lawyers presented themselves before the military court, they were advised that the hearing will not take place on that date. They could not get any further information nor have access to their client.
The Observatory recalls that Mr. Abdulhadi Al Khawaja is being detained incommunicado since his brutal arrest on April 9, 2011 and that the charges pending against him remain unknown.
The Observatory firmly denounces the violation of his right to due process and fair trial by the Bahraini authorities, his arbitrary detention and the judicial harassment against him which seem to merely aim at sanctioning his human rights activities. The Observatory is also deeply concerned for his physical and psychological integrity.
The Observatory urges the Bahraini authorities to take the necessary measures to guarantee the safety of Mr. Abdulhadi Al Khawaja and all human rights defenders in Bahrain and, more generally, to comply with the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights Defenders adopted on December 9, 1998 by the United Nations General Assembly, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as well as international and regional human rights instruments ratified by Bahrain, including the International International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
Background information:
On April 9, 2011, Mr. Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja, who has been organising peaceful awareness-raising and human rights education activities for protesters in the recent weeks, was arrested at his daughter’s house, along with two of his sons-in-law, Messrs. Wafi Almajid and Hussein Ahmed, by masked policemen who forced entry to the building. The three men, and Mr. Al-Khawaja in particular, were severely beaten up before being taken to an unknown destination. Moreover, Mr. Mohammad Al-Maskati, another Mr. Al-Khawaja’s son-in-law as well as President of the Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights (BYHRS), who has been monitoring human rights violations committed since the protest movement began, and who was also present in the house, was severely beaten during the raid but not arrested. …more
