Human Rights groups press Obama on Bahrain

Human rights groups press Obama on Bahrain
By Josh Rogin – 11 April, 2012 – Foreign Policy

Several NGOs have written to U.S. President Barack Obama demanding he weigh in on the case of Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, the jailed Bahraini human rights activist who they say may die soon due to an ongoing hunger strike.

“We write to urge you to publicly call on the Government of Bahrain to immediately and unconditionally release from prison Abdulhadi al-Khawaja. Al-Khawaja is a Bahraini human rights defender and democracy activist who may soon die, as he has been on a hunger strike for more than two months,” reads an April 9 letter signed by Amnesty International, 3P Human Security, Physicians for Human Rights, Freedom House, Human Rights First, Human Rights Watch, Just Foreign Policy, the Project on Middle East Democracy, the Foreign Policy Initiative, the AFL-CIO Solidarity Center, Citizens for Global Solutions, and Americans for Democracy and Human Rights in Bahrain.

Khawaja has been a human rights and democracy activist in Bahrain for decades, having been exiled to Denmark during most of the 1980s and allowed to return to Bahrain with his family in 1991. His daughter Maryam, who lives in Bahrain, is one of the leaders of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights and has actively spoken out against the Bahrain government’s actions against peaceful protesters since the current bout of unrest began in February 2011.

He was arrested in April 2011 and two months later sentenced to life in prison in a group trial with 20 other activists before a military court. The Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI) later stated that the trials did not meet international standards of due process.

The human rights groups allege that Khawaja was tortured in prison and was subsequently admitted to a military hospital, where he has undergone multiple surgeries due to a broken jaw and a cracked skull. He began his hunger strike in February.

“The evidence is clear that Al-Khawaja and others were sentenced in violation of their rights to freedom of expression, assembly and association, which are protected under international law,” they wrote. “We are deeply concerned about the health of human rights defender Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja, and respectfully request that the United States urge the Government of Bahrain to release Al-Khawaja immediately, and allow him to travel abroad, including for medical treatment, if he wishes to do so.” …more