By Abimbola Ogunnaike
The United Nations has called on Bahrain government to immediately and unconditionally release the country’s leading pro-democracy activist, Naji Fateel and launch torture investigations about him.
In a report, the UN’s Working Group on Arbitrary Detention said the Al Khalifah regime should have never arrested the 48-year-old nearly a decade after he was imprisoned.
The UN said there was “no legal basis” to justify Fateel’s arrest and that, upon his release, Bahraini authorities should investigate his arbitrary detention and alleged torture.
“The working group notes with alarm the severity of the torture alleged,” the UN report said. “It urges the government to immediately and unconditionally release Mr Fateel and ensure that he receives medical care.”
Fateel was a board member of the Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights and a blogger dedicated to documenting violations when he was arrested in May 2013 over his protest activities.
The pro-democracy activist was allegedly tortured severely for days during which he lost consciousness and needed hospital treatment twice.
Fateel said he signed papers that he was not allowed to read under threat of sustained torture and being denied a lawyer. In 2013, he was convicted in two mass trials that were criticized by UN experts for failing to meet international standards.
Fateel, now 48, has been held in Jau Prison over the past decade, allegedly subject to further torture and ongoing medical neglect.
The Director of advocacy with the UK-based Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (BIRD), Sayed Alwadaei, which filed the claim that initiated the working group’s investigation, said the UN’s findings were “the best we can hope for.”
“You have a recognizable body that reviewed our claim and the government’s claim and made an opinion and that opinion is extremely strong in favour of the prisoner,” he said.
Alwadaei also pointed to ongoing issues that Fateel faces in prison, including a list of health issues that require urgent medical treatment that prison authorities have denied him for several years.
“Some of the pain he feels is a result of a metal rod placed in his left leg after he fell off a three-storey building while documenting a protest in 2011. The rod should have been removed 10 years ago, and now makes it difficult for Fateel to walk and is chronically inflamed,” he added.This is the third time since 2017 that a UN entity has called for Fateel’s release from the Al Khalifah regime’s prisons.
