Bahrain Mirror: The Independent Ombudsman Office said that it visited the Dry Dock Prison this month and found that inmates are receiving appropriate living and health care, stressing that the issue of the hunger strike is a voluntary option for any inmate, with the preference not to do it and to refer to the institutional means at the competent authority to consider their assistant requests.

It added in a statement on (November 23, 2021) after receiving a number of mothers of inmates in Custody Detention Centre (Dry Dock) that their testimonies were heard and they filled their requests in writing through the complaint forms, while others were asked to write through WhatsApp.

The Independent Ombudsman Office team visited the Custody Detention Centre (Dry Dock), to investigate the allegations, and it became clear by interviewing a group of these inmates that they had several demands, that includes increasing the time allocated for them to go out of their cells together to the yards, and that keeping the cell doors open 24 hours, freedom of movement between the cells in the wards around the clock, and moving from one floor to the next inside the building without complying with the regulatory periods, changing the guard ward policemen who are in one of the buildings with other policemen

The center's administration indicated that all of these requests are against the law, and that such response to the requests will lead to the spread of a form of unfair treatment to the other inmates that are obligated to the law and the regulations of the place, and they are the majority.

The Independent Ombudsman Office investigations concluded that the procedures followed in Custody Detention Centre (Dry Dock) are right through which "safety standards and ward off risks" are applied. It added that the issue of hunger strike is a voluntary option for any inmate, with the preference not to do it and to refer to the institutional means at the competent authority to consider their assistant requests.

Arabic Version