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Urgent Appeal: Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja Transferred to Emergency Hospital in Critical Health Condition

2023-03-03 - 4:19 p

Bahrain Mirror (Exclusive): Human rights activist Maryam Al-Khawaja sent an urgent appeal through twitter to exert all kinds of pressure to save the life of her father, Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja. 

Al-Khawaja addressed Hamad Al Khalifa, Salman Al Khalifa and the Interior Ministry, through a video on Twitter, saying "I'm willing to swap places with my father so he can receive the urgent medical treatment he needs in Denmark"

Maryam said in a previous tweet "Al-Khawaja taken to emergency hospital due to urgent heart issue, denied access to cardiologist."

Professor Damian McCormack, surgeon at Temple Street, Dublin, Ireland, commented on Al-Khawaja's heart issue: "I am very alarmed at the news that Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja has been refused cardiology assessment and denied treatment while suffering from a symptomatic cardiac arrhythmia, possible atrial fibrillation, which puts him at immediate risk of both heart attack and stroke. Furthermore, the fact that they attempted to place him in chains and denied treatment in an R.C.S.I training hospital in Manama, (Bahrain Defence Forces Hospital) should be of the highest concern to the Irish Medical Council who have recently accredited that institution for medical training despite multiple allegations of torture in the recent past, including that of Al-Khawaja himself.

Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja should immediately be transferred to a tertiary level cardiac care unit for diagnostics and treatment. I am anxious to facilitate his medical evacuation to Ireland if possible and hope that senior RCSI staff in Bahrain can encourage the regime to authorize the same."

Maryam Al-Khawaja commented: "How can this feel like anything but the Bahrain regime trying to murder my father? As he was trying to tell me what was happening with him they cut the call twice. I sat there for a long time staring at my phone hoping he would call again. I am constantly in a state of anxiety waiting for that call that something happened to my father in their notorious prison, and this latest news has now increased my anxiety ten fold. My father is dying in their prisons, and the international community, especially the EU and Denmark, have failed him time and time again to serve their own short-sighted interests. It is freedom loving people like my father and our family that bear the brunt of the cost of those interests. I do not want my father released to our family in a coffin. We need Bahrain's allies, namely the West, to move before it's too late."  

Arabic Version