Bahrain Mirror: 15 human rights organizations sent a letter to British Secretary of State for Foreign James Cleverly calling on his government to press the Bahraini authorities to unconditionally release all political prisoners in the Bahraini prisons, indicating that the ongoing detention and possible death of prominent Bahraini human rights defenders in state custody threaten UK interests.

In their letter to Cleverly, the NGOs called on his government to influence the "Bahraini authorities to unconditionally release all those sentenced for their political beliefs on abusive charges or after unfair trials, including human rights defenders Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja and Abduljalil Al-Singace, and in the interim, to ensure all prisoners' immediate access to medical care and humane prison conditions."

"Political prisoners in Jaw Prison are forced to endure extremely harsh conditions, including spending 23 hours each day in their cells. The prisoners are calling for an end to solitary confinement, increased time outside of their cells, prayer in congregation at the prison building mosque, face-to-face visitation without glass barriers, proper medical care, and access to education," the letter read.

"We are particularly concerned for the life of Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja, a prominent Bahraini-Danish human rights defender who is currently on a hunger strike to protest his unjust imprisonment and the continued denial of urgent medical care he has been subjected to while detained."

"We are also deeply concerned about the health of Dr. Abduljalil Al-Singace, a Bahraini academic and award-winning human rights defender serving a life sentence in Bahrain," they stated.

They stressed that "Respect for human rights is inextricably linked to UK interests, and the ongoing detention and possible death of prominent Bahraini human rights defenders in state custody threaten those interests."

"Bahraini government bodies which benefit from the UK tax payer-funded Gulf Strategy Fund, including the Ministry of Interior and its Ombudsman office and the Special Investigations Unit, are directly implicated in the strike. The Ministry of Interior oversees Jaw Prison, and its Ombudsman recently provided a misleading representation of prison conditions."

The organizations requested that the United Kingdom "leverage its close security partnership with Bahrain and urge Bahraini authorities to unconditionally release all those sentenced for their political beliefs, including human rights defenders Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja and Abduljalil Al-Singace, and in the meantime, to ensure that they are provided with life-saving medical care to prevent an imminent tragedy."

The signatories are:

1. Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain (ADHRB)
2. Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (BIRD)
3. Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS)
4. Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN)
5. English PEN
6. European Centre for Democracy and Human Rights (ECDHR)
7. #FreeAlKhawaja Campaign
8. Front Line Defenders
9. Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR)
10. Human Rights First
11. Human Rights Watch
12. International Service for Human Rights (ISHR)
13. PEN International
14. Project on Middle East Democracy (POMED)
15. Rafto Foundation for Human Rights

Arabic Version