HRW Warns of Nabeel Rajab’s Worsening Health

According to Human Rights Watch (HRW) the continued detention of Nabeel Rajab shows Manama’s “contempt for the most elemental human rights.”

The rights group warned that Rajab’s health has deteriorated during more than 10 months of arbitrary detention over charges that violate his right to free expression.

“Filing criminal charges against Nabeel Rajab solely for his peaceful criticism and then refusing to free him while the courts cavalierly postpone hearings shows Bahrain’s contempt for the most elemental human rights,” said HRW’s deputy Middle East director Joe Stork.

“Nabeel Rajab should not be in jail, and his deteriorating health underscores the injustice of arbitrarily detaining him,” he added.

Earlier this month the prominent Bahraini activist was placed back into solitary confinement less than 72 hours after undergoing surgery.

His family told HRW that Rajab was denied proper medical care and kept in unhygienic conditions, leading to his re-hospitalization just days later.

Rajab has been held in pre-trial detention since June of last year for criticizing the Manama regime over its rights abuses at home as well as its role in the brutal bombardment of Yemen.

But in recent months western governments, namely London and Washington, have expanded their security and economic ties with the Manama regime despite its human rights record.

“The silence on Bahrain’s flagrant disregard for human rights from London, and now from Washington under Trump, is nothing less than shameful,” Stork said.