Bahrain Center for Human Rights

UPDATE: The president of IFEX member Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR), Nabeel Rajab, was re-arrested and sentenced to three years in prison on 16 August. Many other human rights defenders remain in prison, including BCHR’s founder Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja, and his daughter, Zainab Al-Khawaja.

Rajab was arrested upon arrival at the Bahrain airport on charges of “participating in an illegal assembly and calling others to join”.

On 1 May, jailed journalist Eskinder Nega, facing the death penalty, receives in absentia the 2012 PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award. Thirty-two IFEX members are calling for his release, and an end to the use of national security legislation against all writers and journalists.

Twenty-seven IFEX members appeal for end to impunity in recent brutal attacks on journalists in Kazakhstan, including near-fatal attack on Luqpan Akhmedyarov in April.

The regime has escalated its crackdown during the events of the Grand Prix, resulting in the death of Salah Abbas Habib, who was arrested by riot police only to be found dead the next day with visible signs of torture.

On 15 April, Sayed Yousif Al Mahafdha from BCHR accompanied by Tom Malinowski and Nadim Houry from Human Rights Watch were attacked and held for a few hours while observing a peaceful protest in Duraz.

In advance of the Formula 1, 50 IFEX members and partners call for detained activists and human rights defenders to be freed, including blogger and activist Abduljalil Al-Singace and human rights activist Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja, founder of IFEX member the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights, who is ailing in prison since starting a hunger strike on 8 February.

The IFEX-TMG is alarmed at attacks and prison sentences based on religious morality charges, as well as the use of force by police on demonstrators.