AhlulBayt News Agency (ABNA): Hundreds of political detainees in Bahrain's Jaw Central Prison began an open hunger strike on Monday, August 7, 2023, to demand their rights after the authorities ignored their demands and continued to violate their rights with unfair decisions such as isolation, denying them of the right to education and neglecting their health care, as well as the system of visits and congregational prayer.
The political detainees affirmed, in a joint statement, that "the prison administration, under the direct guidance of the authority, tightened the noose on them, striking the most basic rights which even the prisoners of war enjoy, thus, violating the international conventions and its written constitution in which it mentioned list of prisoners' rights and to which it committed itself."
They added that "the authority disregarded their rights and even their human dignity, which was repeatedly crushed by unjust decisions, including: the unjust isolation of a number of prisoners and preventing them of many of their rights, including the freedom to commemorate religious rites, as well as the suffocating daily program that keeps the prisoners 23 hours a day inside the cell, while the prisoners are taken out for one hour a day to meet all their needs of communication, spreading clothes, sports and sunbathing, as well as not allowing the prisoners to go to perform congregational prayers in the building's praying room."
They pointed to "the unjust system of visits with its glass barrier, reducing the time and number of visits, and preventing uncles and even nephews and nieces from visits," highlighting "their lost right to education with a hateful political decision, as well as their right to health care, as it is no secret to anyone that the health situation has worsened, and the testimony of the martyr Mohammad Al-A'ali is the best evidence."
They indicated that "after exhausting all means to recover their rights, they decided to start a hunger strike under "We have a right" slogan, inspired by the words of Imam Ali (peace be upon him)."
The detainees explained that "their demands are not recreational, but very necessary," calling on Bahrainis to "stand united with the event through media and on ground."
Speaking of the detainees, Ayatollah Sheikh Isa Qassim was quoted saying that: “Their imprisonment is an imprisonment for all of us and their ordeal is our ordeal. What infringes on our dignity infringes on the dignity of all our people, so we have to indeed preserve our dignity.”
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