(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - The demonstrators condemned the imprisonment of human rights activist, Abdul Hadi al-Khawaja and demanded his immediate release. Al-Khawaja, the co-founder and former president of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, was sentenced to life in prison by a military court last April for "plotting to overthrow the government." The top Bahraini activist has been on hunger strike for the past month. Human rights activists have already warned about the worsening health of the jailed opposition figure. We have conducted an interview with Kamel Wazni, political analyst, to share his opinion on this issue. The following is a transcript of the interview: Q: How do you assess where the Bahraini revolution stands at this point? We recently had a very large protest take place in Manama and across the country in fact. Where is the Bahraini revolution at this point do you think? Wazni: I think they are determined to carry out the mission they set for them. They wanted to have a real democratic system. They wanted a constitution for the country. They wanted the Bahraini royal family to stop the aggression and the tyranny against the people. They wanted the prisoners that have been tried in military court to be released. Among them, Mr. Al-Khawaja the civil right advocate who actually been sentenced to life in prison and who has been on a strike, not receiving any food or any water to that extent he wanted even in his cell to send message to the Bahraini royal government that your prison would not stop us from carrying the mission. We wanted justice and justice for all Bahraini. We will not tolerate the brutality and discrimination and violation of law, whether human law or international law because discrimination, it is something, if a heinous crime, is committed by the Bahraini government against the Bahraini people. Just Friday we had hundreds of thousands of people, the majority of the Bahraini actually showed the world that they will not [be] pushed away and they will not stand down from their legitimate right to have their country liberated from tyranny and to have justice be the norm and the acceptance in the land. If the United States and the Western world and the Saudi think they can intermediate the Bahraini by sending and supporting those tanks that roll from Saudi Arabia into Bahrain to crackdown against these demonstrators, civilian demonstrators, the message was very clear. This will not actually stop our movement and I think they made a great step by having really a unified leadership because at one point there are couple voices in Bahrain. Today I think they have one voice and the voice wanted nothing but freedom for those people. Q: Mr. Wazni, I like to ask you about the kind of courage that it takes for people not only like Abdul Hadi al-Khawaja but the likes of Nabeel Rajab and even those outside of Bahrain like the al-Khawaja sisters, Maryam al-Khawaja and even Husain Abdulla who lives in United States. How much courage does it take for Bahraini activists to continue speaking out whether inside Bahrain or outside Bahrain? Wazni: Well we have to say it is a lot of courage and a lot of determination and a lot of faith and we actually expected that from the Bahraini and specially from the Bahraini women who have been showing a great faith and resilience standing against the crackdown of the Bahraini royal family, the Bahraini government that is backed by the Fifth Fleet, backed by the Saudi tanks, backed by the Saudi- what they call it, Saudi-Arab military militia, criminal because they [are] actually shooting at innocent civilians. When you see these determined people they do not actually being afraid or intimidated that they are very resilient and victory will be on their side. It is going to be sometimes, it is going to be costly but if you notice from the beginning of the movement up to now, we have not seen that determination as we see it right now. Hundreds of thousands of people actually came to the street peaceful, civilized, demanding their freedom. On the other hand, what they see, they see the Bahraini military shooting at them and yesterday another demonstrator was killed by the Bahraini and the Saudi police or militia that [are] attacking the innocent peaceful demonstrators.
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