AhlulBayt News Agency (ABNA): British police have refused to allow Bahraini human rights defender, Sayed Ahmed AlWadaei, to take part in this week’s Conservative Party annual conference in Manchester.
According to the Middle East Eye (MEE), AlWadaei was refused a security pass to the event just days before he was due to speak on a panel about how the British government should stand up for individual rights around the world.
AlWadaei was invited to speak by the Freedom From Torture charity, which suggested that he was banned from the event at Manama’s request.
“The revelation will reignite questions about whether the UK’s close relationship with the Persian Gulf state, which is accused of widespread suppression of its political dissidents, is compromising the UK’s own respect for human rights,” MEE writes.
AlWadaei told the portal that Manama has sought to prevent him “from speaking out about things that are the direct consequences of Conservative policies.”
The activist was granted asylum in the UK in 2012 after fleeing torture and persecution in Bahrain.
Since then, he was stripped of his Bahraini citizenship and arrested twice in the UK for protests against the Bahraini government. However, he has never been charged and has no criminal record in Britain.
Meanwhile, three of his relatives were jailed in Bahrain in 2017 over terrorism-related charges. The UN has labeled their detention as a reprisal for Alwadaei’s activism.
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source : LuaLua TV
Friday
4 October 2019
2:50:52 PM
980204
British police have refused to allow Bahraini human rights defender, Sayed Ahmed AlWadaei, to take part in this week’s Conservative Party annual conference in Manchester.