UN Officials Concerned by Bahrain’s Treatment of Protesting Prisoners

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND - U.N. officials are expressing deep concern about the welfare of dozens of prisoners held incommunicado in Bahrain since police brutally broke up a peaceful sit-in protesting prison conditions.

The Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights says police special forces put an end to a sit-in on April 17 in Bahrain’s Jau prison.  The protest began April 5, following the death of political prisoner Abbas Mal Allah, who reportedly had been refused medical treatment.  Authorities have denied these charges, claiming he died of natural causes. U.N. human rights spokeswoman Marta Hurtado said police violently repressed the peaceful sit-in, reportedly using unnecessary and disproportionate force to dismantle the protest. “According to accounts received from eyewitnesses of the incident, special forces threw stun grenades and beat detainees on their heads, badly injuring many of them.  The authorities reportedly took 33 protesters to another building in the prison, where they are being kept incommunicado, and have been unable to make contact with families or lawyers, in violation of both national and international law,” he said.