Amnesty Urges Manama To Free Hassan Mushaima & 10 Other Leading Opposition 

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Amnesty: Hassan Mshaima, aged 70, a diabetic and former cancer patient, phoned his family on 16 January from Jaw prison, where he is detained, to inform them that his blood sugar had risen to a dangerously high level and that he had not been receiving one of his two prescribed diabetes medications. At the beginning of January, Hassan Mshaima wrote to the prison authorities requesting that his family be allowed to buy him his two diabetes medications for the prison authorities to hand them to him. The prison authorities denied his request stating instead that they would provide the medication without the involvement of his family. Hassan Mshaima was later given one of his medications but not the other.
Since August 2017, Hassan Mshaima’s diabetes medication has been given to him sporadically. In October 2017, he was denied all medication and a fellow prisoner, who also suffers from diabetes and uses the same medication, shared his with him. In order for Hassan Mshaima to receive his prescription, prison authorities insist that he would have to go to the prison clinic shackled and in prison uniform, which he refuses to do. This practice, aimed at degrading and humiliating prisoners, is contrary to Rule 47 of the Mandela Rules, which states that restraint instruments should only be used as a precaution against escape or to prevent prisoners from injuring themselves or others. Hassan Mshaima suffers from multiple health issues, including heart problems, and as a former cancer patient he requires regular checks-ups such as Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scans every six months. His last PET was in September 2016.
Hassan Mshaima was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2011 after an unfair trial for leading widespread peaceful anti-government protests. In the same case, 12 other opposition activists received sentences ranging from five years to life imprisonment. Two of them have since been released.
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