العربية
Bahraini human rights organisations welcomed the statement by four UN experts calling for full respect for the rights of the country’s top senior Shiite leader, Ayatollah Sheikh Isa Qassim, 76 years old.
The organisations demand that Bahraini authorities respond to what the experts called for which is to ensure that medical staff could monitor Sheikh Qassim’s health condition without any kind of pressure, and allow him to receive visitors freely, as well as ensuring that he will continue to receive the medicines he needs after leaving the hospital.
The organizations also stressed on his right to freedom of movement that should not be violated and the house arrest is terminated.
The human rights organisations pointed out that the security authorities deliberately restricted the right to receive treatment, which, according to the expert statement, took three hours to allow the doctor to enter the house of Sheikh Isa Qassem for examination on 26 November 2017.
That is as well as the measures of house arrest (without a judicial ruling) which resulted in disabling his doctors from adequate access to him for more than 500 days. A clear violation of the right to adequate and necessary treatment.
The human rights organisations also stressed on the need to enable an independent, reliable and UN cooperating medical body to oversee the health condition of Sheikh Isa Qassim. They also called in the government to completely withdraw any security presence around his area and urged it to effectively remove all forms of police around his residence in Al Duraz.
They urged the government to lift the house arrest, and demanded the drop of all charges against him and restore his Bahraini citizenship and civil rights.
According to international reports, Bahrain’s majority Shiites are persecuted by the government’s policies, as patterns of persecution take place at various levels, affecting their political and religious rights.
Signatories:
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Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR)
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Bahrain Forum for Human Rights (BFHR)
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Gulf Institute for Democracy and Human Rights (GIDHR)
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SALAM for Democracy and Human Rights (SALAM DHR)
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The European-Bahraini Organisation for Human Rights (EBOHR)