Bahrain Mirror: Amnesty International called on UK's Prince Charles, to talk about free speech when meeting with Bahrain King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa tomorrow Tuesday in the capital Manama. The international human rights watchdog condemned the British government and ministers' role, "who have recently bent over backwards to paint a picture of Bahrain as a country pushing ahead with ‘reforms'.

"We're not expecting Prince Charles to reinvent himself as a human rights campaigner on this trip, but we hope he'll use some of his time to speak about universal values like free speech and open debate," according to Amnesty International's Head of Policy, Allan Hogarth.

"In particular when Prince Charles meets Bahrain's King Hamad we'd like him to raise the plight of Nabeel Rajab. Mr Rajab is facing a lengthy prison sentence for his online remarks about the torture of detainees in one of Bahrain's jails as well as the country's role in the conflict in Yemen," he went on to say.

Moreover, Hogarth also added, "Sadly, UK ministers have recently bent over backwards to paint a picture of Bahrain as a country pushing ahead with ‘reforms' - the much darker truth is that it's a country hounding and locking up its dissidents."

In addition, Amnesty members stated that "Prince Charles shouldn't be hoodwinked by either the Foreign Office's rose-tinted view of Bahrain or by Manama's own well-resourced PR machine," adding that "may wish to offer a few well-chosen words of advice to his royal counterparts over how jailing peaceful critics is not the way forward for Bahrain."

Arabic Version