Bahrain Mirror: The Bahrain Forum for Human Rights (BFHR) said Jaw Prison authorities continue their crackdown on prisoners, retaliating against the inmates by intentionally cutting off water supply for days.

BFHR added in a statement issued on Saturday (October 21, 2017) that the prison administration is violating the privacy of prisoners during telephone calls, reducing the chances of telephone calls for prisoners, and significantly increasing overcrowding inside the prison.

BFHR also noted that prisoner Elias Al-Mulla's health care is deliberately being neglected despite the deterioration of his health condition in the past few days, adding that he was prevented from obtaining a thorough medical diagnosis of his condition, treated in a degrading fashion, and deliberately humiliated when trying to follow up on his medical condition. BFHR said that prisoner Aqeel Hussain Jassem, who suffers from chronic epilepsy, is another case where the prisoner is deprived of necessary medication and treatment.

The Forum further stated that according to statements they received, water was intentionally cut off in the prisoners' bathrooms last week for three days, and the same method has been used repeatedly in the past weeks. BFHR also stressed that prisoners' right to adequate food is being violated, as the prison administration is purposefully refusing to provide the inmates with adequate food portions in order to starve them.

BFHR pointed out that "all the rooms in building 14 at Jaw prison contain 8 beds, while each room holds 14 prisoners sentenced to lengthy terms," noting that a decision was issued by the prison administration to reduce the chances of phone calls for inmates to once a week."

Concluding their statement, BFHR highlighted that a prisoner has the right to obtain the necessary treatment free of charge for every case that requires treatment and if the treatment was unavailable in the prison clinic, the prisoner shall be transferred to public hospitals, adding that a prisoner also has the right to receive sufficient healthy food regularly, while taking into account cases of prisoners with chronic diseases such as Sickle-cell disease.

Arabic Version