Bahrain Mirror: Political prisoner Ali Haji revealed a part of the transgressions practiced by the medical cadre in charge of Jaw Central Prison clinic and the complicity of the staff with the prison administration, and transferring the prison pharmacy into a commercial pharmacy.

Human rights activist Ibtisam Al-Saegh quoted on her Instagram account Haji, who is sentenced to 10 years in prison, as saying, "The right to health care is guaranteed by international laws and some countries differ in the way they apply it in terms of free treatment and its mandatory availability. In both cases, prisoners have no choice and their health care is the responsibility of the executive bodies, namely the Ministry of Interior, which oversees prisons in Bahrain."

He added that "internal regulations indicate that health care is a right that the prisoner acquires not to replaced with deliberate negligence and deprivation. Local institutions concerned with human rights must direct the Ministry of Interior to correct this bad situation in the Jaw Prison clinic because it puts the lives of prisoners in danger. It should be noted that the medical staff in Jaw Prison was negatively affected with the escalating use of the policy of collective punishment against prisoners after the January 1, 2017 incident, as the prison's physician had a role in not examining any of the prisoners who are subjected to physical abuse, and in falsifying medical reports, i.e. denying the presence of any injury. This was the beginning of the stage of negligence, deprivation and deliberate denial of health care."

"The Ministry of Interior did not address the issue, but intensified it due to discrimination in diagnosis, not prescribing medication, lack of follow-up of appointments and refusal to transfer patients to clinics outside the prison," Haji highlighted.

He went on to stress that "the prison administration today allowed access of medications to prisoners through the secretariats after a review from the clinic's physician. Here I report on the experiences of many brothers. The prisoner tells the doctor about the symptoms he suffers from and the medicines he needs and the doctor orders them without even performing any examining on the prisoner," pointing out that "this is not right," explaining that on the other hand, some of the prisoners who are in need of certain medication are not allowed to receive them and are forced to buy them for the prison's pharmacy."

Arabic Version