Bahrain Mirror (Exclusive): Brian Dooley, a director at Human Rights First, criticized the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) for not publicly endorsing the call of the chairman of the Danish parliamentary delegation, MP Søren Søndergaard, to release prisoner of conscience Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja.

Dooley condemned in his tweet the silence of the IPU on the revocation of the Human Rights Watch staff visas. He addressed the IPU saying "why aren't you publicly endorsing this delegate's call at IPU 146^th session? And why are you publicly silent on the revocation of the Human Rights Watch staff visas for your event by your hosts?"

Danish MP Søren Søndergaard revelaed that the Bahraini government ignored his demand to visit Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja in Jaw Prison, which is a few kilometers away from the conference.

Søndergaard said in a post on his Facebook page: "As a chairman of the Danish delegation, I seized the opportunity to demand the release of Danish citizen Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja, who has been in prison since 2011 due to his struggle for democracy and human rights."

Arabic Version