Bahrain Mirror: The Bahrain Forum for Human Rights (BFHR) organized a seminar on its Instagram page on Saturday, April 27, 2024, coinciding with the #FreeBahrainPrisoners campaign, with the participation of the father of the political prisoner Hussein Mhana, former member of the Shura Council of the Al-Wefaq Yusuf Rabie, and the spokesperson for the Prisoners Affairs Committee Jaafar Yahya.

The father of the imprisoned Mahna said in his participation during the seminar that "the victim of medical neglect Hussein Al-Ramram prompted the families of the prisoners to return to the streets, which led the authorities to absorb this anger and release a large batch of prisoners on the eve of Eid."

He drew attention to the fact that "the officials of the National Institute for Human Rights deliberately ignored the inquiries of the prisoners' families about depriving their sons of communication with them and the authorities' insistence on calling them ‘criminals'," revealing that he is still prohibited from communicating with his son held in solitary confinement.

Mhana condemned "the hate speech adopted by some instigators of sedition," stressing that "the reason that the citizens have taken to the streets and have been arbitrarily arrested is their peaceful demand for their basic freedoms."

For his part, Rabie held the Bahraini government "the legal and ethical responsibility for the injustices inflicted on those who are still behind bars, and demanded proceeding with measures to safeguard their rights stipulated in international laws according to the principle of redress."

He warned that the government seeks to use political prisoners as a bargaining chip in any future negotiations with opposition forces, pointing out that it "ignores its legal obligations in the importance of achieving transitional justice and compensating citizens for what they have been subjected to from violations, through holding those involved accountable and moving towards a national reconciliation to resolve Bahrain's current crisis, in addition to legal pursuits, redress, and reforming oversight bodies so that they fulfill their real role, and forming investigation committees into the patterns of violations to protect Bahraini society from any transgressions and violations."

Meanwhile, Yahya affirmed that "the authorities were taken aback by the prisoners' insistence and resilience," calling for "moving forward in the supporting movement," reminding that "the victim of medical neglect Hussein Al-Ramram died as a result of the poor security management in Jaw Central Prison, and this suffering is ongoing and continuous."

Arabic Version