Sixteen international human rights organizations, including Amnesty International and the Bahraini Institute for Rights and Democracy (Bird), on Friday (July 30) called on Bahrain to release Abdeljalil al-Singace.

A key figure in the opposition, the latter has been detained for ten years and recently began a hunger strike.

The NGOs demand the release of this academic and blogger who is serving a life sentence for his participation in the uprising of 2011. "Al-Singace began a hunger strike on July 8, 2021 in response to his degrading treatment. suffered at the hands of a prison service officer (...) and to demand the return of his book confiscated by the prison guards on April 9, 2021, and on which he worked for at least four years ", indicate these NGO in a press release.

Abdeljalil al-Singace's book deals with the linguistic diversity of Bahraini Arabic dialects and has no political content, the statement said.

"We demand the immediate and unconditional release of al-Singace and the immediate handing over of his book to his family," the NGOs added.

The 59-year-old man suffers from chronic illnesses and has been subject to "prolonged medical neglect", the statement said.

>> To see, our Reporters: "2011, a story of Spring: the Arab revolutions as seen by France 24"

Dozens of activists arrested after 2011 protests

Abdeljalil al-Singace is one of 13 activists convicted of conspiring against the regime after participating in anti-government demonstrations in 2011.

He was a key member of the Shiite Haq opposition movement.

Since the 2011 Shiite-led uprising in the Sunni kingdom and suppressed with military support from Saudi Arabia, Bahrain has banned opposition parties and arrested dozens of activists, sparking international criticism.

Bahrain claimed that Iran, a predominantly Shiite country, had trained and supported the demonstrators in order to overthrow the government in Manama, a charge which Tehran denies.

For its part, Bahrain rejects allegations of human rights violations and denies any discrimination against its Shiite citizens.

With AFP

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