A number of Italian activists and parliamentarians participated in the symposium that took place yesterday evening on the Zoom platform, organized by the "Americans for Democracy and Human Rights in Bahrain" organization on the issue of political prisoners.

The seminar dealt in particular with the issue of political prisoner Hassan Mushaima, one of the most prominent opposition leaders in Bahrain, in light of his old age and the threat to his life due to his health problems, as his son Ali spoke on a tape of the symposium.

The request to release Mushaima

The interview was started by the director of the meeting, Francesca Pisano, who confirmed that the initiative is part of the campaign calling for the release of political prisoner Hassan Mushaima and political prisoners in Bahrain.

Pisanu added that Italy has a role to play in intensifying the momentum of its movement to defend human rights activists, in turn, abroad.

Journalist Alessandra Fabretti, head of foreign affairs at the Italian Derry news agency, Giuseppe Dentici, head of the Middle East and North Africa division at the Center for International Studies (CeSI), and Matteo Colombo, researcher at the Center for International Political Studies, participated in the symposium. ISPI, Megan Bruno, member of the "Americans for Democracy and Human Rights in Bahrain" organization, Representative Erasmo Palazzuto, head of the Parliamentary Investigation Committee into the death of the Italian researcher Giulio Regeni, and Fabio Massimo Castaldo, Vice President of the European Parliament for the Italian Five Star Movement And Jean-Luca Violante is a member of Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain.

European participation

In turn, Fabio Massimo Castaldo, Vice President of the European Parliament, considered that the principle of international law and other international treaties, such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, affirms the fact that no individual may be detained without legitimate cause or be charged and convicted of depriving him of his right to a fair trial, but he added: We know that in many countries that are governed by authoritarian regimes, no respect is ever taken of respecting the presumption of innocence of the accused person until it is proven in a fair trial.

"It is also impossible to deny that this trend is growing, especially in countries ruled by dictatorial regimes, such as the one in Bahrain that we are highlighting today, which try in various ways to silence the opposition to the extent that it sometimes resorted to pure intelligence operations and selective retaliation," he added.

The Vice President of the European Parliament pointed out that despite the Corona epidemic and the many calls made by the international community and the European Union, the repression of political prisoners in Bahrain has not diminished, rather on the contrary, and it seems that the outbreak of the epidemic there has provided an excuse to impose more restrictions on political prisoners instead of Release them.

Castaldo denounced that dozens of political prisoners are still in Bahraini prisons for exercising their right to freedom of expression, peaceful protest, or even just to meet and exchange talks about the social and economic problems they suffer from in the country.

The European official confirmed that Bahraini prisons have become overcrowded and deplorable health conditions, stressing that the authorities in Manama have tightened the screws on detainees in Jaw Prison, specifically, under the pretext of measures to prevent Corona virus.

European follow-up

Castaldo indicated that the European Union is monitoring, through its diplomatic missions, what is happening in many countries where human rights are violated, and it exerts pressure on the governments of those countries to respect those rights, referring to the strict stance taken by the European Parliament towards Bahrain when it voted on March 11th / Last March, on a very important decision - approved by an overwhelming majority of 683 votes in favor of it, while only 11 MPs opposed it and 45 others abstained - the topic was specifically the issue of human rights defenders sentenced to death in the Gulf kingdom.

The European official added: Unfortunately, the decision was not met with an adequate response by the Bahraini authorities, rather, Manama’s reaction was limited to its rejection.

"The European Parliament strongly condemned the continuing arbitrary arrests, the increasing use of the death penalty, persecution, suppression of civil and political rights, freedom of association and expression, and the persecution of human rights defenders," he added.

"We will always allocate to these people a wide space to express their ideas and activities through initiatives such as the Sakharov Prize, for example. We absolutely do not want the specter of indifference to prevail over what is happening in the Near East. The international community must intervene. I am convinced that organizing initiatives like this should prevail. The event that we are participating in today can provide an enabling environment to give a strong impetus in order to reach a wide range of public opinion in our country to introduce these issues and raise awareness of them. "

The Vice President of the European Parliament concluded by saying, "I reiterate my position as a political activist first of all, strongly calling for the release of political detainees in general, and in particular in Bahrain, headed by Hassan Mushaima."

Human Rights in Bahrain

For his part, Jean-Luca Violante, a member of the "Americans for Democracy and Human Rights in Bahrain" organization, reviewed in his intervention the events of February 2011 in Pearl Square in the Bahraini capital, Manama, and the mass killings and arrests of peaceful protesters it witnessed at that time.

Violante said that there are an estimated two thousand political prisoners out of nearly 1.5 million citizens in Bahrain, pointing to the Bahraini government imposing strict restrictions under the Bahraini Political Societies Law, which led to the demise of many political parties, the confiscation of their properties and headquarters, and forcing some of them to practice their activities in a secret manner. .

The human rights activist pointed to the arrest campaign that affected 13 Bahraini opposition figures, including the activist Hassan Mushaima, who led the popular demonstrations rejecting the regime, and the diversity of detainees between clerics, human rights activists and bloggers who were beaten during their arrest and charged with contacting foreign countries and forming Armed groups and incitement to kill and destroy public property.

In this context, Violante said, "We must also not forget the issue of Bahraini women who demanded respect for human rights in their countries, whether during the events of 2011 or even in the following years, as a reminder that the Bahraini authorities treat them with the same treatment as men, that is, with methods of persecution and arbitrary arrests."

The human rights activist indicated that the Bahrain Human Rights Center documented during the period between 2011 and 2015 the arrest of nearly 300 women human rights activists just for exercising their right to express their views, stressing that the Bahraini authorities are also working to imprison the children of activists and separate them from their fathers. According to his word.