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News Release Archive | Nabeel Rajab | Accuracy.Org

Bahrani Pro-Democracy Hunger Striker at Risk of Death

April 6, 2012

AP is reporting: “Thousands of protesters in Bahrain chanted slogans Friday in support of a jailed human rights activist whose nearly two-month hunger strike has become a powerful rallying point.” BBC is reporting that the hunger striker, Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, “has been moved to a hospital clinic and is being fed intravenously after 58 days on hunger strike.”

CNN is reporting: “Authorities in Bahrain said Friday that they’ve arrested the daughter of a human rights activist who has drawn international attention and widespread protests with a hunger strike that he’s sustained for nearly two months. Zainab al-Khawaja was detained outside the Interior Ministry complex, said her lawyer, who is also representing her father, Abdulhadi al-Khawaja. Her father is striking to protest the life sentence he received for his alleged role in the unrest that continues to embroil his country.” The CNN report includes a video interview with Maryam, his other daughter.

Amnesty International in a recent statement, “Bahrain: Release leading rights activist at risk of death from hunger strike” noted that they consider “Al-Khawaja to be a prisoner of conscience, detained solely for exercising his right to freedom of expression.”

NABEEL RAJAB, nabeel.rajab at gmail.com, @nabeelrajab
Rajab is co-founder with Abdulhadi al-Khawaja of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights. He said today: “We are afraid that he might lose his life or lose part of his body at any time. We seek international intervention on Bahrain, politically, economically, to pressure the Bahraini regime to stop its crimes against the people and against all the prisoners, including my colleague and my teacher, Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja.”

RADHIKA SAINATH, radhika.sainath at gmail.com, @radhikasainath
Sainath is an attorney and activist with Occupy Wall Street and Witness Bahrain and has been helping lead protests outside the Bahrani consulate in New York City.

MOHAMMAD ALI NAQUVI, alinaquvi at yahoo.com
Also helping organize protests in New York, Ali Naquvi is an attorney and activist with the American Council for Freedom in Bahrain.

Zainab al-Khawaja, who is now detained and reportedly starting her own hunger strike, had been regularly tweeting: @angryarabiya

Maryam al-Khawaja is at @MARYAMALKHAWAJA

Tagged With: Arab Spring, Bahrain, Bahrain Uprising, Middle East, Mohammad Ali Naquvi, Nabeel Rajab, Radhika Sainath,

What is Bahrain Trying to Hide?

February 13, 2012

HUWAIDA ARRAF, huwaida.arraf at gmail.com
RADHIKA SAINATH, radhika.sainath at gmail.com
Arraf and Sainath are lawyers and human rights activists who, as part of the Witness Bahrain initiative, spent a week in Bahrain before being deported over the weekend. The two of them are now in New York City and were on “Democracy Now!” this morning “U.S.-Backed Bahraini Forces Arrest and Deport Two American Peace Activists Acting as Human Rights Observers.”

The group Witness Bahrain just posted a petition on its website: “The Obama administration is currently moving forward with a new set of arms sales to Bahrain despite the well-documented, egregious human rights violations perpetrated by the government against pro-democracy protesters over the past year. Since the start of Bahrain’s ongoing revolution on February 14, 2011, U.S.-manufactured and supplied weapons, including teargas, Humvees and Apache helicopters have been used by the Bahraini government to violently attack civilians. It is time to stop supplying Bahrain with the tools to kill and repress its people.

“Despite congressional opposition to a $53 million dollar arms sale to Bahrain, the Obama Administration is pushing through the sale using a legal loophole that would allow him to avoid notifying Congress and the public by breaking up the sales into small packages of under $1 million each. …”

NABEEL RAJAB, nabeel.rajab at gmail.com
Rajab is president of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights and is regularly tweeting.

ROBERT NAIMAN, naiman at justforeignpolicy.org
Naiman is policy director at Just Foreign Policy and just wrote the piece “What I Learned at the Airport in Bahrain,” which states: “When I came to Bahrain, it certainly wasn’t with the intention of spending my whole time in the country in the airport. I wanted to see what was going on in the country, not to see what was going on in the airport. But the Bahrain authorities would not let me enter the country. At this writing, it’s 5 p.m. local time. My flight got in at 2:15 a.m. I have been informed that the Director of Immigration has decided that I shall not have a visa to enter Bahrain…”

Tagged With: Arab Spring, Bahrain, Huwaida Arraf, Middle East, Nabeel Rajab, Radhika Sainath, Robert Naiman,

“Witness Bahrain” Launched One Year After Start of Uprising

February 10, 2012

AP is reporting: “Tens of thousands of anti-government protesters in Bahrain are streaming toward a site they seek to occupy for the one-year anniversary of their uprising in the Gulf kingdom.”

The Bahrani regime has been denying visas to media and human rights workers ahead of the anniversary of the start of the uprising.

NABEEL RAJAB,[currently in Bahrain, eight hours ahead of ET] nabeel.rajab at gmail.com
HUWAIDA ARRAF, [also in Bahrain] huwaida.arraf at gmail.com
Rajab is president of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights. Arraf, a U.S. citizen, is with Witness Bahrain, a new initiative that released the following statement: “‘Witness Bahrain‘ is a group of international observers, primarily from the United States, who have responded to the call of Bahraini human rights activists to witness their revolution, stand with them at protests, in hospitals and in villages, and to tell the world what they see. The government of Bahrain has denied entry to a number of prominent journalists and human rights workers in the lead-up to the one-year anniversary of the massive and ongoing pro-democracy movement.

“People here fear that the government of Bahrain’s attempt to keep out foreign observers signals an impending escalation of violence. As such, our presence here is all the more crucial. In the coming days and weeks, Witness Bahrain will stand with people taking to the streets to demand democracy, equality and respect for human rights. Witness Bahrain will also maintain a presence in villages active in pro-democracy protests which are being subjected to night raids, tear-gassing and other attacks by the police. We call on the Bahraini government to refrain from attacking peaceful protesters; however, should the government choose to continue using violence, we will be present to witness.”

HUSAIN ABDULLA, mohajer12 at comcast.net
Abdulla is director of Americans for Democracy and Human Rights in Bahrain. He is has been involved in the initiative as well.

Update: U.S. Citizens Arrested in Bahrain during Peaceful Protest: Huwaida Arraf & Radhika Sainath in Police Custody

Tagged With: Arab Spring, Bahrain, Husain Abdulla, Huwaida Arraf, Middle East, Nabeel Rajab,