Dry Dock Detainee Mohammad Hasan Radhi: I'm Subjected to Sever Punishment over Reciting An Elegy

2024-01-19 - 12:37 م

Bahrain Mirror: Mohammad Hasan Radhi, one of the minor political detainees who went on a hunger strike to protest ill-treatment, confirmed the continued violations against him by the Dry Dock Prison administration, warning of the deterioration of his health as a result of being deprived of treatment.

Radhi said, in an audio recording on Thursday, January 18, 2024: "I am being subjected to severe punishment over a mistake I didn't commit. While I was standing in the ward's corridor, reciting an elgy, I was surprised by an officer shouting at me, so I told him: There is no need to scream, but he pulled me and pushed me by my hand forcefully, and took me to the office of Captain Fadi Abdulaziz Al-Kooheji, who in turn shouted at me and threatened to beat me severely, telling me: We are not a correction and rehabilitation department, and you know our dark side."

He continued to say: "After I was returned to the prison building, I was forced to sign a statement saying that I had shouted at the officer, and the prison administration deprived me of visits and video calls, and later promised me to cancel the deprivation, but this didn't happen."

He added, "I am on a hunger strike for the tenth day in a row and the sugar level in my blood has dropped to 2.2, and no one from the prison administration has taken the initiative to find a solution to my situation. Rather, on Wednesday, it prevented me from going out to court, and today it prevented me from going out to Al-Salmaniya Medical Complex to receive treatment under the pretext that I am on a hunger strike."

Radhi addressed "the relevant human rights committees and people of conscience to look into this crisis and find an immediate solution," and said: "I am exposed to health ailments and fainting throughout the day, and my health is in danger."

Human rights activist Ibtisam Al-Saegh confirmed, in a post on the "X" platform, that "Radhi is complaining of not receiving treatment to his ear, which was damaged while being beaten during his interrogation, as the investigator focused on extracting his confession by hitting him on the head and ears area."

The authorities had arbitrarily arrested Radhi, on August 21, 2023, and was subjected to investigation in illegal and inhumane conditions, during which he was subjected to physical and verbal torture. He was tried without taking into account the testimony of the torture he was subjected to, and he is currently sentenced to one year in prison over one of the cases he appealed. The sentencing hearing is scheduled for January 29 of the same year.

The authorities filed two other cases against Radhi. He did not attend his last trial sessions because the prison administration required that he ends his hunger strike.

Arabic Version