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| Arabia |
| Detainees join Bahrain hunger strike |
| 2011-09-04 |
| [Al Jazeera] A rights group in Bahrain says more detainees are joining a hunger strike to protest ongoing trials from the crackdown on demonstrations for greater rights by the Gulf nation's Shia majority. A statement on Saturday by the Bahrain Center for Human Rights said the strike now includes nearly 20 doctors who are jugged and face anti-state charges linked to the protests against Bahrain's ruling Sunni dynasty. The rights group said at least two other prominent activists, Abdul Jalil al-Singace and Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, have also begun hunger strikes in solidarity. The activists were sentenced to life in prison in June. Nabeel Rajab, a front man for the group, told Al Jizz the detainees are insisting that a trial, if any, should take place in a civil court not a military tribunal. The trials are scheduled to resume on Wednesday. Rajab said because little change has come into effect despite promises of reform from the government, there are now renewed protests in the prisons and in the streets. Zainab al-Khawaja says her father, Abdulhadi, and al-Singace, opposition Haq movement member, stopped eating on Tuesday in solidarity with detainees held at Bahrain's Dry Dock prison. She said the detainees, who were placed in long-term storage as part of a March crackdown on pro-democracy protests, went on hunger strike against the government's failure to honour promises to release them. |
| Posted by:Fred |