Bahrain activist on hunger strike, daughter arrested

Charges against Ms Al Khawaja include insulting Bahrain’s king, and assaulting a policewoman at the airport. Her father, Abdulhadi Abdulla Hubail Al Khawaja, who has been detained since 2011, is on a hunger strike seeking his release.

MANAMA // Bahraini authorities detained prominent human rights activist Maryam Al Khawaja on Saturday on her arrival at the Gulf state’s airport, her mother said.

Ms Al Khawaja is the daughter of Shiite Muslim activist Abdulhadi Abdulla Hubail Al Khawaja, who has been detained since 2011 and has been on a hunger strike for a week seeking release.

“Maryam told me that she will be transferred to the court tomorrow,” her mother, Khadija Al Musawi said. Ms Al Khawaja holds dual Bahraini and Danish citizenship and was coming back from Denmark when she was arrested.

Charges against Ms Al Khawaja include insulting Bahrain’s king, and assaulting a policewoman at the airport, her mother said.

Bahraini authorities did not comment but state news agency BNA cited chief prosecutor of Al Muharraq province, Abdullah Al Dossary, as saying that the public prosecution had begun an investigation into a complaint by Bahrain airport’s police.

The complaint said that an “accused woman” had been detained at the airport based on a previously issued arrest warrant. It said that the accused had assaulted a lieutenant and a policewoman after she refused to hand over her phone during a search. The report did not name Ms Al Khawaja.

Mr Dossary was cited as saying that the accused was charged with assaulting a public employee while carrying out his official duty and would be detained for seven days pending an investigation.

On Sunday, the lawyer of Ms Al Khawaja’s father confirmed that “Abdulhadi is continuing with the hunger strike he began on August 25” in Jaw prison near Manama.

Jailed for life for plotting to overthrow the monarchy, Mr Al Khawaja staged a 110-day hunger strike in 2012 over his imprisonment.

He is among defendants handed lengthy jail sentences for their role in the 2011 protests. Seven of them, including Mr Al Khawaja, have been jailed for life while another seven remain at large.

Bahrain, a base for the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet, has been in turmoil since protests led by Shiite Muslims erupted in 2011 after similar unrest in Egypt and Tunisia.

Shiites, who make up the majority of Bahrain’s population, complain of political and economic marginalisation, an accusation the government denies. Talks between the government and opposition have failed to defuse the political tensions.

In July, Bahrain declared US assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labour Tom Malinowski, persona non grata after he met opposition figures in the kingdom.

* Reuters, with additional reporting from Agence France-Presse