The Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR) expressed it’s concern about continued harassment of human rights activists by the Bahrain authorities and restricting their right to free
expression. Sheikh Maytham al-Salman, a noted spokesperson, human rights defender and chairman of the Bahrain Interfaith Center, our associate member organization, together with several other persons, was summoned for interrogation over a speech he recently delivered. In August the Sheikh was detained. We wrote about it here.
The BCHR:
believes that the Bahraini authorities’ actions are an indication of its increasingly harsh policies aimed at further harassing human rights defenders in order to silence them, in addition to its continued implementation of further restrictions both in law and practice on the right to free expression. Moreover, human rights defenders and activists in Bahrain have been ongoing targets of the authorities who have attempted countless times to silence them, stop their work and oppress their right to freedom of expression, including BCHR President Nabeel Rajab, activist Zainab al-Khawaja, and human rights defender Naji Fateel…
Accordingly, the Bahrain Center for Human Rights calls on the
government of Bahrain to:
- Drop all charges pending on Sheikh Maytham al-Salman for exercising his freedom of speech
- Release all prisoners who have been convicted for their political opinions; and
- Fully comply with the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI) recommendations and international laws.
The full text of the article and the Sheikh’s speech over which he was interrogated is available here.
