Seriously Ill Bahraini political prisoner calls for help from visiting US Congressional delegation
By Brian Dooley
Mohamed Al-Ramal is serving a life sentence in Building 12 of Bahrain’s notorious Jau Prison, and is asking for national and international observers to visit him to learn firsthand how he and others are denied adequate medical care. A U.S. Congressional delegation is currently visiting the country.
Bahraini human rights activist Ali al-Hajee has asked Human Rights First to publicly request for the U.S. Congressional delegation to see Al-Ramal in prison. The 65 year-old man, usually known as Abu Ali Al-Najjar, was sentenced in May 2018 on charges of training and possession of weapons in a mass trial dubbed the “Zulfiqar Brigades.” Most of his co-defendants convicted of terrorism-related charges were doctors, engineers, and teachers.
Various UN experts have repeatedly raised concerns about the case with the government of Bahrain, including information received “concerning the arbitrary detention, enforced disappearance and torture of 20 individuals convicted in a mass trial,” and “concerns that forced confessions allegedly obtained under torture have been used as evidence in the Court forming the basis of the accused individuals’ conviction, while the detainees’ right to be assisted by a lawyer has been denied.”
He says he can’t walk, that he is being denied adequate food and medical care. He says when he has been taken to the hospital for treatment, police refuse to remove shackles on him. International observers in Bahrain should, as Al-Ramal said, “enter the buildings, to see how the patients suffer from pain…how no-one cares, not the system, not the Minister of Interior, not the Jau administration. Each one blames the other, and everyone lies.”
He suffers from serious medical conditions, including hernia problems. He says he was scheduled for a hernia operation on 18 August, but although unable to move due to unbearable pain, he was taken for the operation. Then while moving him for treatment, he was returned and told that the operation would be scheduled for the next day, but that did not happen.
He reports too that in May he was diagnosed with having hearing loss, which has been untreated, and been denied an appropriate diet recommended after he diagnosed with a stomach ulcer in April 2024. He says since a spine operation last month, police have refused to remove his shackles for his physiotherapy and after-surgery care.
Complaints about inadequate care for political prisoners in Bahrain are not new. Human Rights First has for years called for the release from jail of seriously ill activists Hassan Mushaima and Abduljalil Al-Singace. Mushaima reports being denied treatment for his severe knee pain and a glucose monitor for his diabetes, while Al Singace says he has been forced to protest after authorities twice recently failed to refill his medical prescriptions on time.
The CoDel should visit Al Ramal, Mushaima and Al Singace, and publicly state they and all human rights activists in Bahrain should be immediately and unconditionally released. Al Ramal is in Building 12, Ward 1, Room 1 on Jau prison. Mushaima and Al Singace are both jailed in Kanoo medical center.
They’re not hard to find.
