Husain Naiser is a 16-year-old Bahraini student who was arrested for participating in a peaceful demonstration condemning the normalization agreement between Bahrain and the Israeli occupation. He is currently held in New Dry Dock Prison, serving a one-year-sentence.
On 15 June 2022, Husain’s father received a call requesting that he take his son to AlKhamis police station for investigation, although it was clearly stated that he would not be detained because he is a minor. Husain’s father took him to the station at 8 a.m. but he was interrogated alone. Officers asked his father to leave, assuring him that they would call him. At 2 p.m., Husain called his father and informed him that he had been transferred to the Office of the Public Prosecution, then to AlQalaa for examination, and that he would be detained.
Husain had been summoned by phone multiple times to Hamad Town Roundabout 17 police station to be threatened about his participation in demonstrations. On 31 May 2022, Husain was sentenced, along with five other youths, to a year in prison and a fine of 500 Bahraini Dinars in absentia, on charges of manufacturing and possessing flammable canisters and participating in an illegal assembly. This was in connection to the peaceful demonstration protesting the normalization agreement in Aali.
Bahrain’s imprisonment of Husain for practicing his right to freedom of expression and assembly in opposing the normalization agreement violates international law, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which Bahrain is a party to. Moreover, his interrogation without his guardian or a lawyer and brief communication with his family during his detention violates the Convention on the Rights of Children. ADHRB calls upon Bahrain to uphold its human rights obligations by releasing all individuals imprisoned for peaceful political activism, including Husain, immediately and unconditionally.
