Updated: Sayed Mohammed Hashem AbdulWahab was a 17-year-old Bahraini minor and school student when Bahraini authorities arrested him on 3 July 2025 after summoning him to the Criminal Investigation Directorate (CID) without providing any reason. During his detention, he has endured torture, coerced confessions, denial of family visits and access to legal counsel, unfair trials, reprisals, and medical neglect. He is currently held at Dry Dock Prison, serving a total sentence of one year and six months in prison while also awaiting trial in another case.
Sayed Mohammed had previously been arrested on 17 October 2024 after being summoned for interrogation at the CID building, where he remained detained for more than a month before his release on 21 November 2024.
On 3 July 2025, Sayed Mohammed’s family received a text message summoning him to appear at the CID Building without any stated reason. He went with a friend, but officers allowed only Sayed Mohammed to enter and arrested him once he was inside.
Throughout the night of 3 July, CID officers interrogated him without a lawyer or guardian present, despite being a minor. During the interrogation, they threatened, insulted, and verbally abused him, ultimately forcing him to sign coerced confessions. Although he later denied the allegations, officers accused him of (1 and 2) two separate arson cases involving burning tires, and 3) unlawful assembly and rioting. That same day, he called his family to inform them of the accusations and that he would be presented before the Public Prosecution Office (PPO).
That same day, 3 July 2025, Sayed Mohammed was brought before the PPO, which ordered his detention for one week pending investigation. The following day, 4 July 2025, he was transferred to Dry Dock Prison.
Sayed Mohammed was not brought before a judge within 24 hours of his arrest, was given no adequate time or facilities to prepare his defense, was denied access to his lawyer before and during his trials, and was unable to present evidence and challenge the evidence presented against him. Instead, his trials relied on coerced confessions extracted under torture. On 25 August 2025, Sayed Mohammed and his minor friends, Hasan Isa Jawad and Sayed Jaafar Yusuf Mahfooz, were sentenced to six months in prison for 1) arson. The judgment recorded the verdict as being issued in their presence, despite the ruling itself stating that none of the three defendants were actually present. Sayed Mohammed appealed this sentence, and on 26 November 2025, the Court of Appeals upheld the six-month sentence against him and his two friends. On 14 October 2025, he received an additional one-year prison sentence for 2) a second arson case, bringing his total sentence to one year and six months in prison. He appealed this ruling as well; however, the Court of Appeals has repeatedly postponed the hearings and has yet to issue a decision. The next session is scheduled for 15 December 2025. He is also awaiting trial for an additional case of 3) unlawful assembly and rioting related to his participation in a demonstration, where he is likely to face an increased sentence.
On 17 August 2025, a fire erupted in Building 17 of Dry Dock Prison, where Sayed Mohammed was detained. The incident began when several minor prisoners set fire to their bedding in protest after witnessing the violent assault and mistreatment of a fellow minor who had requested urgent medical care. Because the prison buildings share a ventilation system, smoke rapidly spread throughout the entire building. As visibility disappeared and two minors began suffocating, prisoners were left with no option but to break down the doors to save their lives. The prison administration delayed the evacuation, and when the prisoners were finally moved to the outdoor emergency point, officers assaulted them. Authorities then transferred the minors to Building 16, a facility entirely unprepared to accommodate them. They were given no blankets or beds and were forced to sleep on the floor. The building lacked televisions, paper, notebooks, educational materials, and all child-appropriate educational, rehabilitative, or recreational tools, stripping the minors of their basic rights to education and recreation. After the transfer, the administration imposed collective punishment on all prisoners, including those who had played no role in the fire or the events that followed. For more than two weeks, prisoners endured forced stripping, beatings, humiliating treatment, solitary confinement, continuous cell lockdown, shackling, denial of showers and toilet access, and the suspension of phone calls, family visits, clean clothing, and hygiene supplies. Forced to remain in the same unwashed clothing throughout this period, many prisoners suffered outbreaks of skin diseases and viral infections. Amid these degrading and unsafe conditions, Sayed Mohammed contracted a contagious skin bacteria that spread across his body and developed into large, painful boils. On 27 August 2025, he was rushed to the emergency department at Salmaniya Medical Complex after a sudden deterioration in his health. His family was summoned to the short-stay unit to sign consent forms for a surgical procedure to clean the infected area and insert a drain. Although the surgery was completed, he remained at the hospital for only one day, despite the seriousness of his condition, and was returned the next day to Building 16, which does not meet even the most basic health or care standards for sick prisoners.
Two weeks after the initial surgery, on 12 September 2025, Sayed Mohammed was again transferred to the emergency department at Salmaniya Hospital due to the reappearance of larger boils on his thigh, accompanied by severe swelling and inflammation. These symptoms significantly limited his mobility and left him unable to care for himself. The recurrence of the infection was directly linked to the ongoing unsanitary conditions in the prison. Doctors confirmed the need for another urgent surgical intervention. During this hospitalization, Sayed Mohammed’s mother reported being mistreated by hospital staff. They closed doors in her face, blocked her from approaching or speaking to her son, and claimed she lacked a prison-issued permit, at a time when he was in severe physical and psychological distress and urgently needed emotional support. When the family attempted to obtain the required permit, they were unable to do so because the incident occurred on a Friday, a weekend in Bahrain. They were also prohibited from providing him with food or clean clothing. Each time his mother attempted to enter his room, female police officers intervened, denied her entry, and removed her from the area. The guard on duty then filed a complaint against her at the police station. The surgery was eventually performed, and Sayed Mohammed remained hospitalized for 11 days, receiving strong antibiotics to contain the infection. After his return to prison, treatment continued at the prison clinic, where the medical team cleaned the wound until the boils subsided and he fully recovered.
Throughout his detention, Sayed Mohammed was denied family visits for over two months. On 25 September 2025, he finally received his first visit. During this meeting, he told his family that after he submitted an official request to the prison administration to review his classification and transfer him to a cell more suitable for his psychological condition, one of the building’s guards retaliated by verbally and physically assaulting him, causing him clear psychological distress. As of the drafting of this documentation, the prison authorities have neither opened any serious investigation, nor taken action against the responsible guard, nor responded to his request regarding his classification and cell transfer.
Sayed Mohammed’s arbitrary arrest as a minor, torture, coerced confessions, denial of family visits and access to legal counsel, unfair trials, reprisals, and medical neglect constitute clear violations of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), the Convention against Torture (CAT), the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), and the UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (Nelson Mandela Rules), all of which Bahrain is a party.
Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain (ADHRB) calls on the Bahraini authorities to immediately and unconditionally release Sayed Mohammed. ADHRB further calls for a thorough investigation into the allegations of arbitrary arrest, torture, coerced confessions, denial of family visits and legal counsel, unfair trials, reprisals, and medical neglect, with those responsible held accountable and compensation provided. At least, ADHRB demands that he be granted a fair retrial for the sentences already issued and a fair trial for the pending charge he faces, in accordance with the Bahraini Restorative Justice Law for Children and international standards, ultimately leading to his release. Finally, ADHRB urges the Dry Dock Prison administration to respond to his request for reclassification, transfer him to a cell appropriate for his psychological condition, investigate the assault he endured, and hold the perpetrator accountable.
