For nearly fifteen years, Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja has endured what no human being should ever face: torture, solitary confinement, medical neglect, and the systematic attempt to break his body and spirit. Today, at 64 years old, he remains one of the region’s most respected human rights defenders, yet he is treated as if his life is disposable.
Long before his arrest, Abdulhadi was known across the Arab world and Europe as a principled, courageous human rights advocate. As regional coordinator for Front Line Defender, he helped protect activists who were being silenced, detained, or tortured. However, the government declared that his activism was no longer acceptable and had turned into a threat after he spoke out against Bahrain’s brutal crackdown in 2011.
Al-Khawaja’s arrest was not a simple arrest; it was a violent abduction. His arrest was violent, cutting him off from all communication and from legal rights. Abdulhadi was held incommunicado, cut off from lawyers, family, and sunlight. He was sexually and mentally tortured. Without any proof, due process, or self-defense rights, he was compelled to go before the military court. According to Tom Latos Human Rights Commission, His condemnation was all based on fabricated charges: “financing terrorism,” “attempting to overthrow the government, and “spying.” He received a life sentence for speaking out.
Every human rights body that reviewed the case has called it an arbitrary detention. Abdualhadi was sentenced to a life of maltreatment in prison, but the brutality did not stop there. His life inside the Jaw Prison began, repeated beating by guards, long-term solidarity, confiscation of books, notes, and basic personal belongings. He faces punitive restrictions on family visits, which often forced him to speak through the glass, and retaliation any time his name is raised internationally. This is a type of dehumanization of a human being; it is not a typical arrest or jail. Every human rights standard is violated by the way Adbulhadi Al-Khawaya is being treated in Bahrain’s jail. Abdulhadi’s body carries the visible scars of torture, and the ongoing abuse has done just as much damage. As if he has not suffered enough abuse and ill-treatment, the Bahrain authorities deny him adequate medical care precisely because they know how frail he has become.
Abdulhadi has endured unimaginable suffering and mistreatment throughout his fourteen years in jail. He has lost alarming amounts of weight, and he suffers from heart issues, since in 2023, he suffered a cardiac arrhythmia. Nonetheless, his treatment remains the same. The refusal of the government to provide him with better medical services shows a calculated harm and a form of torture in plain sight.
Abdulhadi has conducted a hunger strike protest, lasting 110 days, one of the longest in modern human rights history. This strike nearly killed him, but it was the only way he could get the world to look at his abuse. In 2025, he began another hunger strike because Bahrain continues to ignore his rights, ignore the UN ruling, ignore international pressure, and ignore the risks to his life. An individual must self-harm for the government and the rest of the world to discuss freedom of expression and obtain legal recognition; this is inhuman treatment.
The Bahrain authorities refuse to release him, because then it would mean that they have to admit all his mistreatment, the fabricated charges against him, admitting political prisoners exist, and give freedom to one of the region’s influential human rights voices to return.
Freedom of speech should not be a form of imprisonment. The Bahrain government is choosing repression over humanity.
