Hussein Nooh, head of monitoring and documentation at the Bahrain Forum for Human Rights (BFHR), said that the release of 30 prisoners of conscience was monitored in the last week of May. The security authorities informed them that they had obtained a special pardon. The King of Bahrain had issued a decree of special pardon for 154 prisoners on May 22 that has not been published in the Official Gazette to date. Hussein Nooh pointed out that the official procedures of the security authorities were not transparent, stressing at the same time the right of all prisoners of conscience to obtain immediate and unconditional freedom and to have their sentences abolished. Nooh added that the threat to prisoners’ lives still exists because of COVID-19, in case it reached the prisons. It is worth noting that the security authorities released, under the Alternative Penalties Law, prominent human rights defender, Nabeel Rajab, in June after spending four years in prison, while the nature of the alternative penalty is still unknown. The BFHR, along with other human rights organizations, issued a statement stressing that "the application of alternative penalties against prisoners of conscience is a double injustice, an alternative restriction, and a step that lacks respect for human rights." |