Bahrain Crackdown: Civil Society Leaders, Journalists Hit with Travel Bans

Local Editor

The Bahraini authorities have stepped up their pressure on civil society leaders and journalists.

Around 20 people have been hit with travel bans in recent weeks as Bahrain's government chokes off voices of peaceful dissent.

Those targeted include Rula al-Saffar, president of Bahrain's Nursing Society and one of the medics arrested, detained, and tortured in 2011 after treating injured protestors and telling the media the truth about the regime's violence.

Although subjected to a sham trial in military court and sentenced to 15 years in jail, she was finally acquitted on appeal in June 2012.

"I was going to Saudi Arabia last week and was stopped at the border-they told me ‘You are banned from traveling.' I asked by whom, and they said it was the public prosecutor," al-Saffar said.

The ban appears to be an attempt to stop her from traveling to Geneva and sharing information with an international audience, although she had not been planning to go to Geneva because of work commitments.

Jalila al Salman is vice president of Bahrain's Teachers' Association and also a prominent figure in Bahrain's civil society. She too was detained and tortured in 2011.

"I found out about the travel ban on June 13th," Jalila said. "I was traveling to Oslo for a human rights award ceremony and where I had several meetings with labor officials. They stopped me at immigration without giving any reason..."

Others first learned of their bans-including nurse Ebrahim Demastani who had been in the same trial with Rula Al Saffar in the group of 20 medics in 2011-when they tried to leave Bahrain on June 12 to attend the United Nations Human Rights Council.

Sheikh Maytham Al Salman had his passport withheld and so was unable to travel to take part in a fellowship program due to start this month at Stanford University, awarded in recognition of "the significant contributions that he has made to build more tolerant societies to counter violence and extremism in the Middle East."

Mohammed Al Tajer is a veteran human rights lawyer in Bahrain, respected for decades of legal representation of civil society figures. He too was detained and tortured in 2011.

He was also stopped last week trying to leave Bahrain for Saudi Arabia. "Normally travel bans should be issued through civil courts," he told me. "People are supposed to be informed if there is a ban on them and in theory they have a right to two appeals."

Nazeeha Saeed, the France24 correspondent who was detained and tortured 2011 was called to the public prosecutor's office on 17 July and charged under a press law that prohibits Bahrainis from working for foreign media outlets without a license.

She has been prosecuted for "illegal reporting" on behalf of foreign media in what appears to be a renewed crackdown on free expression.

Other journalists working for foreign outlets have told the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (Bird) that they have been facing increased pressure in the last year.

The Committee to Protect Journalists reported in December 2015 that there are five journalists in prison in Bahrain, all of them freelancers.

At the weekend, a Bahraini court dissolved the Al-Wefaq political society, the largest political organization in the country, at the justice ministry's request.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team