Today, Thursday 5th if March 2020, the prisoner of conscience, Hajar Mansour, 51 years old, who has been imprisoned for nearly three years in the notorious Isa Town Women’s Prison on the backdrop of her son-in-law, Said Ahmed Al Wedaei, director of the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (BIRD) in Britain, is released today.
In October 2017, the court sentenced Hajar Mansour and her son Sayed Nizar Alawi to 3 years in prison, and her nephew Mahmoud Marzouq, to one month in prison and a fine of 100 dinars, which was confirmed by the appeals courts in December 2017. The court upheld later on Monday, February 25, 2019 the three years’ sentence against her and her family on charges of political background.
It is noteworthy that 5 experts from the United Nations had called for the release of Hajar Mansour and her son Sayed Nizar in December of last year, after they concluded that their arrest was arbitrary. Experts said that this detention was carried out with vengeful motives against the human rights activities of her son-in-law Al Wedaei.
A petition in Parliament was filed already and signed by more than 80 deputies from all parties calling for the release of Hajar Mansour, her son Sayed Nizar and her nephew Mahmoud, and her case has become well known in the legal, media and diplomatic circles.
Based on that, the Bahrain Center for Human Rights calls on the government of Bahrain to stop all acts of harassment, reprisals and prosecution of activists demanding democracy and their families, drop all charges against them and release all prisoners of conscience in Bahrain.
The Bahrain Center for Human Rights also urges the key players in the international community to continue to put pressure on the Bahrain government to ensure the protection of human rights and to launch a comprehensive campaign to release all prisoners of conscience detained and held in the country