In light of the recent developments in Bahrain regarding the outbreak of Coronavirus inside prisons, infecting more than 60 inmates, the Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR) expresses its concern about the health condition of Sayyed Kamel al-Hashemi.
Al-Hashemi has recently suffered a severe heart attack due to high blood pressure, which places him at increased risk of severe illness from the virus. Today, 30 March 2021, he was transferred to the Military Hospital for a cardiac catheterization procedure. His family was prevented from seeing him at the hospital and told he was doing well, and he will be sent back to prison today. They are concerned about the unsanitary prison environment and demands his release.
BCHR calls on the Bahraini authorities to meet the demands of his family and release him on humanitarian grounds considering his health condition, especially that Sayyed al-Hashemi qualifies for the Alternative Penalty Law, as he served more than half of his sentence, of which only six months remained.
Sayyed al-Hashemi was arrested in 2018 because of a sermon he gave in 2011 and was sentenced to three years in prison, which he is serving in Jau Prison.
BCHR also calls for the immediate release of all elderly prisoners and those who have chronic diseases that make them more likely to develop serious symptoms from Covid-19.
