Early day motion · EDM 107 · 26 May 2022

Dr al-Singace’s hunger strike and political prisoners in Bahrain

Tabled by Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat) 39 signatures

The motion

That this House is deeply concerned by the ongoing hunger strike of 60-year-old human rights defender and academic Dr Abduljalil al-Singace in Bahrain; notes EDM 578 and reiterates the alarm that his hunger strike began on 8 July 2021 and has exceeded 300 days; expresses concern that despite al-Singace being hospitalised since 18 July 2021 and losing well over 25kg, he has been subjected to deliberate denial of adequate medical care, has not been visited by his doctor for over three months and has not received results from an MRI taken in October 2021; notes that al-Singace is protesting the confiscation of four years’ worth of his handwritten apolitical research; condemns the Bahraini government’s justification of the confiscation of his research and failure to seek a timely resolution; decries al-Singace’s life sentence for his peaceful leading role in Bahrain’s 2011 pro-democracy uprising; unreservedly condemns al-Singace’s torture in 2011 by Bahraini officials, as documented by the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry; echoes the consensus of international calls from the human rights community, UN experts, global academics, and parliamentarians for al-Singace’s release; calls upon the Government to urgently press for the return of al-Singace’s research, impose Magnitsky Act Sanctions on those responsible for his unlawful imprisonment, including Interior Minister Rashid Al-Khalifa; and calls for his immediate and unconditional release, as well as that of the approximate 1,400 political prisoners in Bahrain, including Hassan Mushaima, Sheikh Ali Salman, Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja, Sheikh Mohamed Habib AlMuqdad, Abdulwahab Husain and Ali Al-Hajee.

Source: the official Early Day Motions database.