Bahrain: Imprisoned Activists

On February 26, Human Rights Watch visited several of the political and human rights activists, medics, and teachers serving sentences ranging from two years to life in Jaw Prison, Bahrain. Human Rights Watch was able to photograph and videotape their meetings with the detainees, during a five-day visit, the first allowed to Human Rights Watch by the government in almost a year, with with political prisoners and high-ranking officials. Human Rights Watch concluded, based on the discussions with officials, that authorities have made no progress in investigating and prosecuting higher-level officials responsible for the worst abuses during the 2011 protests. The abuses resulted in the death of scores of protesters and bystanders, serious injuries to hundreds of people, arrests of thousands more, and more than 300 formal allegations of torture and ill-treatment.