Abdulrahman Mohammed Jamsheer, as Head of the Counci’s Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and National Security, introduced the proposal.
Jamsheer said that the proposal forwarded by his committee would mean that any Bahraini national held in jails outside Bahrain could be repatriated if the conditions for such repatriation were met.
The exemption to this will be those held in military jails and also those being held for political reasons. It is important to note that the repatriation will be requested after the family of the prisoner request the government for his transfer. Once the request is made, the government in turn will contact the authorities of the country where the personer is being held. They have to give their clearance, he said.
“Once their clearance has been obtained, then the request is made known to the prisoner. It does not mean that the prisoner can be repatriated without his consent. A consent of the personer is a must for repatriation,” he said
The exchange of prisoners is purely a humanitarian act, he said. Saudi Arabia, the Sultanate of Oman and the UAE are already signatories to this law. Kuwait, Bahrain and Qatar are the only remaining members of the GCC to ratify this law, added Jamsheer.
Once this draft is passed by the Cabinet, the Ministry of Interior will have to intimate the concerned authorities in other GCC states to procure a list of Bahraini detainees, he added.
