Press TV has interviewed Jalal Fairooz, a former Bahraini MP in London, about Bahrain’s Center for Human Rights reporting an escalation in the crackdown on activists in the tiny Persian Gulf kingdom.
The following is a rough transcription of the interview.
Press TV: First of all, we are looking at an increase in activity showing that the revolution is alive in Bahrain based on the increase and arrest and detainment that is happening. Why do you think that is happening at this juncture in time in Bahrain?
Fairooz: Well because it is being provoked by all the atrocities which the regime is carrying out. Imagine in the past week you have 29 arrests, including one child and all of them were just arbitrary arrests and every night all these secret police with lots of forces come and raid houses, not caring about privacy of the women in the houses and they even beat the young before taking them in custody in front of their parents.
Yesterday the regime deported one of the activists after three years of jail without any trial. He was imprisoned without any trial and yesterday he was deported. All this is being carried out with the condemnation of the international community but it seems that the Bahraini regime because it is having the backing of [the] Saudis and some of the Western states, that is why it is carrying out its atrocities not caring about what is going on.
The Human Rights Special Rapporteur on Torture recently issued a statement saying that since five years he has been asking to visit Bahrain to see what is going on in the prisons but he is not being allowed, all that is not being taken into account by some Western countries who consider Bahrain to be an ally, not seeing that these things will bring more instability in the region. Bahrain has been under all this unrest since more than five years and it is continuing.