The British government is to raise concerns with the Bahraini government over the arrest of a politician, Ebrahim Sharif, following last week’s visit to Bahrain by Prince Charles.
During the visit, Sharif gave an interview to a US news agency in which he suggested that Charles’s day-long tour of the island kingdom could “whitewash” an ongoing crackdown on dissent.
Two days’ later, he was detained and charged with “inciting hatred” against the Gulf monarchy’s rulers. The charge carries a possible three-year jail sentence.
The announcement by the Foreign Office that it would take up the matter with the Bahraini government followed a call by the United States for the charge against Sharif to be dropped.
Elizabeth Trudeau, the US state department’s director of press relations, stated that “no one anywhere should be prosecuted or imprisoned for engaging in freedom expression, even when that expression is critical. Any charges against Sharif on that basis, should be dropped.”
The Foreign Office statement said: “We are concerned by the charges brought against Ebrahim Sharif, and we will be raising these concerns at a senior level with the Bahraini government.
“The UK supports freedom of expression as an essential element of a full range of universal human rights, and we continue to encourage the government of Bahrainto deliver on its international and domestic human rights commitments.”
Ebrahim (or Ibrahim) Sharif, the former leader of Bahrain’s secular National Democratic Action Society, spoke to an Associated Press (AP) reporter about the royal visit while Charles was in the country.
He was quoted by AP as saying he did not know whether the prince had raised human rights questions when meeting the Bahraini prime minister, Prince Khalifa bin Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa.
AP further quoted Sharif as saying: “Bahrain’s government values its relations with the UK and if the UK puts its weight behind the improvement of human rights in Bahrain, the government will listen. They need friends… We can’t have absolute power in the hands of the ruling family.”
Charles and his wife, who were on a Middle East tour arranged by the Foreign Office, also met members of the Shia community, who make up a majority of Bahrain’s population.
It was argued by Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei, director of advocacy for the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy, that Bahrain’s rulers used Charles’s visit to sell an image of inclusivity and that “Sharif’s prosecution reveals the barefaced lie.”
Alwadaei said: “If Prince Charles does not want to be affiliated with dictatorship and authoritarianism, he must speak out against Bahrain’s unjust actions.”
A Clarence House spokesperson said the visit by the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall “was at the request of Her Majesty’s government.”
He said: “Their royal highnesses are aware of the issues that have been raised by human rights organisations in the lead up to, and during the tour, and the actions being taken by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.”
At present, the leader of the country’s largest Shiite opposition group, Sheikh Ali Salman, is in jail. Human rights activist Nabeel Rajab is in prison, awaiting sentence for spreading “false news.”
And journalist Nazeeha Saeed, a France24 correspondent who was detained and tortured in 2011, has been prosecuted for “illegal reporting” on behalf of foreign media. She was subjected to a travel ban.
Sharif spent four years in prison until June 2015, was rearrested weeks later and sentenced to another year in prison for making a political. He was released from prison in July 2016. He is also banned from travelling outside the country.
Asked by the Guardian to comment on Sharif’s arrest and charge, the Bahraini embassy in London issued a statement repeating almost word for word the report of Sharif’s arrest on the website of the Bahrain news agency, the official government information agency.
It said that Bahrain’s chief prosecutor had “opened an investigation” after receiving a complaint from the Cyber Crime Directorate about Sharif’s “alleged defamation of Bahrain’s constitutional system.”
It also said he would be “afforded full legal rights and access to legal representation at every stage of the investigatory process.”
Sharif was allowed home on Sunday after being charged.
