AL-Khawaja’s Fate Unknown

Local Editor

The fate of the Bahraini activist Abdulhadi al-Khawaja remains unknown as concerns raised after the family lost contact with him.

According to the online site of the Danish daily "Politiken", the activist has been taken from his hospital room and moved to an unknown location.

"Al-Khawaja's wife, who tried to contact her hunger-striking husband in Bahrain earlier in the day, had been told that there was no one in the room, al-Khawaja's son-in-law," Wafi al-Majed has confirmed.

"We have not had contact with him for two days. Normally he calls home every day. His wife has tried to call him, but the nurse has confirmed to his wife that he has been moved. But we don't know whether he is alive or dead, or why he has been moved. Perhaps to force-feed him," al-Majed said.

Al-Khawaja has been on hunger strike for 77 days and has reportedly refused liquids
 for the past six days.

Earlier this month, Bahrain rejected Denmark's request to take custody of al-Khawaja, who is also a Danish citizen.
"We consider the situation to be very, very serious," Danish Foreign Minister Villy Soevndal said in a Danish television interview.
Meanwhile, al-Khawaja's daughter, Mariam called on the European Union to intensify its pressure on the Bahraini regime.
"Statements are not making a difference anymore," she said. "We need to see real actions against the Bahraini regime for all the human rights violations that are being committed."

On Tuesday, Catherine Ashton, the chief diplomat for the European Union, called for his release.
Ashton said al-Khawaja's health is "seriously deteriorating and his life is at risk."
"The EU urges in the strongest possible terms the Bahraini authorities to find a compassionate, pragmatic and humanitarian solution ... as a matter of the utmost urgency," she said.
 

Source: News agencies, Edited by moqawama.org