Bahrain Mirror (Exclusive): What distinguishes Hasan Mushaima, the leader of Haq Movement for Liberty and Democracy, who is sentenced to life imprisonment, is that he never loses hope, even at this time when his country is passing through one of the toughest periods ever witnessed.

In the mid 1990s, during the 90s uprising that demanded restoration of Parliamentary life, former UK officer Ian Henderson conducted a series of talks in prison with the opposition leaders. He reported Hasan Mushaima saying in one of the sessions: "You shook the glass, don't break it," in reference to the 1994 events that lasted until the arrival of the current king who proposed the National Action Charter.

The glass is still shaking. The issue of the Haq Movement leader, his prison conditions and the medical negligence he's been subjected to since his imprisonment in 2011, prompted his eldest son, Ali, who has been residing in London since 2006, to begin a hunger strike in front of the Bahraini Embassy in London that claimed after much evasion that Hasan Mushaima didn't attend his medical appointments, explaining that the reason for that is Mushaima's refusal to wear his prison uniform when going to hospital.

In a statement to Bahrain Mirror, Ali Mushaima explains the timing of his action as well as its background. We have remained silent for a long time towards my father's situation, so that we wouldn't be misunderstood and when raising the issue of his illness, it wouldn't be deemed an action taken for a personal case. My father has been suffering for a very long time in prison. He has been held for over seven years. Do you know that he spent three and half years (non continuous) without seeing his family. He was denied visitations for about a year and a half, i.e. since he was imprisoned in 2011 to date, let alone the medical negligence, humiliations and harsh treatment he is subjected to. I was trying to keep his personal case out of the spotlight Mushaima added, however, two months ago, my father said a word that made me ponder it seriously, until I decided to launch this hunger strike.

What was this word? Mushaima answers: I received a phone call from my father two months ago. He complained that he hasn't been given his medications and that he hasn't been informed about the developments of his disease since a long time. I asked him: Why, in your opinion, is there all this stubbornness regarding your treatment? He said: It is simple my son, it is a slow act of killing without leaving the murderer's fingerprints.

After contemplation, Ali Mushaima said, I found that my father's words are very logical and that they really want to kill him slowly. He is in his 70s, he suffers from many illnesses, no medications are being prescribed for him and he is sentenced to life in prison. It is a matter of time, until his body gets tired and his pains increase and he eventually dies. For this reason, I thought about a way to defend my father's life. I decided to protest without consulting or telling anyone. I only told my wife about it. I launched the protest and I shall carry on until the end.

My father has read a large number of books during the past seven years, he said; however, since October, they have confiscated his books as well as those of other prisoners. They also confiscated notebooks he had bought with his own money to start writing. A number of researches that he had written were confiscated as well. My father is sentenced to a life sentence, doesn't he have the right to spent these years in a stable environment, while he serves this harsh and unjust term?

Ali Mushaima has been residing in London since 2006. Courts affiliated with the Bahraini regime issued prison sentences against him reaching up to 45 years, also revoking his citizenship.

Arabic Version