Bahrain Mirror (Exclusive): Tirana Hassan, Human Rights Watch's acting executive director, published a series of tweets through which she condemned Bahrain over its human rights record and the visa cancellation of two Human Rights representatives, who were intending to attend the inter-parliamentary 146th assembly.

Tirana asked in one of her tweets about the worries that made the Bahraini authorities revoke the staff's entry visas and then answered that the entry of these two representatives will contribute to "exposing years of torture, arbitrary detention and repression in Bahrain," she added "I documented many of these abuses in 2011 when they crushed the uprising." She attached a link of a report issued by Human Rights Watch entitled "You Can't Call Bahrain A Democracy".

In another tweet, Tirana addressed MPs participating in the conference saying "Here is some recommended reading: Last year, Human Rights Watch released a report on political isolation laws used to keep political opponents from running for parliament seats or even serving on the boards of governors of civic organizations."

Tirana stressed in her tweets that "Bahrain's government tries to paper over its abusive record by hosting F1 and international meetings. They don't want you to know about the human rights defenders and opposition figures they've locked away., in particular Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja."

Human Rights Watch condemned the Bahraini authorities' revoking of the entry visas of two Human Rights Watch staff members to attend the 146th Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) Assembly, although the organization holds permanent observer status with the IPU.

Tirana Hasan called on the parliamentary group's members and its leadership to publicly demand that Bahrain authorities unconditionally and immediately release all those imprisoned solely for peaceful speech and call for the government to immediately rescind its draconian "political isolation law".

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