Bahrain Mirror: The Bahraini Ombudsman's Office announced, in a statement, that it followed the news recently circulated on some websites with  regards to "allegations made by an inmate at the Reform and Rehabilitation Department" about the authorities' refusal to have her infant son handed to one of her relatives, so that he would not catch the flu, referring to Zainab Al-Khawaja who was arrested along with her son Abdulhadi.

In a statement published by the Bahrain News Agency (BNA) on Wednesday (May 25, 2016), the Ombudsman Office added that it "sent a female investigator to meet the inmate and listen to her statement. The ombudsman looked into the issue with the administration which highlighted the rules on handing over babies incarcerated with their mothers. The regulations state that it is mandatory for a doctor to examine the baby in order to assess its health conditions at the time of the hand-over. The Ombudsman said that the records kept at the center show that the inmate handed her 17-month-old baby to his father 25 times during her two-month stay at the center, and that the last time was took place on May 25, 2016."

Arabic Version