Bahrain Mirror: The international community should pressure Bahrain to release prisoners amid the Coronavirus epidemic, sports star Craig Foster told the Gulf Institute for Democracy and Human Rights.

In an interview with Fatima Yazbek via Instagram, Foster said "I made it clear that the rest of the world, like us, should be pressuring on the Bahrain government and the royal family to show that all of those that have been prosecuted, for non-criminal reasons, should be released," indicating that this is similar to what we witnessed in case of Bahraini football player, Hakeem Al-Araibi.

Foster noted that the international community, including the US and the UK, who have very close relationship with Bahrain, should pressure on the government to insure that the rule of law is applied as well as the democracy that people have been calling for so many years.

Craig called on the ruling family to promote the democracy of the people of Bahrain, indicating that Bahrain has a crew of nationals. He also demanded the country to grant them freedom of speech, freedom of religions and the human rights they should have as part of their national rights.

He also urged the Bahraini government to release prisoners of conscience, journalists and athletes, including Nabeel Rajab, Mahmoud Al-Jaziri, Abduljalil Al-Singace, Hussein Ali Mahdi and others, stressing that keeping them, along with others, behind bars, is unacceptable.

The interview with the Australian sports star comes as part of #Release_Bahraini_Prisoners campaign, launched by a group of Bahraini activists days ago on social media outlets, to call on the Bahraini authorities to release Bahraini prisoners amid serious concerns over the Coronavirus outbreak and the poor conditions they are suffering from inside the prisons.  

Arabic Version