Bahrain Mirror: Zaynab Al-Khawaja, daughter of prisoner of conscience Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja, confirmed that her father "will not be broken and will not be silenced". She refuted the statement of Bahrain's representative at the inter-parliamentary union, Jamal Fakhro, who claimed that her father was not tortured, saying that many international organizations and the Bassiouni Committee, brought by the King of Bahrain, documented his torture in details.

Zaynab Al-Khawaja said in a video: "Recently, my father, an imprisoned human rights activist and torture survival, experienced heart problems and shortness of breath. He was rushed to the military hospital in an ambulance, but instead of being treated or seen by a cardiologist, he was taken back to prison for refusing to be handcuffed or chained to the hospital be he is in."

"This is a hospital that my father had been previously tortured in while chained to his bed. Many times, in Bahrain prisons, political prisoners are told: No one can hear you. But yesterday this was not true," during the IPU conference in Manama where a number of parliamentarians demanded the release of her father.

As for Fakhro's claim that he father "was not subjected to torture," she said: "This was reported by many international human rights organizations, but more importantly, it was documented in detail by the Bassiouni committee that was brought to Bahrain by the king of Bahrain himself."

"These details of how my father was tortured is something me and my family have had to live with for the past 12 years," she added.

Zaynab stressed that her father "will not be broken and will not be silenced."

She thanked every parliamentarian who got up at the IPU assembly and brought up her father's case "in a country where they have made it almost impossible for anybody to speak up for political prisoners." She also thanked everybody who is speaking up on behalf of her father "not only because they brought up his case, but because in bringing up his case they are highlighting the cases of hundreds of other political prisoners who are going through what my father is going through."

Arabic Version