Thread by @MARYAMALKHAWAJA

Urgent thread:
We’re very worried about my father who called this morning and said he won’t be allowed to make anymore calls, and was chanting Free #Bahrain, Free #Palestine, and down with israels collaborators - they kept cutting the call and he kept trying to call back.

Yesterday during his call he named people who took part in and/or were responsible for his torture, and we’re worried about the retaliation against him - more so than what they’re already doing as I’ll mention in the following tweets

Due to my father’s chants in Feb about #Palestine, all treatment for the damage done by #torture he endured has stopped, as well as all access to medical appointments - some were urgent as he may be going blind in his right eye due to glaucoma, which is progressive & irreversible

My father had multiple fractures in his face due to blunt force trauma when he was severely beaten until unconscious during his arrest in 2011 - this was led by Bader AlGhaith, who was promoted after (now dead)

on the order of Isa Sultan Hamad who got his orders from the head of the Bahrain Defense Force: Khalifa Ahmed Al-Khalifa - member of ruling family (pictured)

My father had 4 hour surgery, then tortured in hospital bed while handcuffed & blindfolded. He’s been waiting for years for a copy of his medical records for a second opinion

as he needs another surgery bcz he’s in pain and it’s affecting his ear, and the complications are getting worse.
My father’s vision in his right eye has been deteriorating since the blows to the head he received during #torture in 2011.

Despite changing glasses and medications prescribed by a doctor, his vision has gotten worse both near and far sighted. The dr also said he needs to see my father urgently bcz he suspects he may also have glaucoma which can cause blindness if it goes untreated.

On Jan 16 they took him all the way to the hospital for his appointment, made him sit in the car for 3 hours, then brought him back to prison. He kept following up with them and telling them the appointment is urgent,

so they made another appointment for him on the 20th of March without informing him, showed up 15 minutes before the appointment and told him it was now too late to take him. No new appointment has been made.

After the torture my father also developed problems with his spine, including an injured coccyx. Since then he’s had to use medical shoes, medical cushion to sit, medical mattress to sleep.

This reduced the pain for a bit but two months ago the pain returned not only to his lower spine, but it also is now in his lumbar and cervical spine and the sacroiliac joints which have swelling (the joints that connect the spine to the hips)

Part of reason for the pain has been due to rapid weight loss because of numerous #hungerstrikes in protest of prison conditions and torture of himself and others. This has caused a weakening in the muscles, including those that keep the bones in place and protect the joints

This has then led to inflammation and other problems in his spine. He was given dry needling in his joints and told he’ll need physiotherapy three times a week after which he was supposed to see the dr again. They stopped his physiotherapy suddenly,

and refused to take him to see the dr for the scheduled appointment bcz they said there’s no point since he didn’t finish physiotherapy. The pain is worsening and he’s now not able to sit for more than 15 minutes at a time even with the medical pillow.

Two months ago the spasms in his leg started getting worse. He told the dr it might be due to magnesium deficiency, who ordered blood tests. The dr also ordered blood tests because of a prostate problem and to test his cholesterol - he needs routine tests for the latter.

They kept delaying the blood tests with the excuse of #COVID. March 20th they came to his cell, did blood tests for everyone except my father, even those who were confused because they didn’t need nor had had blood tests ordered. They still have not set a date for his blood tests

Due to the damage they did to his jaw, he can’t sleep on his left side, due to the damage to his shoulder he can’t sleep on his right side, and now with the increasing pain in his back, he can only have short bouts of sleep because he can’t sleep on his back for long periods.

He said at the beginning he didn’t know why everything had suddenly stopped. He said he thought that they’d probably retaliate against his pro-#Palestine slogans by cutting his call, but now it’s clear the reprisal is in the form of cutting off all access to medical treatment

When my father spoke up and told them that they weren’t doing him any favors, the treatment was for damage they did to him due to the torture, a 2 star office responded “ما لك أحد”. My father described the exchange in this video

My father is Abdul-Hadi Al-Khawaja. They’ve imprisoned him multiple times, beat him, disappeared him, isolated him, tortured him, mistreated him, denied him access to adequate medical treatment - and it drives them crazy that they still haven’t been able to break his spirit

Next month will mark 11 years since he was arrested and severely tortured. Next month will also mark his 61st birthday.
Next month will mark another year my father has survived the brutality of the #Bahrain regime and it’s #GCC and Western allies.

My father is serving a life sentence because he dared practice his right to free speech and called for human rights and self determination for the people of #Bahrain and the region - he continues to speak truth to power even from within their prison cells

Take whatever action you can, share my tweets, let his voice reach as many people as possible. #Bahrain regime is trying to promote itself as progressive and to polish it’s image, while HRDs are abused and mistreated in their prisons while the world turns a blind eye.
End