A supporter of Bahrain’s anti-government movement was found dead in police custody on 9 April. Whilst the opposition party described the death of Rashid Zakaria Hassan, 40, as “mysterious”, government officials claim that he died of complications from sickle-cell anaemia. Hassan was initially detained on 2 April on charges of inciting hatred and promoting sectarianism.
Soldiers in black ski masks took control of the Salmaniya Medical Complex on 11 April as the civil unrest in Bahrain continues. At least a dozen doctors and medical support officers have been arrested in the last month and many more are missing. The Bahraini health minister has accused health care workers of conspiring against the state. However, doctors counter that hospitals such as Salmaniya have been converted into an apparatus of state violence and intimidation.
Members of CNN’s news team were arrested by the government’s security forces as they were visiting the house of Nabeel Rajab, head of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights.
Twenty men in black ski masks are reported to have surrounded the news team and confiscated their recording equipment. Government officials have alleged that the team was detained at a checkpoint for not having the proper identification paers. CNN denies the claim and insists its reporters were subject to intimidation and censorship.
Zainab Alkhawaja, daughter of human rights activist and former president of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights, Abdulhadi Alkhawaja, has gone on hunger strike demanding that authorities release her father and three other members of her immediate family.
Security forces are alleged to have used excessive and violent force in apprehending the suspects in their private residence without any search or arrest warrants. Zainab has also written an open letter to US president Barack Obama urging him to help free her family. Meanwhile on Twitter, seven other activists have vowed to join in the hunger strike.