The European Parliament has held a meeting with a delegation from the Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR) amid the West’s silence over the regime crackdown in the Persian Gulf country, Press TV reports.
“Bahrain is considered one of the most repressive regimes in the world,” said BCHR director Nabeel Rajab on Wednesday, after he brought the delegation to the Belgian capital Brussels for a meeting with the European parliamentarians.
The activist, who has spent two years in an Al Khalifa jail, was highly critical of the European Union and the United States for failing to support the tiny country’s pro-democracy protesters.
“Bahrain has the highest rate per capita of political prisoners… (and) the second highest rate of journalists or photojournalists in jail,” said Rajab.
Since mid-February 2011, thousands of pro-democracy protesters have held numerous demonstrations in the streets of Bahrain, calling for the Al Khalifa royal family to relinquish power.
On March 14, 2011, troops from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates invaded the country to assist the Bahraini government in its crackdown on peaceful protesters.
According to local sources, scores of people have been killed.
“These are not abstract topics or numbers but these are individuals including Nabeel Rajab, who has been in prison for two years and who has been released, but there are many other political prisoners, and political prisoners wherever they are should be freed and that is the message that we were able to share today,” said Marietje Schaake, a Dutch member of the European Parliament (MEP).
Nabeel was under the regime’s custody in Jaw prison in eastern Bahrain since July 9, 2012.
NT/AS/MHB
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/09/25/379912/europe-lawmakers-visit-bahrain-activists/
