SALON

Sunday, Apr 29, 2012 5:45 PM UTC

Wife: Bahrain hunger striker fed against his will

By

Topics: From the Wires,

MANAMA, Bahrain (AP) — The wife of a jailed Bahraini hunger striker was granted her first visit in two weeks Sunday, then accused authorities of using feeding tubes and other life-saving measures on her husband against his will. Bahrain denied that.

In recent weeks, the case of rights activist Abdulhadi al-Khawaja has became a powerful rallying point for Bahrain’s uprising by the Gulf kingdom’s majority Shiites against the island’s Western-allied Sunni rulers.

The meeting in a hospital prison ward followed a flurry of speculation about the health of al-Khawaja, who began the hunger strike Feb. 8.

Bahraini officials repeatedly described al-Khawaja’s health as good. His wife, Khadija al-Musawi, had not seen him since mid-April and feared he was in sharply declining health.

Al-Musawi was granted a one-hour meeting with her husband, and other relatives visited over the next two hours. She described his condition as weak but said he was in good spirits.

She claimed, however, that doctors forcibly hooked up feeding tubes and IVs on the 51-year-old al-Khawaja in recent days, presumably as his health worsened and officials worried about the fallout from his possible death. He had no feeding devices during Sunday’s visits, she said.

“Abdulhadi never stopped his hunger strike but was force fed,” she said.

In a statement, the prison hospital said al-Khawaja agreed to the life-saving measures. “His doctors asked for and received his consent,” the statement said.

Al-Khawaja and seven other opposition figures were sentenced to life in prison last year as part of crackdowns against the Arab Spring-inspired uprising that seeks to give Shiites a greater voice in the affairs of the strategic island nation, which is home to the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet.

Bahrain’s leader say they have made critical reforms, but they fall short of opposition demands for a direct role in key political and security decisions.

At least 50 people have been killed in unrest since February 2011.

A hearing on the appeals of the life sentences and other charges is scheduled for Monday.

Earlier this month, Bahrain rejected a request by Denmark to take custody of al-Khawaja, who is also a Danish citizen.

More Reem Khalifa.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments are not enabled for this story.

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

vote
Who is "Company Doe"? Corporations accused of wrongdoing win battle to keep identities secret
41 points42 points | 1 comment
vote
"Slave descendants seek equal rights from Cherokee Nation": long, detailed narrative of legal and historical complications in red-white-black relations
31 points32 points | 1 comment
vote
Who is "Company Doe"? Corporations accused of wrongdoing win battle to keep identities secret
6 points7 points | comment
vote
Steven Soderbergh's Liberace biopic shows the famously flamboyant entertainer as a person, not a stereotype
6 points7 points | comment
vote
Experts: Fox News spying scandal a game-changer - I think that crackdown is ideologically driven and I think it’s hard to come to a different conclusion given the vigor with which this justice department has gone after people. So I think it is about a method of control that is badly misplaced.
3 points4 points | 6 comments

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: So long, Sookie Stackhouse

Recommendations