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The king of Bahrain is predicted to attend the Royal Windsor horse present on Sunday after a private invitation from the Queen, prompting anger from campaigners who declare the UK is “sportswashing” what they are saying is an more and more repressive regime.
King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa has been invited as a visitor of the Queen, demonstrating a heat of official ties regardless of the Center Jap state’s outlawing of political opposition, and human rights violations together with torture.
Forward of the UK’s largest out of doors horse present, King Hamad supplied congratulations to Vladimir Putin on Russia’s Victory Day, which was held final week.
The Queen is predicted to attend the horse present on Sunday to look at the platinum jubilee celebration in her honour. Nonetheless, she should courageous a protest, organised by the Marketing campaign In opposition to Arms Commerce, that goals to focus on the occasion’s “sportswashing of human rights abuses in Bahrain”.
Amongst these attending the protest are exiled activist Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei, whose Bahraini citizenship was revoked after he beforehand protested in opposition to the king of Bahrain on the Windsor horse present and who’s, in impact, stateless consequently.
Alwadaei, director of the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy, mentioned: “Whereas the individuals of Bahrain proceed to stay beneath the brutal repression of the Al Khalifa dictatorship, with prisons filled with peaceable dissidents, as soon as once more the purple carpet is being rolled out for King Hamad within the UK. His invitation to the Royal Windsor horse present is morally bankrupt and sends a transparent sign that the UK is a protected haven for dictators and human rights abusers.”
On Friday an open letter was despatched to the Queen by 5 MPs, together with former Labour chief Jeremy Corbyn and two friends, warning that welcoming the king was “an enormous error of judgment and sends a devastating message to the victims of this brutal rule”.
A separate letter, signed by worldwide rights teams, was despatched to sponsors of the horse present, together with Land Rover and Rolex, elevating considerations over what it described as a “textbook instance of sportswashing”.
Jeed Basyouni, who leads Reprieve’s Center East crew, mentioned: “The UK welcomes King Hamad and agrees to not point out the individuals tortured into making false confessions by his safety providers.
“And, annually, Bahrain’s rulers return house with the comforting thought that irrespective of how a lot ache they inflict on their individuals, they may nonetheless be feted in England.”
The invitation to the king comes after the organisers of the Windsor occasion agreed to undertake a human rights coverage following a grievance that the present is being exploited by the Bahrain royal household to distract from rights abuses.
The loss of life of Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, president of the UAE, on Friday might, nonetheless, persuade the king to fly again to the Gulf at quick discover.
Not solely will the Gulf state’s king be current at Windsor however Bahrain’s Prince Nasser has additionally confirmed he can be attending.
In 2014 the excessive courtroom in London dominated that Prince Nasser bin Hamad Al Khalifa was not immune from prosecution over torture claims, allegations the Bahraini authorities categorically denied.
Because the failed 2011 rebellion, aimed toward eradicating the ruling monarchy, Bahrain has been engaged within the repression of its Shia majority. Human rights teams declare the regime is utilizing mass terrorism trials and the removing of citizenship to crack down on peaceable activists.
Amnesty Worldwide’s newest evaluation of Bahrain says that its authorities continued to commit severe human rights violations, “together with torture and different ill-treatment in addition to suppression of freedom of expression and meeting. Official investigations of ill-treatment resulted in impunity for perpetrators.”
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