Endangered Scholars Worldwide

The information in this quarterly print report is current as of October 5, 2020. The situation of scholars and students around the world changes on a daily basis. For the most up-to-date information and ways in which you can be involved in calling for the freedom of endangered scholars and students, please visit us online at www.endangeredscholarsworldwide.net or follow us at www.facebook.com/endangeredscholars. In these pages we introduce new cases that have come to our attention over the past three months and provide basic information about continuing cases—a description of charges and potential or actual reported sentences. If you are aware of a scholar or student whose case you believe we should investigate, please contact us at esw@newschool.edu.

LETTER OF SOLIDARITY TO BELARUSIAN STUDENTS

Endangered Scholars Worldwide (ESW) condemns the brutal treatment of student protesters in Belarus and stands in solidarity with Belarusians in their struggle for freedom and a peaceful transition to democracy. The illegal arrests, trials, and imprisonments of Belarus's students are particularly abhorrent. We are shocked and deeply concerned by the troubling photos and footage from campuses such as the Minsk State Linguistic University, where police forcefully entered the grounds and detained students for the crime of singing. These actions on university grounds are a matter of grave concern. Universities should never be associated with fear, terror, or brutality. These are spaces of debate, discussion, and knowledge. Such violence, especially against them and in these spaces, is appalling and must come to an end. We strongly affirm this right, especially as it pertains to places of higher education. We stand with the students and their righteous cause: leading all of Belarus to a better future.

NEW AND CONTINUING CASES

BAHRAIN

Scholars and Researchers: Endangered Scholars Worldwide (ESW) joins other human rights organizations in calling on the Bahraini government, amid the global threat posed by COVID-19, to release all scholars and students imprisoned solely for peacefully exercising their rights to freedom of expression, assembly, and association. Though Bahrain released 1,486 prisoners on March 17, 2020, imprisoned scholars and students—many of whom are older and suffer from underlying medical conditions—were excluded from the decrees. Given the poor, unsanitary conditions in Bahrain's prisons and the inadequate medical care, prisoners who are vulnerable to COVID-19, such as abdul-jalilal-singace, 57, former head of the Department of Engineering at the University of Bahrain, should be allowed early release or parole.

Since 2011, Al-Singace has been in Jau Prison—Bahrain's largest prison, where the lack of adequate sanitation led to a scabies outbreak in December 2011—on a life sentence for allegedly "plotting to overthrow the government" during the Arab Spring protests. He has been subjected to torture and various other forms of mistreatment. Bahraini officials have consistently ignored Al-Singace's requests for medical attention despite his long-term poliomyelitis, which has left him paralyzed since childhood.

Students: ESW is deeply saddened by reports that on June 27, 2020, the government of Bahrain executed ali mohamed hakeem al-arab, 25, a nursing student, along with his cousin, ahmed al-malali, 28, who was also a nursing student. Both men were sentenced to death by the Fourth High Criminal Court in Bahrain on charges including "forming and joining a 'terrorist group'." Ali Al-Arab, who had initially been arrested on February 9, 2017, escaped from Jau Prison with several other prisoners on January 1, 2017, in an attempt that resulted in the death of a policeman. The Bahrain Ministry of Interior issued a statement in February identifying Ali Al-Arab as "the main suspect" in the police officer's death, after he was "found to be in possession of two Kalashnikov rifles and three firearms." According to a report by Amnesty International dated March 15, 2018, security officers tortured and mistreated the two men to force them to sign a confession. On May 6, 2019, the Court of Cassation upheld the two men's convictions and death sentences. On July 27, 2019, Al-Arab and Al-Malali were executed by firing squad at Jaw Prison...