A human rights advocate has been detained for 45 days for calling for the resignation of Bahrain’s longtime prime minister, and his family said Monday the Bahraini man began a hunger strike to highlight his demands.
An official at the public prosecutor’s office, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed Abdul-Hadi al-Khawajah’s 45-day detention, but did not elaborate.
Al-Khawajah’s wife, Khadija al-Mousawi, said Monday that her husband was summoned to a police station Saturday night and detained. On Sunday night, he was taken to the public prosecutor’s office in the capital Manama, where he was informed of the 45-day detention.
Authorities can hold a suspect for 45 days without charge. The detention order can be renewed.
The 43-year-old activist was detained a day after he called for the resignation of Prime Minister Sheik Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa, blaming him for economic failures and human rights violations during his more than 30 years in office, his relatives said.
"I am proud of my what my husband is doing,’’ al-Mousawi told reporters at the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, where al-Khawajah is the executive director. She said al-Khawaja began a hunger strike since he was detained.
"We think his detention is political ... We will not rest until he (al-Khawajah) is released,’’ said the center’s president, Nabil Rajab.
A small group of pro-democracy activists and relatives demonstrated Sunday on behalf of al-Khawajah, who returned to Bahrain in 2001 with his family after 22 years in self-imposed exile in Europe.
The Oruba Club, a social and cultural center where al-Khawaja made his critical comments at a symposium Friday, also was ordered closed for 45 days.
Bahrain’s king, Sheik Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, warned clubs from holding meetings that defame the country’s leaders and damage national unity. The king expressed confidence in the prime minister, who is his uncle, at a Cabinet meeting the monarch chaired on Sunday, according to the official Bahrain News Agency.
The king has taken steps since assuming the throne in 1999 to move the country from an absolute monarchy to a constitutional one. He pardoned more than 1,000 political prisoners and allowed exiles to return. In 2002, Bahrain held its first parliamentary elections since 1971. However, critics charge his reforms do not go far enough toward ensuring freedom of expression and democracy.

Adnan Malik
© The Associated Press
Manama, Bahrain
September 27, 2004