Bahraini Abduljalil Al-Singace named international writer of courage

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Bahraini activist Abduljalil Al-Singace, an imprisoned academic and blogger, has been named this year's international writer of courage by Malorie Blackman. 

Al-Singace is currently serving a life sentence for his participation in the popular 2011 anti-government protests.

Read more: Human Rights Watch: Execution in Bahrain, pattern of injustice

The award, being part of the PEN Pinter prize, goes to people who have fulfilled the aspiration of Harold Pinter, which is to “define the real truth of our lives and our societies”. 

Blackman is this year's winner of the prize, and she nominated Al-Singace as the international writer of courage due to the persecution he still experiences by state authorities for speaking the truth about his beliefs. She will be sharing the prize with the imprisoned Bahraini activist. 

Last year in July, Al-Singace announced a hunger strike to protest against his mistreatment. The authorities, in addition to giving him a life sentence, confiscated the manuscript that he had been working on for years.

Read more: Bahrain: Al-Singace On Hunger Strike for the 129th Day

“When I first heard of the plight of Dr Al-Singace … I was immediately struck by his commitment regarding effecting change in his homeland, including by highlighting the methods used to suppress freedom of expression,” Blackman said.

“He has been incarcerated for over a decade and has been on hunger strike and without solid food for over 400 days, which shines a spotlight on an immensely brave man who defines the word courage.”

Before his detention over a decade ago, Al-Singace was a university instructor of engineering at the University of Bahrain, authoring his own blog called Al-Faseelah, which was blocked by the Bahraini authorities in 2009. 

In 2010, he visited the UK to speak of human rights abuses in the House of Lords: “[There are] three pillars ensuring that activists and NGOs who work on exposing violations are seized and [condemned] somehow, ensuring that they are suppressed,” he said at the seminar. “The first is the use of force, torture and ill-treatment. [The] second is the use of the law. And [the] third is the judicial apparatus and procedures.”

Returning from the UK, Al-Singace was arrested at Bahrain International Airport. 

Read more: Britons Demand Release of Bahraini Prisoner Al-Singace

Al-Singace, along with others who were on trial with him, were released in February 2011 after calls for political reform. He was rearrested in March and sentenced to life in June. 

“Be careful when you use the words ‘change’ ‘dream’ and ‘democracy’”,  wrote Al-Singace in 2009 to the New York Times. “Those things don’t come so easily to us.”

The award was accepted on Al-Singace's behalf by Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei, who is the director of advocacy at the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy. 

Al-Singace's health condition has been deteriorating: The human rights organization calls for improving prison conditions and the return of his manuscript to his family. 

In November last year, protesters demanded the immediate release of Al-Singace and all political prisoners in Bahraini prisons. At the time, Al-Singace had lost 20 kilograms from his hunger strike, which he started in protest of the constant harassment from prison guards who regularly monitor his phone calls, cut the phone line, and prevent him from sleeping, as well as arbitrarily confiscating his research work.