MANAMA, 19 August 2004 — Around 40 people held in custody in Bahrain have gone on hunger strike to protest at a prosecution decision to renew detention orders against five of them, all suspected drug traffickers.
The five, accused of smuggling drugs into the kingdom and peddling the narcotics, were initially arrested for 45 days for questioning but the public prosecutor ordered their detention to be extended for 45 more days, a security official told AFP.
The detainees have gone on strike only to protest at the renewal of their detention and have no other demands, the official said, adding that they would be put on trial at the end of the judiciary’s summer recess on Sept. 1.
The official said other prisoners held at the department of criminal investigations in Manama had joined the hunger strike. He did not give the total number of prisoners on strike, but newspapers here gave a figure of around 40.
The newspaper Al-Wasat said the hunger strike was now in its ninth day and quoted the wife of one of the prisoners as saying: “Some of the detainees have been hospitalized after their condition deteriorated.”
