Bahrain: Detainees at home and abroad · Global Voices
Ayesha Saldanha

Last December, a number of Bahrainis were arrested following clashes between protestors and security forces, and many are still being detained. Allegations have been made that some of them are being tortured. In February, eight Bahrainis were arrested in Saudi Arabia, apparently for straying into a restricted area.
Concern has been expressed about the health of one of the December detainees, Abdulla Mohsen, who used to be a blogger, and Babbling Bahrania has addressed an open letter to him:
Dearest Abdullah,
The “cage went in search of a bird” – Kafka.
It was only a matter of time – but still, I didn’t expect you to be caged up for this long. Each word is a dagger wrenched out of a heart weighed heavy with shame, guilt and sorrow over what you are having to endure. The pen doesn’t know what the heart will say, but you have seen these words even before they appeared on this page since you are closer to my heart than the jugular vein. The pen is merely executing this letter-writing exercise as a postdated transcription of my tormented thoughts drained by internal bleeding. … In your letter you say that “they can fire bullets at us and at our dreams but they can not stop us from dreaming”. … Stay strong, passionate and committed…a hero needs no saviour, but we definitely need you!
Meanwhile, Ahmed Al Bader writes about the eight men being detained in Saudi Arabia:
فهل يجد هؤلاء الثمانية وطنهم الذي أحتضنهم ورعاهم؟!!
They are eight held in Saudi Arabia (Majeed Abdulrasool Salman Al Ghasra, Abbas Ahmed Ibrahim, Sayed Ahmed Alawi Abdulla, Isa Abdulhassan Ahmed, Mohammed Hassan Ali Marhoon, Mohammed Abdulla Al Moamen, Ibrahim Marzam and Mohammed Mahdi). Their story is stranger than fiction. They were arrested at the beginning of March not for a crime they committed but because they took a wrong turn and entered a restricted military zone. What is strange in the matter is that they have been in solitary confinement, each in a cell not knowing of the other, since their arrest. In the first and only visit of their families to them, three weeks ago, their families said that their attires have changed a lot since they last saw them and that the effects of physical and mental exhaustion was apparent on their faces – the exhaustion of being away from home and relatives.
They all enjoy a clean record – morally and politically. They have nothing to do with politics. Their interests are in sports or cultural activities. Where is justice, humanity and rights? They have not committed a crime or have been sentenced by a court of law. Since their arrest to this day, the same comment is being repeated: “Nothing has been proved against them and investigations are continuing.” This is the third month and investigations are still continuing.
Will those eight ever find the nation which nurtured and protected them?