Naji Fateel

Naji Ali Hassan Fateel is a Bahraini human rights activist and member of the Board of Directors of the Bahraini human rights NGO Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights (BYSHR). Since 2007 he has been imprisoned, tortured

Reactions In its report The Revival of Physical Coercion during Interrogations in Bahrain, Human Rights Watch cited Fateel's testimony of his treatment in reaching its conclusion that credible evidence demonstrated that since December 2007 the Bahraini security forces had used techniques such as electro-shock devices and suspending victims by their arms and legs that constituted torture and violated Bahrain’s obligations under international and national law.

In February 2011, the Report submitted to the UN Human Rights Council by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, Margaret Sekaggya, contained the Bahrain government's belated response to a communication about the group of detainees including Naji Ali Fateel sent to it in July 2008, reaffirming that they had not been tried or convicted because of their human rights work, but because they had participated in an illegal gathering at which they had "been carrying iron bars and Molotov cocktails, set fire to a police vehicle and stole a firearm from the vehicle".

Death threats

After 10 March 2011, messages calling for Fateel and human rights defenders Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja (of Human Rights Defenders) and Mohammed Al-Maskati (of Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights) to be "killed and liquidated" as traitors and "heads of agitation and disorder in our beloved Bahrain" were circulated via SMS and social networking sites. One message reportedly alleged that they were "the instigators of disorder", who had organized movements of sabotage". Rupert Colville of the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said that the messages had included detailed information that could be used to locate the three human rights defenders, including names, home addresses, photographs, personal identification card numbers, profession, telephone numbers, make of car and registration numbers. He voiced the UN's grave concern for the activists' security and called on the Bahraini government to protect them.

The organisation Front Line considered that the death threats were directly related to legitimate and peaceful work in defence of human rights and in particular the activists' participation in explicitly peaceful protests calling for democratic and human rights reforms in Bahrain.

Amnesty International has called on the Bahraini authorities to ensure the safety of three human rights activists and mount an immediate, thorough investigation to identify the source of the threats, which contained all the information about the activists that would be found on a national ID card, prompting suspicion that the source of the threats may have been Bahraini security intelligence officials who would have easy access to such information.

In April 2011 the Bahraini organisation Bahrain Centre for Human Rights which defends and promotes human rights in Bahrain included Fateel among a number of Bahraini human rights defenders, bloggers and political activists who were considererd at high risk in prevailing circumstances in Bahrain after his photograph, address and telephone number were published on the internet with a message that he should be killed.

In May 2011 security forces broke into Fateel's house searching for him but failed to find him.