Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, famed Bahrani activist and former president and co-founder of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, ended his 110 day hunger strike 28 May 2012. According to al-Khawaja’s wife, the activist ended his protest after he was force fed by doctors; al-Khawaja also believes that the hunger strike has finally begun to draw enough attention to the rights violations in Bahrain. Friends and colleagues of al-Khawaja also called for him to end his hunger strike.

Al-Khawaja was sentenced to life in prison in June 2011 with at least eight other activists. Twenty in total were tried by military tribunal as well; seven were tried in absentia. These activists, most of whom are Shia Muslims, were charged with trying to overthrow the Sunni royal family. Since the military ruling the highest court in Bahrain, the Court of Cassation, has said that the case must be heard by the civilian Court of Appeal and threw out the decision from the tribunal; however, al-Khawaja remains in prison at least until the end of the trial.

For a short time in April many activists around the world and family members of al-Khawaja worried that he had been killed or died in prison. The activist went missing and neither his wife nor his lawyer were allowed access to see him.

Nabeel Rajab, another famous Shia activist who was arrested for inciting protests via social networks, was released in late May. Rajab is the current president of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights and had expressed concern about al-Khawaja when he was being force fed.

Al-Khawaja’s daughter, Zainab al-Khawaja, was arrested 21 April 2012 after she was found sitting on a main road in a lone protest demanding the release of her father, the end to the government crackdown on protesters, and the cancellation of the Formula 1 races in Bahrain. She sentenced to one month in jail but was released for time served on remand. Zainab al-Khawaja was also forced to pay a fine of 200 dinar (US$530).

Al-Khawaja received political asylum in Denmark in 1992 after the Bahrani government began arresting and torturing those it suspected of trying to overthrow the government. While he was living Scandinavia, he and other Bahrani activist founded the Bahrain Human Rights Organization. Al-Khawaja returned to Bahrain in 1999 after several political reforms were passed and created the Bahrain Center for Human Rights. During the Arab Spring Revolutions of 2011, al-Khawaja was a leader of several non-violent, pro-democracy protests in Bahrain.

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Moscow, Russia – Two Arab Spring revolutionaries, Nabeel Rajab and Alaa Abd al-Fattah explain why the reform movements stalled in Bahrain and have destabilized in Egypt on the May 8th episode of “The World Tomorrow” on RT.

Nabeel Rajab is the leading human rights activist from Bahrain and the founder of the Gulf Centre for Human Rights; right prior to the air of his interview to Julian Assange he was arrested by the Bahraini government forces and will now stand trial for inciting the acts of protests.

Alaa Abd al-Fattah is the Egyptian writer and political activist who was a prominent figure in the Egyptian revolution. The two guests discuss the impetus behind the uprisings in the Middle East, what has been achieved and the prospects for democracy and reform in these countries.

“I speak to two leading revolutionaries: one from Bahrain, where the revolution failed; one from Egypt, where the revolution is now in turmoil. What makes a revolution? And where is the Arab Spring going to go?” – commented Assange on the upcoming episode.

In the interview given prior to his arrest Rajab commented on the struggle of the protest movement inBahrain on the show: “This is freedom. This is democracy that we are fighting for. It has a cost and we have to pay this cost, and the cost might be very expensive – as we have paid high cost in Bahrain. And, we are willing to pay that for the changes that we are fighting for.”

The fourth episode of Julian Assange’s program will air globally on Tuesday, May 8th at 15:30 Moscowtime /11:30 GMT/7:30 EDT across all RT channels in English, Arabic and Spanish, and will be rebroadcast every two hours thereafter.

The progress of the Arab Spring movements across different countries is a topic that Julian Assange has explored continuously starting with the very first episode of “The World Tomorrow.” Interview with the Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah caused a global media firestorm and trended on Twitter throughout the day. The most recent episode featured an extended discussion with Moncef Marzouki, the interim President of Tunisia, on democratic reforms in the cradle of the Arab Spring.

“The World Tomorrow” is RT’s weekly interview program created and hosted by the WikiLeaks founder. Promotional materials, an exclusive interview with Assange and the full-length video of the aired episodes are available at http://assange.rt.com.

Image Courtesy of   MOHPhoto / Shutterstock.com

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