EU-Bahrain talks move ahead, even as European political prisoners recount years of torture

21 Sep 2026, 16:19 by https://euobserver.com/author/gaia-neiman/ · EUobserver

Abdulhadi al-Khawaja has been on hunger strikes, sometimes for over 100 days, to protest basic rights while in prison (Source: Al-Khawaja’s family)

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By Gaia Neiman,
Brussels
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For over 15 years, human rights defenders Mohamed Habib al-Muqdad and Abdulhadi al-Khawaja have been imprisoned for speaking up against the Bahraini authorities during the Arab Spring.

They are both European citizens.

“They called for democratic change in Bahrain. That is their crime,” said Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei, a fellow activist who ended up in prison alongside Swedish-Bahraini clergyman al-Muqdad in 2011 for exercising their freedom of speech.

“And where does the EU say on this? Nothing. Absolute silence.”

Speaking to EUobserver from the UK, where he sought asylum after his acquittal, Alwadaei now works as director of advocacy at the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy.

Alongside groups like Amnesty international, he has been advocating for al-Muqdad’s release in Stockholm and Brussels, where a new diplomatic relationship with Bahrain is on the horizon.

Brussels happy to talk

The EU launched negotiations for a strategic partnership with Manama in July, with subjects from trade accords to security cooperation on the table.

Although little is yet known of the future agreement, the EU has not made public any serious leverage against Bahrain’s human rights record in its discussions.

The authoritarian rule imposed by the Al Khalifa royal family has resulted in a systematic crackdown on civil space, freedom of speech and the press, and the detainment of dissidents as young as 15-years old, as well as their family members - including three of Alwadaei’s relatives.