Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja

In the 1990s, Danish-Bahraini activist Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja was exiled to Denmark. He returned to Bahrain in 2001 but was arrested in September 2004 after condemning the Prime Minister’s role in human rights abuses and Bahrain’s poor economic development. Following his release by royal pardon that October, he played a key role in Bahrain’s 2011 pro-democracy protests, which led to his arrest, torture, and a life sentence. Despite hunger strikes, his conviction was upheld in 2013, and he remains in detention, subjected to severe mistreatment. His family members have also been targeted.