Independent UN experts urge Bahrain to ensure prisoners have adequate food, water in scorching heat

Associated Press

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Independent experts with the United Nations have urged Bahrain to ensure those held at its Jaw prison have access to adequate food, water and medical care. They said Thursday they had received allegations guards have cut air conditioning in the island kingdom’s sweltering summer. Bahrain called the accusations “false” in a statement sent to The Associated Press and insisted prisoners receive “the same health-care provision as members of the public.” However, the U.N. experts’ request comes a year after a mass hunger strike by prisoners at the Jaw Rehabilitation and Reform Center, a facility holding many of the prisoners identified by human rights activists as dissidents who oppose the rule of the island’s Al Khalifa family.