EU advances Bahrain partnership talks amid criticism over jailed European activists

For more than a decade and a half, Mohamed Habib al-Muqdad and Abdulhadi al-Khawaja have been incarcerated in Bahrain after calling for democratic change during the Arab Spring. Both hold European citizenship, and their plight is cited by activist Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei, who now leads advocacy at the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy after seeking asylum in the UK. Alwadaei, together with groups such as Amnesty International, has been campaigning for their release in Stockholm and Brussels.

In July, the European Union began negotiations for a strategic partnership with Bahrain’s capital, Manama, discussing trade accords and security cooperation. However, the EU has not publicly linked the talks to any concrete demands on Bahrain’s record of suppressing free speech, press freedom, and the detention of dissidents, including minors and relatives of activists.