Bahrain Denies Police Fired Tear Gas on Hunger Strikers

A top Bahraini interior ministry official said on Wednesday that some 100 jailed activists were still on a hunger strike after nearly three days, but denied claims that tear gas was used against inmates.

"Today, the number of prisoners on hunger strike has dropped to around 100. Yesterday there were 180," Major General Ibrahim al-Ghaith told Agence France Presse.

He categorically denied a rights group's claim that police used tear gas on Monday against the mostly Shiite inmates, saying this was a "false allegation."

On Tuesday, the head of the Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights (BYSHR), Mohammed al-Maskati, said police used tear gas against detainees "in one of the cells."

Maskati said that leading opposition and human rights activist Abdul Hadi al-Khawaja was hospitalized on Tuesday as he "suffered from hypotension and low blood sugar levels."

Ghaith said that Khawaja was not taken to hospital but had been admitted to the prison's medical center "because he is diabetic," adding that the prison governor "met him today and he is in good condition."

Ghaith said the prison authorities were taking measures regarding the striking inmates "in compliance with international standards, including having a medical team monitor their condition."

Leading opposition figures serving sentences ranging between two years and life in prison after being convicted of plotting to overthrow the Gulf kingdom's Sunni regime began their hunger strike on Sunday night.

They were joined by inmates and detainees held on charges related to a month-long protest that was crushed in mid-March.

The crackdown led to the deaths of 35 people, including five security personnel and five detainees who were tortured to death, an independent commission of inquiry appointed by King Hamad found.