MESA Academic Freedom Award
Dr. Abduljalil al-Singace
2023 Recipient
MESA’s Committee on Academic Freedom has selected Dr. Abduljalil Al-Singace as the recipient of MESA’s Academic Freedom Award for 2023.
Dr. Abduljalil Al-Singace, a noted human rights activist, earned his Ph.D. from the University of Manchester’s Institute of Technology in the United Kingdom. He served as a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Bahrain beginning in 1995. He has been a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and the Bahrain Society for Engineers and a Board member of the Bahrain Academic Society.
Dr. Al-Singace was arrested on March 17, 2011 amidst the popular demonstrations at that time. The reason given for the arrest was his “reported involvement in peaceful protests and calls for democratic reform.” He was subsequently tried before a military court and sentenced to life in prison on charges of attempting to overthrow the government. Thus, Dr. Al-Singace is a prisoner of conscience, a man jailed solely for the non-violent expression of his political beliefs. Amnesty International has designated him a political prisoner.
CAF has written six letters in his defense over the past decade.
Dr. Al-Singace suffers from numerous health problems. He is partially paralyzed and suffers from poliomyelitis as well as heart, eye and sinus problems. He relies upon a cane and a wheelchair for mobility. He initially served his sentence in Jaw prison where he was repeatedly denied access to critical medical care because he would not wear prison clothing.
Credible reports have also indicated that Dr. Al-Singace has been held in a tiny cell, often in solitary confinement, and that he has been subjected to repeated verbal, physical and sexual assaults. In spite of the fact that he depends upon the support of a wheelchair, he has been forced to stand upright for prolonged periods. This maltreatment meets the international legal definition of torture.
His health has continued to deteriorate, yet he has been denied badly needed operations. He has also at times been denied family visits, or had their duration reduced to only a few hours per month.
He has undertaken several hunger strikes, the most recent of which he began in July 2021 to protest the degrading conditions of his imprisonment, the imposition of additional restrictions under the guise of the Coronavirus pandemic, and the prison authorities’ confiscation of his book on Bahraini dialects of Arabic that he spent four years researching and writing by hand in jail. The state responded by transferring him to a Ministry of Interior medical facility to be given intravenous fluids. There he has been held in what amounts to solitary confinement, prohibited from going outside, being exposed to direct sunlight, or receiving the physiotherapy that he requires for his disability. He was still on the hunger strike as of the end of September 2023.
In selecting Dr. Singace for this award, we seek to highlight the broader conditions of political repression in Bahryan as well as add our voice to those of numerous human rights, scholarly and other organizations who have called upon the Bahrayni government to release Dr. Al-Singace immediately and unconditionally, and in the meantime to ensure he is held in conditions that meet international standards, receives his medication without delay, and has access to adequate healthcare, in compliance with medical ethics. With this Academic Freedom Award for 2023, we recognize his unwavering courage and steadfastness in the face of more than a decade of repression and torture.