Many organizations have called on the Bahraini authorities to immediately release the human rights activist Sayed Yusuf al-Muhafadha and drop all “illegal gathering” charges against him. On October 30, 2012, the government issued an indefinite ban on public protests. Security forces arrested al-Muhafadha, acting vice president of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR), in al-Diraz, west of Manama, on November 2. Al-Muhafadha was taken into custody after he tried to photograph an injured protester at a protest against the ban. Earlier in the day he had tweeted photos of security forces attacking protesters with teargas in the village of Bilad al-Qadeem, the Washington Post reported. The day after he was arrested, the public prosecutor decided to hold him in detention for a week pending investigation on charges of “illegal gathering of more than five people.”
Sayed Yusuf al-Muhafadha is acting vice president of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR) and represented them at the MEA ceremony on 2 October in Geneva. For images see the website: http://www.martinennalsaward.org, summary of the 2012 ceremony.
Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards 