Ali Fadel

Mr Ali Fadel's Children

Ali Fadel, aged 36, is a school nurse. He is not one of the 20 medics currently on trial. He is a nurse that has now completed a 6 month sentence in prison.

Doctors In Chains received this testimony from one of his colleagues:

‘Mr Ali Ebrahim Fadel is a father of five kids. The eldest is 16-years old and the youngest is 2 years old. Both him and his wife love to have children. They believe that their kids are the jewels of their life.  Mr. Ali Fadel is known under by name of “Ali Almagabi” because he lives in a little village named Magaba.   He is a very quiet guy. He is a lovely father and a great husband.

Mr. Fadel loves his work and used to work in the emergency department prior to moving to school health. During the crisis Mr. Fadel volunteered at the medical tent and ran to volunteer at the Emergency Department since he knows what it is all about.

On the 17^th of March, when the Salmaniya Medical Hospital was attacked by the soldiers, his wife was in the hospital at the time and he was at home with his young child. He waited for her and was anxious. There were no phone lines at the time to check on his wife. With Gods’ grace she was able to leave the hospital and reunite with her husband. She walked out and left the car in the parking lot. There was no way she could get the car out. She was worried about the kids and the safety of her husband. She was so happy once she reached home and her husband was there.

The next day, Mr. Fadel went to get his car which his wife drove to work that night prior to the attack on the hospital. As we all know, Ali is one of the guys who loves his car and it is always spotless. He makes sure no one eats or drinks in his car.  As he was driving his car from the park towards the checkpoint, which was manned by the soldiers inside the premises of the hospital, he was stopped for questioning. The soliders searched the car and found it empty. They asked him “Do you have any religious flyers or pamphlets related to religion?”. He state “No, you can see my car is clean”. Suddenly, the solider opened a big box of flyers and threw it inside the car and told him now you do”! He dragged him out of the car and pulled him around. He was hit whilst being hand cuffed and blind folded. He was thrown on the ground whilst being beaten all the time. At the time Mr. Ali was wearing a thoub which men wear in Bahrain. The soldiers started telling him “Take this off! It is not for you! You are not an Arab!”  They dragged him and they threw him on top of something. Mr. Ali came to find out that he was thrown on top of other staff members of the hospital. Then he was taken to a police station “Al-Naim”. He was blind folded and hand cuffed all the time. At this time nobody knew where he was.

His family got worried about him when he did not return home.  It was a scary time in Bahrain; whenever any one left the house, especially men, and did not return, everybody knew that they had been taken by the soldiers and only God knew what would happen to them. His wife and family members started their search for Ali. They went to every police station on the island and everyone denied where he was;even Alnaiam police station.

The family was in state of horror. This father of five had disappeared. After one week from living in a state of fear that Ali might be shot or dead; the family received a phone call telling them that their loved one Mr. Fadel was in Alnaim police station but was not allowed to be seen.

After 23 days, Ali saw his family for the first time. His clothes were torn, bloody and dirty. He was summoned to the Military court after two weeks from seeing his family. He was dragged into court not wearing a thoub which he usually wears, blindfolded, hand cuffed, not having seen a lawyer at all. They accused him of several things: One of them off course was public incitement, of hatred to the ruling regime, public gathering, distributing fliers and others. He himself had no idea what they were.

People need to know that Bahrain has some of the most dignified lawyers on earth. The lawyers are always available at the court whenever there is a case to volunteer to, to defend whoever was being accused during the national safety period. That was what happened in Mr. Ali Fadel’s case. A lawyer stood up and volunteered to defend him. Mr. Fadel was beaten, and forced to confess of the accusation and sentenced to six months in jail.  There is no appeal at this time, he was taken to Jaw prison which is not the best place to be. Mr. Ali Fadel is there hoping to be released for the EID holiday which is the 6^th of November. But he has been informed that there is no way he will be out before that.‘

Thanks to everyone that campaigned for the release of Ali Fadel. He was released from prison having served his sentence on 17th November.

If you would like to post an expression of support to Ali and his family you may do so below. Please note that all comments will be moderated and we will not publish anything that is offensive – this family has suffered enough already!

You can also read about Hassan Matooq here.