Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

Will the Taoiseach and his Government make a clear statement of condemnation about the systematic human rights abuses in Bahrain? More than 5,000 people are currently imprisoned on political charges, with many of them subjected to torture, including sexual abuse. I will give a few examples. Nabeel Rajab was incarcerated for posting so-called false tweets criticising Saudi Arabia's war in Yemen and the torture in Bahrain's Jau Prison.

Hajer Mansoor Hassan was, incredibly, imprisoned based on the human rights activities of her son-in-law. She has been spat on, verbally abused and subject to psychological torture as part of her arrest. Part of the "Bahrain Thirteen", who are human rights activists, includes a doctor who suffers from paralysis and was forced to stand on one leg while he signed his supposed confession. There is a consistent pattern of mass trials, where the very idea of justice is a joke. More than 500 people have been convicted in a process of five mass trials in the past two years. There is no freedom of expression and one can be convicted of promoting terrorism simply for liking a tweet that is critical of the Government or the ruling family. Will the Irish Government speak out clearly against this in the context of the trade mission attended by the Minister in November? It was a major trade mission to the Middle East that included Bahrain. When asked by Deputy Crowe if concerns had been raised about human rights, the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Deputy Simon Coveney, said that it was not possible to raise our concerns about the human rights situation directly on that occasion. This begs a very serious question as to whether human rights are being put into second place behind trade and profits.

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