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TEACHERS staged a silent protest yesterday demanding the immediate release of a trade union leader on the fourth anniversary of his imprisonment in Bahrain.
Bahrain Teachers Association (BTA) president Mahdi Abu Dheeb was arrested in 2011 and allegedly tortured before being sentenced to 10 years in jail for trade union organisation and for calling for quality education for all during the 2011 Arab Spring.
BTA vice-president Jalila al-Salman and Amnesty’s Shane Enright joined delegates at NASUWT conference to call for Mr Dheeb’s release.
Mr Salman said the support from NASUWT and Amnesty has helped get Mr Dheeb’s sentence reduced from 10 years to five and his own from three years to six months.
NASUWT general secretary Chris Keates said: “Mahdi has done nothing more than we at this conference believe to be important — organising and representing the interests of teachers, and calling for quality education for all children and young people in the oil-rich absolute monarchy.
“Mahdi is a prisoner of conscience who has been unjustly detained on false charges for simply exercising his right to freedom of assembly and demanding reforms to Bahrain’s educational system.”
NASUWT deputy general secretary Dr Patrick Roach warned that Mr Dheeb has been subjected to repeated abuse and torture.
He said the union “will not rest until Mahdi is released and teachers in Bahrain have the right to organise their union without interference or intimidation.”
Mr Enright added: “In the UK thousands of schoolchildren, college students, Amnesty activists, teachers and trade unionists have come together to shine a light on this injustice to the Bahrain and UK authorities. We say we will not go away.”