PROTESTS swept across Bahrain on Monday night demanding the release of all political prisoners following the death of a former detainee who was alleged to have been tortured in custody.

Ali Qambar, who had cancer, is said to have died from complications sustained in prison due to medical negligence.

He was detained in 2012 for his political activism during a mass clampdown on dissent.

He was released in 2018 due to his deteriorating health, but opposition groups claim that his condition worsened due to his treatment in prison and lack of cancer treatment.

Protests have been held sporadically in Bahrain since February 2011, when activists called for the regime of King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa to stand down to allow a transfer to democracy.

But security services have carried out a brutal clampdown on opposition forces.

The Bahraini government feared the spread of the so-called Arab Spring uprisings, which in 2011 toppled a number of autocratic leaders in the Middle East.

It was helped in its suppression of the movement for democracy by neighbouring Saudi Arabia, which sent troops to put down protests.

Opposition political parties were banned and independent media organisations shut down.

Bahrain’s parliament also approved the mass trial of civilians at military tribunals — a measure human rights organisations warned constituted undeclared martial law.

In April the country’s most prominent cleric, Ayatollah Sheikh Isa Qassim, said that drawing up a new constitution was the only way out of the political crisis, and called on the government to enter dialogue with the opposition.

He has been stripped of his citizenship due to his role in the 2011 uprising.