SIX UN experts have expressed “serious concerns” for three Bahraini human rights defenders targeted by the authorities for their activism, demanding investigations into allegations of abuse against the women.

They warned that Hajer Mansoor Hassan, Ebtisam al-Saegh and Zainab al-Khamis have faced  “travel restrictions, politically motivated charges, threats, including death threats and threats of sexual and physical violence.”

The Bahraini government denied the allegations of abuse against the three women and said investigations had been carried out by the discredited Ministry of Interior Ombudsman.

Ms Hassan was sentenced to three years in prison in October 2017 based on fabricated charges, according to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention.

She started a hunger strike in protest against the conditions in March 2018, with guards admitting they had been instructed to make her life “as difficult as possible.”

Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy’s director of advocacy Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei said: “This exposure by the UN highlights the alarming trend to escalate measures to intimidate women human rights defenders in Bahrain. 

“The situation of female activists in custody has been worsening dramatically. Hajer has not seen her family for the past six months and is routinely targeted and abused by the head of the prison, Lieutenant Colonel Albardoli.”