DUBAI – The daughter of a long-detained human rights activist in Bahrain said she has been diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma and again called for her father's release.
Maryam al-Khawaja also urged Denmark, where both al-Khawajas have citizenship, to do more to free her father, 62-year-old Abdulhadi al-Khawaja. She also asked Denmark to end arms sales to Israel and to push to halt fighting amid Israel's war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
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“I urge the Danish government to lead with its stated human rights values: to leverage its diplomatic power to release my father and decisively end all arm sales and demand a cease-fire in Gaza,” she said in the statement issued Monday. "Only then, can all of our families finally be safely together.”
In a statement to The Associated Press, Bahrain’s government did not acknowledge al-Khawaja’s cancer announcement, instead saying that her father had “all his legal rights afforded to him, including a fair trial and the right to appeal.”
Bahrain is an island kingdom in the Persian Gulf that is home to the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet.
Al-Khawaja's father, Abdulhadi, has been in prison for years after an internationally criticized conviction on charges stemming from him leading 2011 Arab Spring demonstrations in Bahrain. Al-Khawaja was blocked last year from traveling to Bahrain with human rights activists to protest his continued detention.
Hodgkin lymphoma is a cancer of the lymph nodes. While aggressive, it can be successfully treated. Al-Khawaja said she was undergoing chemotherapy to fight the disease.