Naser al-Raas

Naser Bader al-Raas (Arabic: ناصر بدر الراس‎) (born c. 1983, Kuwait) is a Canadian national who was detained by the Bahraini government for attending a pro-democracy protest of the Bahraini uprising. The charges were later dropped, and he returned to Canada on 16 February 2012.

Arrest and trials

In 2011, al-Raas was working as an IT specialist in Kuwait. (al-Raas was born in Kuwait, but holds Canadian citizenship and lived from 1996 to 2000 in Ottawa.) In March, concerned by the growing unrest in Bahrain, al-Raas planned a three-week trip to visit his five sisters there and check on their safety. During his stay, he also attended an opposition rally, though he later stated in court that he had gone only to observe and had not participated.

However, on 20 March, while attempting to depart Bahrain via the Bahrain International Airport, he was seized by four plainclothes police officers. He later stated that he was taken to an underground cell in Al Qala Prison and tortured for a month by being made to stand for hours at a time and beaten with a rubber hose if he attempted to sleep. Police reportedly also staged a mock execution in which they blindfolded al-Raas and fired past him with rubber bullets. According to The Toronto Star, Doctors Without Borders later recorded medical evidence confirming al-Raas's reports that he was tortured while in custody. With his health steadily deteriorating, Al-Raas was released on 28 April to the hospital, after being forced to make a video confession that he was an Iranian spy.