(ANSAmed) – ROME – The noted human rights activist and founder of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR) has embarked on a new hunger strike.

Abdulhadi al-Khawaja was convicted to life in prison by a military court in 2011. Khawaja’s protest, announced by BCHR, is against arbitrary arrest and detention in the small Gulf emirate. Arrested in April 2011 and condemned to life in prison by a military court, Khawaja has said he has endured torture, including serious sexual abuses. The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention declared his imprisonment “unfounded and arbitrary” and contrary to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in October 2011.

The group called for his immediate release at the time.

In 2012, Khawaja launched a total hunger strike that lasted 110 days, and continued through the Formula 1 Grand Prix. To avoid being subjected to force-feeding as he was in 2012, the Bahraini activist has announced that he does not want to be admitted to any type of health facility and obliged to be nourished. (ANSAmed).