The UK authorities are conducting an investigation into a world-renowned Bahraini human rights activist Nabeel Rajab and his family and have seized their passports immediately after he entered UK after spending 2 years in a Bahraini prison, Rajab told RT.

Rajab, who is president
of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR), also highlighted
the hypocrisy of UK’s foreign policy in the Gulf region,
stressing that it is driven by arms sales, and oil
profits.

RT: How is the protest movement faring in
Bahrain?

Nabeel Rajab: Well, the protest movement is so
huge and so big like before or more. Unfortunately you hardly can
hear about it in the international media because the Gulf regimes
could silence the international media, could silence the
international community, frightening them. In civilized
countries, like European countries, like the US, hardly you can
see criticism of Bahrain, even in the media. As you know, the
media is either owned by the ruling families in our region or
influenced by the ruling family.

So unfortunately with the oppression that we have in town, in
Bahrain, with the revolution that we have, maybe it is the hugest
in terms of percentage, the hugest revolution you have ever seen
in history, but you would hardly see it on the TV. And that is
because of the impact of the ruling family, of the money, of the
wealth from the arms sales, of the oil, to silence or to buy the
silence of the international community.

But on the ground – more repression, more people in detention.
Thousands of people are behind bars, thousands of people flee
their country. Lots of people are hiding. Dozens of people were
killed, hundreds of people were wounded. Hundreds of thousands of
houses being raided on a yearly basis. A lot of houses are being
robbed by the security personnel. So the repression is the worst
according to human rights organizations, including the UN.

But unfortunately as I’ve said, again and again and again, that
we are in a rich region and we are paying the price for being in
a rich region. A rich region which could silence the civilized
world countries like US, UK and other European countries.

RT: You mentioned a moment ago that Bahrain
has a reason to clamp down on democratic values – you said oil,
you said military contracts, could you just clear that up for us?
Why is it clamping down and why is the world media being so
quiet?

NR: The media we have in the region, the Arab
media it is owned by those Royal families of the Gulf. Or you
have the international media like the BBC, CNN, like the others,
where the Gulf countries have the influence on them through their
countries. The oppression we have faced in Bahrain is worse than
anything. But nobody wants to speak about it because nobody wants
to anger the Bahrain government.

Because angering the Bahrain government is like angering Saudi
government and everybody needs oil from those countries. And
everybody needs to make arms treaties and arms sales for those
governments. To do so, you should be silent. Those countries with
their money, with their wealth, with their oil have bought the
silence of the international community. And that is why you don’t
hear anything about it.

Until now, as I’m
talking to you, my passport is being held by the UK authorities,
not for doing a crime, just for doing a human rights job.

RT: You are in London, you’ve said that you
have been harassed at Heathrow airport, they have seized your
passport… What on earth were they harassing you about?

NR: Not only my passport, also my 2 children and
wife’s passports. It is till this moment, as I’m talking to you,
it is still with the authorities. They say they want to do an
investigation, because I was in jail in Bahrain. Because I was
jailed for taking part in a peaceful protest calling for
democracy in Bahrain.

At the same time we see the UK government receiving human right
violators from my country. People who committed a crime are
received on the red carpet in here, and human right groups and
human rights people are being harassed, being discredited by the
UK government.

I’m just giving this to you as an example of how the civilized
world has treated our revolution, how the civilized world,
democratic governments have treated our people and our revolution
in the last few years. This hypocrisy needs to be highlighted. We
should shed light on the hypocrisy of what is being called the
civilized government and a civilized country, and how they
treated our revolution.

Unfortunately, until this moment as I’m talking to you they are
sending arms, they are sending weapons, they are sending the
equipment that is being used to violate the rights of those
countries. And I think the people of those nations need to wake
up and to see how much their government is working on making
these violations happen in our part of the world. Unfortunately
what has happened to me is just one thing out of many that has
been happening.