A detainee held in connection with anti-regime protests in Bahrain died in prison on Sunday, the Gulf state's interior ministry said in a statement.
"A detainee who was a sickle cell patient died on Sunday morning at the detention centre," it said. The ministry's website identified the man as Hasan Jasem Makki, 39.
A ministry official said a prison doctor "gave him the required medicine for sickle cell," a genetic blood disorder, but Makki fell unconscious and was "immediately taken to the hospital where he was pronounced dead."
Makki was "arrested on March 28 and was accused of inciting riots and vandalism which have taken place recently in the kingdom," the official said.
Al-Wefaq, the main Shiite opposition parliamentary bloc in the Sunni-ruled kingdom, said "Makki died in mysterious circumstances after five days in detention."
His death "reveals dangerous practices... (and) a violation of all norms, human values and international conventions in the treatment of detainees," it said.
The opposition has said that some 300 people were arrested after the anti-government demonstrations that erupted in Shiite-majority Bahrain on February 14.
At least 24 people, including four policemen, were killed in the unrest, according to the interior ministry.
Copyright 2011 AFP Global Edition
