Following the regime's harassment of al-Watan newspaper in Bahrain, the Committee to Protect Journalists reports that one of the paper's founding board members has died in state custody.

Karim Fakhrawi, who died last Tuesday, was apparently arrested after going to a police station on April 5 to complain that the authorities were about to bulldoze his house.

CPJ says in a statement:

Bahrain's official news agency said on its Twitter feed that Fakhrawi died of kidney failure. Photographs published online, however, show a body identified as that of Fakhrawi with extensive cuts and bruises.

"The crackdown on dissent in Bahrain has taken a deadly turn with two deaths in custody in unexplained circumstances in less than a week," said Mohamed Abdel Dayem, CPJ's Middle East and North Africa programme coordinator. "The Bahraini authorities must clarify how they reached the conclusion that Karim Fakhrawi died of kidney failure when photographs show his body covered in cuts and bruises." 

Posted by Brian Whitaker, 17 April 2011.