• Fifteen groups send joint letter to FIA president Jean Todt
• Crackdowns on protests expected ahead of Bahrain GP

Giles Richards
Fri 29 Mar 2019 00.09 GMT First published on Thu 28 Mar 2019 19.27 GMT

Small-scale protests against the Bahrain Grand Prix are expected across the country this weekend, according to the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (Bird), with the mass demonstrations that characterised the 2011 and 2012 meetings not likely to be repeated due to the climate of fear and crackdowns that now precede Formula One races in Bahrain.

The institute was one of 15 human rights groups that sent a letter to the FIA president, Jean Todt, and F1 management on Wednesday calling on it to act in the case of the Bahraini activist Najah Yusuf, who has been imprisoned since last year after posting criticism of the grand prix and the regime on Facebook.

In 2011 the race was cancelled after mass protests while in 2012 it went ahead despite large-scale opposition. However, a Bird spokesperson believed the fear of imprisonment means that will not be the case on this occasion.

On Thursday Amnesty International also highlighted the fate of another jailed activist in Bahrain, Nabeel Rajab, who was arrested in 2015. That year his son, Adam, told the Guardian how the crackdowns occurred around race weekends. “If you go to the villages you will see them surrounded by police,” he said. “Any gathering of six or seven people chanting will be attacked with tear gas or Kevlar bullets or birdshot; the government are not allowing any protests to happen there.”

Amnesty International’s Middle East director of campaigns, Samah Hadid, said: “Beneath the glamour of F1, there is a far more sinister side to Bahrain, revealing the country as a deeply repressive state where anyone critical of the government can be jailed merely for posting a tweet.”

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