Naji Ali Hassan Fateel is a Bahraini human rights activist and member of the Board of Directors of the Bahraini human rights NGO Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights (BYSHR). Since 2007 he has been imprisoned, tortured and the target of death threats during the Bahraini uprising (2011–present). He has been the subject of urgent appeals by international human rights organisations and the United nations special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders. 2007 arrest In 2007 Fateel was arrested and subjected to torture in prison. Early in the morning of 21 December following disturbances the day before in Sanabis and Jidhafs, Fateel was arrested at his home and taken to the CID compound at Adliya. Late that evening he was interrogated by a police lieutenant whom Fateel was led to understand was Isa al-Majali, who accused him of setting fire to a police special forces jeep and stealing a weapon the previous day. Torture When Fateel denied the accusations, subordinates of al-Majali kicked and punched Fateel and then used devices resembling a cattle prod and a stun gun to inflict electric shocks on his torso and neck. Later he was suspended from the ceiling while electric shocks were applied to his body and particularly to the genitals which caused Fateel to lose consciousness at times and left burn marks on his body. When he complained about this mistreatment to the Public Prosecutor's Office, he was referred for medical examination. The medical examiner, who saw him a week after his mistreatment, described his burn marks as minor injuries and made no comment about the bruises and swelling allegedly still visible on Fateel's face. Reactions In its report The Revival of Physical Coercion during Interrogations in Bahrain, Human Rights Watch cited Fateel's testimony of his treatment in reaching its conclusion that credible evidence demonstrated that since December 2007 the Bahraini security forces had used techniques such as electro-shock devices and suspending victims by their arms and legs that constituted torture and violated Bahrain’s obligations under international and national law. The UN Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, Manfred Nowak, reported to the UN Human Rights Council in February 2009 the answers the Bahraini government had provided to his communication of allegations that Fateel and other human rights defenders had been detained without access to their lawyers, that the Public Prosecutor had refused to provide details of