Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja was subjected to torture and sexually assaulted by security forces in 2011. On 9 April 2011, up to twenty armed and masked policemen broke into the Al-Khawaja family home in the middle of the night, dragged Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja down the stairs even though he agreed to go peacefully, and extensively beat him, including repeatedly kicking his head. Immediately after the arrest, the detainee received a hard blow to the side of his face, which broke his jaw. Additionally, security personnel in the hospital threatened him with sexual abuse and execution and threatened his family. He spent the following two months in solitary confinement in a small cell, where masked guards beat him routinely and sexually assaulted him, amongst other serious violations. Al-Khawaja began an open-ended hunger strike in Bahrain on February 8, 2012, protesting continued arbitrary detentions. His health deteriorated as he lost more than 14 kg, and he was taken to the hospital several times where he faced difficulties with medical treatment. Despite being denied access to independent doctors to examine him, the government claimed that his condition was stable and that he was not on a real hunger strike. Towards the end of the hunger strike, Al-Khawaja refused all fluids, including water, and was forcibly fed with a nasoenteric tube. He was also tied to a bed and kept in solitary confinement. He announced the end of his hunger strike after being force-fed 110 days into the hunger strike, on May 28, 2012. In a January 2021 phone call, the human rights defender listed four concerns including that prison authorities had placed restrictions on his phone calls with family (that have replaced their in-person visits) and had confiscated hundreds of his books and other materials. The defender continues to suffer from chronic pain as a result of the mistreatment he endured in the early days of his detention, and requires additional medical intervention as his facial bone structure remains permanently damaged. Prison authorities continue to arbitrarily deny him adequate healthcare and refuse to refer him to specialists for the surgeries he requires. He is also not receiving adequate medical attention for his shoulder and back pain and is being denied treatment for a skin condition. Furthermore, his worsening glaucoma poses a risk of blindness due to inadequate treatment and access to medical care.