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Bernard Levin, one of the most vocal journalists on the Conservatives’ The

Spectator magazine on the issue of the three prisoners, attacked Heath’s statements

in the House of Commons, as in his view the prisoners had been unable to express

their opinions freely in the presence of the local Police Chief. 920 E Fakhroo

recollected in an interview with Al-Wasat newspaper a visit by a British official he

did not name. He further recalled of the official that he ‘did not hear from him a

thing and did not see him again’. Hassan Al-Jowdar, who worked for the police on

Jidda Island, indicated in the same interview that two frontline members of the NUC

were well-respected by the Public Security Chief, Sheikh Khalifa bin Mohammed Al-

Khalifa who used to call the two to his office whenever he visited the island. Other

prisoners were required to assist them in cooking and cleaning. 921

According to Al-Bakir he received a letter from Sheridan’s law firm on 21

January 1961 that informed him that new facts had been revealed in relation to the

time the prisoners were brought onto the HMS Loch Insh, but no further

information was relayed to him at that point. A new habeas corpus application was

made, this time under Al-Shamlan’s name. 922 The affidavit of Al-Shamlan confirmed

that he was arrested on 6 November 1956 and was later trialed in Bahrain and

deported. Al-Shamlan appealed that the order sanctioning his removal and the

other two prisoners did not take effect at the time of deportation since it was not

posted on the Political Agency’s board. 923

920 B. Levin, ‘How Much Longer?’, The Spectator, 3 March 1961, 6.
921 ‘Akhar Qiyadi ala gayid Il-Hayat min Hayet Al-Itihad Al-Watani’ [The Last Member Remaining from
the National Union Committee], Al-Wasat, 12 October 2002, 2.
922 Al-Bakir, From Bahrain to Exile, 440-41 and 444.
923 TNA, CO 1026/188, Affidavit of A.A. Al-Shamlan.

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