Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt has personally intervened in the controversy surrounding Danish – Bahraini hunger striker Abdulhadi al-Khawaja.
At her weekly press conference, Tuesday, the Danish PM said she had personally written to Bahrain’s King Hamad al-Khalifa demanding the release of the human rights activist but wouldn’t be using Queen Margrethe’s award of a prestigious Royal Order to the King last year as political pressure, or demand its return.
“The Order isn’t part of Danish foreign policy and this matter has to be solved politically,” she said. “We’ve assembled a wide network of international contacts to exert pressure on Bahrain to release Mr al-Khawaja who’s condition is critical.”
The far-left Red/Green Alliance’s demand for Queen Margrethe, who bestowed the prestigious Royal Order of the Dannebrog on King Al Khalifa last year shortly before he ordered a violent crackdown on anti-regime demonstrators, to get involved has been dismissed as ‘ridiculous’ by the Danish People’s Party’s (DPP) policy spokesman Martin Henriksen who said: "For a Danish party to demand that the Queen assumes the Foreign Minister's political responsibility is unheard of. The Red/Green Alliance is out of touch with reality.”
The USA, a close ally of Bahrain where the American navy has its Gulf base, the USA has urged Bahrain to find a 'humanitarian solution' to the growing crisis surrounding Abdulhadi al-Khawaja.