)[1] In March, concerned by the growing unrest in Bahrain, al-Raas planned a three-week trip to visit his five sisters there and check on their safety.
[2] He later stated that he was taken to an underground cell in Al Qala Prison and tortured for a month by being made to stand for hours at a time and beaten with a rubber hose if he attempted to sleep.
[5] With his health steadily deteriorating, Al-Raas was released on 28 April 2011 to the hospital, after being forced to make a video confession that he was an Iranian spy.
His fiancée, Zainab Ahmed, attributed to this to court sessions missed due to the declining health of al-Raas, who suffers from chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension and has previously had two open heart surgeries.
[6] Amnesty International began a letter-writing campaign on al-Raas's behalf, calling for the charges against him to be dismissed and stating that the organization would designate him a prisoner of conscience if he were detained.
Naser al-Raas, 33, was undergoing medical tests in preparation for the major operation in Toronto when his heart failed, according to Amnesty International Canada[10]