Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei is director of advocacy at the UK-based Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (BIRD).

[1] Alwadaei fled Bahrain and the regime of King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa in approximately 2012, establishing refugee status in the UK.

Alwadaei bears a prominent scar on his forehead, which he told a British Parliamentary Committee is from "the boot of a police officer, who was kicking me while I was on the ground".

[15][16][17] Alwadaei's British citizenship has been severely delayed by the Home Office, which was condemned by The European Network on Statelessness.

[20] In 2016 Alwadaei jumped in front of Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa's car[8] to draw attention to the human rights situation in Bahrain.

[27] In December 2022, Alwadaei was filmed protesting against British Member of Parliament Bob Stewart as the Conservative Party MP made his way to a reception hosted by the Bahraini embassy in London.

[28] Following a Metropolitan Police investigation, the Crown Prosecution Service authorised the police to charge Stewart with two offences under section 5 of the Public Order Act 1986, including racially aggravated abuse "and in the alternative, a non-aggravated section 5 offence under the same Act.