Human rights groups called on Wednesday for Formula One and its governing body, the FIA, to seek the immediate release of a jailed female activist and blogger ahead of this weekend's Bahrain Grand Prix.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) and the London-based Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (BIRD) were among 15 signatories to a letter sent to International Automobile Federation president Jean Todt.
In it they urged Formula One and the FIA to send a high-level delegation to visit Najah Yusuf, a mother of four now serving a three year sentence, and jailed reporter Ahmed Humaidan.
It said their prisons were only 20 and 24km away respectively from the Sakhir circuit south of the capital Manama.