GDN:Bandar is accused of ‘serious crimes’

By KANWAL TARIQ HAMEED
Published: 28th September 2006

THE man behind the Bandargate report was deported from Bahrain after being accused of spying for another country and plotting a coup, it was alleged yesterday. But Briton Dr Salah Al Bandar was not formally charged, despite the fact that such a serious crime carries the death penalty, says his Bahraini lawyer. Dr Al Bander is filing a court case by proxy in Bahrain, against his dismissal from the Cabinet Affairs Ministry and subsequent deportation.

Lawyer Abdulla Al Shamlawi has been given power of attorney to file the case on Dr Al Bandar’s behalf and will put the case before the Administrative Court.

By KANWAL TARIQ HAMEED
Published: 28th September 2006

Lawyer Abdulla Al Shamlawi has been given power of attorney to file the case on Dr Al Bandar’s behalf and will put the case before the Administrative Court.

Dr Al Bandar, who had been working as a strategic planning adviser to the Cabinet Affairs Ministry since October last year, was deported to the UK on September 13.

He was arrested, questioned and deported after circulating copies of the 240-page Bandargate report to Bahraini authorities, the British, US and German embassies and local political society heads.

The report alleges that a secret organisation, funded by a senior government official, has been working to influence the outcome of the parliamentary elections to be held later this year.

The report was produced under the banner of the Bahrain based, but London-registered non-governmental organisation, the Gulf Centre for Democratic Development (GCDD), of which Dr Al Bandar is secretary-general.

Dr Al Bandar and his lawyer both said yesterday that he was deported on charges of being a spy for “another country” and plotting a coup.

But he was not formally charged with any crime, despite the fact that the maximum penalty for such serious offences is death, said Mr Al Shamlawi.

Dr Al Bandar claims to have shown the report to the senior government official implicated in it on August 20 and received a termination letter dated August 30.

He and Mr Al Shamlawi say the letter says he was being sacked for failing to fulfil the requirements of his probationary period.

“I received the (termination) letter on September 1 or 2 and I hired Mr Al Shamlawi around September 4,” said Dr Al Bandar.

He claims that although he did not have a contract, his passport was stamped to show that he would be working for the ministry until July 2008.

Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs and Central Informatics Organisation head Shaikh Ahmed bin Ateyatalla Al Khalifa said earlier this week that Dr Al Bandar was dismissed for trying “to infiltrate the government’s database”, with the intention of undermining the credibility of upcoming elections.

Mr Al Shamlawi says this contradicts the actual dismissal letter.

“There was no employment agreement between him and the Cabinet Affairs Minister, but on his passport there is a stamp showing he was sponsored by the Ministry on November 29 (2005), showing he at least joined them on that day or some time earlier,” said Mr Al Shamlawi.

“In the letter sent to him, they said he didn’t pass in the probation period – they cannot say this after almost a year,” he claimed.

According to the law probationary employment has a maximum time period of six months, said Mr Al Shamlawi.

Now it is being said he was terminated for trying to break into the government database, said the lawyer.

“It means there is a contradiction between these two statements,” he said.

“As per the law if the employer has more than one statement as a justification for the termination it will be considered as an illegal (move).”

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