Special Security Forces (SSF) use Women Police Officers in the Beating of Women and Forcibly Removing them from the Public Prosecutors Office (PPO)
Press Threatened, Searched and Kicked out of PPO
A Report by: The Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR)
26 December 2007
Special Security Forces (SSF) use Women Police Officers in the Beating of Women and Forcibly Removing them from the Public Prosecutors Office (PPO)
Press Threatened, Searched and Kicked out of PPO
A Report by: The Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR)
26 December 2007
In a highly disturbing development in the Crackdown on Activists , the BCHR President Mr. Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja was subjected to beating and verbal insults outside the Public Prosecutors office yesterday afternoon at approximately 3 PM. Mr. Abdulhadi had headed there after receiving news that their were women, family members of the detained activists, being beaten inside after they refused to leave. They were protesting against the refusal of the Public Prosecutor to keep a promise made to lawyers and activists the day before, of arranging visits for them to see their sons as they are worried that their sons are unwell and are being subjected to harassment and human rights violations.
Mr. Alkhawaja approached the gate requesting to enter, he was refused permission and asked to leave, after a brief discussion, a masked SSF officer insulted the president of the BCHR and shoved him away and threatened to have him arrested. He told them to go ahead and arrest him if he was found to have done anything against the law, they surrounded him, but apparently there were no orders to arrest him and the officer in-charge started threatening and using very vile language. Mr. Alkhawaja refused to leave without knowing what was going on inside as there were screams of women being heard. The SSF then began kicking and shoving Mr. Al-khawaja away violently until the end of the street, where he stood for around 5 minutes before they came again and started moving him by shoving him and kicking him on his back for approximately 15 m. This was all done in the presence of a reporter of the AFAQ website Ms. Rabab Marhoon, a women and a child who had been forcibly removed from the Public Prosecutors office, as well as Mr. Al-Khawaja’ s daughter.
During the commotion that was taking place inside the PPO two reporters, Ali Alshehabi (Al-Ayam Newspaper) as well as Hussain Al-Arrayeth (Alwaqt Newspaper) were subjected to threats and were kicked out of the Public Prosecutors office by SSF’s. One of the SSF’s threatened the Alwaqt news reporter that he was going to “Rub his head against the ground” if he does not hand in his phone to be searched, he was then himself searched and forced to delete some files from the phone. Both reporters where then pushed out of the main gate.
A BCHR activist, who was inside the building in collaboration with the families, informed the BCHR that after refusing to leave the building, the women were threatened with arrest, beating, and forcible removal. Their response continued to be that the promise of visitation rights be kept. The police forces closed the doors and refused entry to everyone including the press, other families, and even some of the lawyers involved in the defense team. One of the officers, Osama El-Mehry, then ordered the female police officers to forcibly remove the women from the building. The female police attacked one of the girls, Sediqa Haron, and in the process fractured one of her fingers and kicked her mother, who was also present in the building. After this attack the mother passed out and an ambulance had to be brought for her. An ambulance had also been brought for a 12 year old girl, the daughter of one of the detainees, Mohammed Alsingaise, got an anxiety attack. Another, a pregnant woman, Afrah Haron, who had come to demand to see her husband, was also moved to the hospital.
The remaining women in the building, including the human rights activist, were then attacked again by approx. 15 policewomen and dragged outside in front of approx. 20 policemen watching. The women tried to hold on to the benches and were therefore beaten and literally thrown out one by one on the steps in front of the building. (Photos and recorded sound of the disturbing event:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBgoYkNt2y8)
The BCHR urges all concerned to call upon the Bahraini authorities:
1. To investigate the incidents mentioned in regards to the abuse and beating of the women inside the building and reminds the authorities that this could have been avoided had these family members been granted their legal, and human right to meet with their sons, husbands and fathers who they have not heard from for over a week
2. To grant family members the right of visitations and to insure that they are done according to internationally acceptable standards
3. To abide by their own procedural law related to appropriate detention protocol as well as international standards, treatment and conventions related to the rights and appropriate treatment of detainees
4. To insure the safety and well being of the activists. The refusal of the PPO to let family members or lawyers meet the detainees is serving to confirm speculations as well as statements made by some family members that the detainees are being subjected to severe abuses
5. To respect the media and the right of reporters to cover such incident and to desist from threatening reporters and members of the media as a mechanism to avoid any documentation of abuses
6. To halt abuses against members of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights and other human rights activists and to investigate the attack on the President of the BCHR and hold those responsible for the beatings accountable for their misscondact.
For more information. Please contact:
Nabeel Rajab, Vice-president, Mobile: +973 39699933