Unjust Conditions of the Public Prosecution
On the Visit to the Detainees
Bahrain Human Rights Society (BHRS) addressed its first request to the Public Prosecutor dated 24/12/2007 and repeated on 3/3/2007 to visit the detainees of December events, 2007; after repeated news of alleged serious abuses of their rights during arrest, detention and interrogation; including psychological and physical torture.
Unjust Conditions of the Public Prosecution
On the Visit to the Detainees
Bahrain Human Rights Society (BHRS) addressed its first request to the Public Prosecutor dated 24/12/2007 and repeated on 3/3/2007 to visit the detainees of December events, 2007; after repeated news of alleged serious abuses of their rights during arrest, detention and interrogation; including psychological and physical torture.
After repeated contacts with the public Prosecution, BHRS received on January 23rd, after a month of its request, an invitation to visit four among 18 detainees, where the visits suppose to take place in distant days on 27th and 31st January; and the 3rd of February 2008.
It is natural for BHRS to form its own specialized team including physicians and psychiatrists; but the public prosecutor, unfortunately, refused to include physicians among the team.
Due to the insistence of the public prosecutor on its stand, which contravene with BHRS independence and its commitments to the international conventions and criteria relevant to the mission of visiting detainees and prisoners; BHRS refuses to yield to these conditions, which contradict with human rights principles and find it has no choice but to refuse such visits.
The international standards relevant to the independent monitoring of human rights at detention premises stipulate:
• The legal and medical role to examine alleged to be exposed to torture or ill-treatment and to document to present the medical evidence on the legal procedures against alleged torturers.
• The preventive role to evaluate the treatment of detainees and the conditions of detention to avail bases for dialogue targeted to prevent ill-treatment in the future and to improve the detention conditions; where the role of the physicians to clarify the real problems in detention through actual example.
If the public prosecutor are confident that the detainees have not been exposed to torture or ill-treatment in accordance to the commitments to CAT, then why they are afraid of the examination of detainees by BHRS physicians. If they have not been exposed to torture and ill-treatment, it is for the interests of the Kingdom of Bahrain and its international reputation to correct such wrong practices.
Thus BHRS moral, commitments to human rights principles and its professional duty towards the detainees and their families, refuses to carry on a lift-facing visit.
We call on the public prosecution to review their stand and allow BHRS unconditioned visits.
Bhrain Human Rights Society
Manama
27 January 2008