A Second Crackdown on Activists in Four Months:
Detainees, Including Minors, are under serious risk of Torture and Unfair Trials
17 April 2008
Amounting Unrest and Violations in Bahrain
A Second Crackdown on Activists in Four Months:
Detainees, Including Minors, are under serious risk of Torture and Unfair Trials
17 April 2008
A Second Crackdown on Activists in Four Months:
Detainees, Including Minors, are under serious risk of Torture and Unfair Trials
17 April 2008
Amounting Unrest and Violations in Bahrain
A Second Crackdown on Activists in Four Months:
Detainees, Including Minors, are under serious risk of Torture and Unfair Trials
17 April 2008
The BCHR has received information about 47 people arrested during the last four weeks in different Shia’ villages. Most of the arrestees are from west cost villages of Karzakkan, Demistan, Sadad and Malekkya who were known in the area for their community activities including; organizing mass seminars on political and economic rights, organizing a “protest picnic” to “Um-el-Na’san” an island claimed by the King, and collecting signatures on a petition calling for the resignation of the 37-years in post Prime Minister. Many of them have been release later alleging being exposed to torture and ill-treatment. However, the following 26 arrestees are confirmed to be still in jail:
Detainees, arrested between 27th March and 8th April, 2008:
1. Sayyed Hadi Hameed Adnan Alawi , 28, Karzakkan
2. Mohammed Abbas Mohammed Ali, 29, Karzakkan
3. Ammar Hassan Ali Hassan Al-Basri, 17, Karzakkan
4. Saleh Ali Mohammed Ali Alseeb, 30, Karzakkan
5. Hassan Kadhem Ebrahim Ahmed, 30, Demestan
6. Ha’med Ebrahim Fardan, 27, Karzakkan
7. Ali Mohammed Habib Ashoor, 31, Karzakkan
8. Ahmed Ali Hassan, 35, Karzakkan
Detainees, arrested between 10th -15th April, 2008:
1. Mohammed Makki Mansoor, 27, Karzakkan
2. Fadhel Abbass Mohammed Ashoor, 25, Karzakkan
3. Kumail Ahmed Ali Abu-Sharaf, Karzakkan
4. Jassim Mohammed Habeeb, 29, Karzakkan
5. Fadhel Abbass Ali Ahmed, 28, Karzakkan
6. Hussain Abbass Ali Ahmed, 24, Karzakkan
7. Sayyed-Sadiq Ebraheem Jumma’ Ma’jed, 26
8. Sayyed-Ahmed Hameed Adnan Alawi, 23, Karzakkan
9. Sayyed-Jawad Hameed Adnan Alawi, 30, Karzakkan
10. Sayyed-Omran Hameed Adnan Alawi, 24, Karzakkan
11. Sadeq Jawad Al-Fardan, 27, Karzakkan
12. Qasim Mohammed Khaleel Ebraheem, 22, Karzakkan
13. Hussain Abdul-Kareem Makki Eyd, 24, Karzakkan
14. Habeeb Mohammed Habeeb Ashoor, 20, Karzakkan
15. Habeeb Ahmed Habeeb Mohammed Abbass, 22,
16. Hussain Ali Dhaif, 28, Karzakkan
17. Hussain Mohammed Khatam Hussain Mohammed, 28, Karzakkan
18. Ebraheem Saleh Ebraheem Jaffer, 22,
Moreover, the BCHR has received information yesterday that Shaker Mohammed Abdulhussain Abdul-A’al, 26, from Hamala, was summoned on 15th April to Hamad-Town police station were he was transferred to an unknown place. Worth noting that Shaker was briefly arrested on the 2nd of February, 2007 for delivering a speech criticizing the government and arrested again in 21st December, along with other members of the Unemployed Committee, in relation to protests, but released one month later and has testified to the BCHR of being subjected to severe torture including being blind folded and handcuffed for several days, hanged by the arms for two days and exposed to electric shocks.
The Bahrain Centre for Human Rights is highly concerned for the safety and well being of the arrestees specially in the first period of detention were they are usually kept in solitary confinement that facilitate torture, as reported in other recent similar cases. The BCHR is also concerned that the detainees will not enjoy the rights of a fair trial, taking in account the partiality of the judiciary and the restrictive security related articles in the 1976 penal Code.
Official justification of the arrests:
The authorities staged the arrest campaign using the state-controlled media to link the wide wave of arrests in the last four weeks to two violent events; the burning on March 6th of a farm belong to a former high official, Abdul-Aziz Attyotalla Al-Khalifa, who is accused of torture in the past period, and the death on April 9th of a Pakistani member of the Special Security Force when his car and other security cars were allegedly surrounded by protesters from nearby villages.
The official statement stated that policeman Majid Asghar Baksh was burned to death and two colleagues injured when masked men hurled Molotov cocktails at their patrol car in Karzakan . While Mr Baksh’s grandfather and uncle claimed that the Majid, who is a member of the Special Security Force, had been attacked with sharp tools and severely beaten after being pulled out of the vehicle and that he sustained serious injuries to his head, face and left shoulder and bled from the ears, mouth and nose . A passing-by eye witness told the BCHR that when the police force was surrounded by protesters one of the police vehicles hit the security officer who was running out of his car.
Background Information:
The situation in Bahrain has deteriorated since December 17, when an activist was allegedly killed by the Special Security Force while participating in a demonstration calling for equity in relation to victims of torture and state violations in the past. Mass protests erupted in the following days resulting in the burning of a police vehicle. The police surrounded villages, specially those inhabited by a majority of Shia’s in the North of the Bahrain Island and resorted an excessive use of tear gas and rubber bullets, leading to the injury and suffocation of many citizens including elderly citizens and children. Video films broadcasted by national and international electronic media documented the use of security armed militia wearing civilian clothes and black head masks to disperse demonstrations forming check points and entering the villages to chase suspect protesters and beating them severely.
In the aftermath, the security police conducted a crackdown arresting around 60 people out of which 18 are currently under trial including 11 human rights defenders under accusations of violence and unauthorized gatherings. Documented testimonies of released persons and of the defendants at court revealed that they were subjected to sever torture including electrical shocks and sexual abuse to force confession related to committing violence. Case files handed to defense lawyers showed that the investigations included demanding information on members and work of human rights groups, such as the Unemployment Committee and confessions to link recent disturbances to political activists and a well-known human rights defender.
The BCHR calls upon all concerned to urge the Bahrain authorities:
• To release all detainees.
• If criminal charges are well-founded against any person he should be treated as innocent until founded guilty by a fair trial according to international standards
• To insure rights of detainees including prompt access to relatives, lawyer and impartial medical care.
• To put an end to arbitrary detention, torture and unfair trials specially as a tool to suppress the practice of basic rights and peaceful activism
• To reform the judiciary, the General prosecution and the criminal laws in order to maintain fair trial
• to disband the Special Security Force which is known due to its brutality and which is established on sectarian division and composed overwhelmingly by non-Bahrainis or newly recruited and naturalized mercenaries
• To impartially investigate the killing of the activist Ali Jassim which sparked the recent wave of unrest
• To react positively to initiatives calling for equity and redress for victims of torture and other violations which is a source of continued rage and anger
• To engage in dialogue and take serious measures to decrease tension which have resulted from sectarian discrimination and denial of basic freedoms as well as economic and social rights deprivations and problems which feeds disturbances and distracts human development
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Akhbar Al-Khaleej, April 13, 2008
Gulf Daily News and Akhbar Al-Khaleej, April 12, 2008