Bahrain: Court-Appointed Medical Examiners Confirm Torture
Bahrain Center for Human Rights
Updating information on the unfair trials of a group of 15 activists, including 11 human rights defenders .
SEVERAL Bahrainis arrested last December were beaten in custody, according to court-appointed medical examiners. The doctors’ report, submitted as 15 Bahrainis appeared in the High Criminal Court amid tight security on April 16th, was immediately disputed by the Public Prosecution.
Bahrain: Court-Appointed Medical Examiners Confirm Torture
Bahrain Center for Human Rights
Updating information on the unfair trials of a group of 15 activists, including 11 human rights defenders .
SEVERAL Bahrainis arrested last December were beaten in custody, according to court-appointed medical examiners. The doctors’ report, submitted as 15 Bahrainis appeared in the High Criminal Court amid tight security on April 16th, was immediately disputed by the Public Prosecution.
Riot police ringed the court building as the case resumed, after an earlier hearing was adjourned for three doctors to examine all 15 defendants, following complaints by some that they had been beaten in custody.
International Federation of Human Rights delegate George Asaf, based in Lebanon, attended the hearing in a court packed with relatives and supporters of the defendants.
A panel of three doctors was set up by Health Minister Dr Faisal Al Hamer to examine all 15 defendants, under an order from the court. The doctors said in their report that some of the defendants were subjected to beatings and harsh treatment while they were in police custody. Public Prosecution head Haroon Al Zayani objected to the report and demanded that the doctors be summoned for cross-examination.
The defence lawyers demanded time to study the case file and prepare their defence arguments. They also demanded to study the medical report and that more witnesses be summoned for cross-examination.
The High Criminal Court presided over by Judge Shaikh Mohammed bin Ali Al Khalifa adjourned the case until May 11 to give time to the lawyers to prepare their defence arguments, to summon the doctors and other witnesses for cross examination.
The defence lawyers demanded once again that the 15 defendants to be released on any guarantee the court deemed suitable, but this was refused and they were further remanded in custody.
For more details on the case please refer to previous reports issued by National and International human rights organizations such as BCHR, www.bahrainrights.org, Human Rights Watch ,Front Line and The Observatory.
Human Rights watch : Investigate Alleged Torture of Activists http://hrw.org/english/docs/2008/01/21/bahrai17838.htm
Front line: Torture and ill-treatment of human rights defenders in detention http://www.frontlinedefenders.org/node/1327
The Observatory: Ongoing arbitrary detention and ill-treatments of several human rights defenders http://www.fidh.org/spip.php?article5206