HAQ: Movement of Liberties and Democracy- Bahrain
حق: حركة الحريات والدموقراطية- البحرين
www.haaq.org, Email: HAAQ.Bahrain@gmail.com, HRB.BAHRAIN@gmail.com
مـكـتـب حـقـوق الإنـسـان Human Rights Bureau
Bahrain: Resurrection of State Security Courts .. Prosecutions without Lawyers
More Dawn Raids More Arrests
HAQ: Movement of Liberties and Democracy- Bahrain
حق: حركة الحريات والدموقراطية- البحرين
www.haaq.org, Email: HAAQ.Bahrain@gmail.com, HRB.BAHRAIN@gmail.com
مـكـتـب حـقـوق الإنـسـان Human Rights Bureau
Bahrain: Resurrection of State Security Courts .. Prosecutions without Lawyers
More Dawn Raids More Arrests
Over two hours ago, a young man from the village of Karzakan was released after being arrested and brutally beaten by the Special Forces (SF in Bahrain is made of Multi-nationalities: Yemeni, Pakistani, Jordanian, Syrian and Iraqi). A peaceful sit-in, made young men of women, was ferociously attacked by the heavy armed SF near the village of Karzakan after showering them with rubber bullets and chemical teargas, in order to disperse them. The arrest of the young man came after the SF went into the village to station itself near an elementary school. Scores of women went to the SF and started to scream resulting in the release of the young man.
At dawn time today, many houses of the citizens of Sehla village were ransacked and raided by heavy armed special forces and armed militias resulting in the arrest of 5 young men:
1- Zakareyya Ahmed Al-Mulla, 2- Husain Hasan Ahmed Al-Oraibi (20yrs), 3- Yousef Jaffar, 4- Sayed Ali Fardan, 5-Jassem Mohammed.
The forces did not present and judicial arrest order, rather exposed the families to terror and fear, when arresting their sons. All attempts by the families to learn about the location of their sons failed. Reports indicated that the young men were transported to the notorious Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB), fame for torture and ill-treatment to the detainees. The night before, the SF house arrested two others from the same village: Sayed Husain Sayed Mohamed (20yrs) and Sayed Shubbar Sayed Khalaf (20yrs), who were also transferred immediately to the CIB. These arrests came after a protesting sit-in carried out last Thursday (15th May 2008) in the village calling for the release of the prisoners of conscious, which was attacked by the SF. Tires were blazed later on in the village in protest to the brutal attack.
On the other hand, some Bahraini courts have recently been issuing prosecutions from the first case session on detainees accused of “riots and illegal assembly”. The ruling was passed without having the lawyers of any of the defendants present. The Judges considered the charges put forward by the Public Prosecution which were obtained by confession extracted when they were detained in the CIB, which fame for its use of torture means to extort confessions. The newly recorded cases are:
1) Case no 3331/2008 of the lower Criminal Court held its first and last session on May 19th 2008, and headed by judge Ali Al-Dhahrani. The ruling, after hearing the PP officer, was one year imprisonment. The four detainees were accused of riots in different areas in Bahrain, by participating in an illegal assembly composed of more than five persons with the intention of disrupting public security and used violence to achieve their objective. The prisoners are:
a. Husain Mohamed Ahmed (26yrs) from village of Hamala and Ja’afar Moosa Mohamed Hasan from village of Bani Jamra who were arrested on May 2nd aftermath end of peaceful demonstration attended by well known political and human rights activists calling for the release of December and other detainees.
b. Jasem Jaber Jasem (24yrs) from Hamad Town, was summoned to attend to the detention center in the same town after raiding his house early in the night of 23rd of April 2008. Another summon was delivered to the second day. He went to the PP in the morning of 27th April to surrender himself in the presence of the lawyer, the PP responded by saying that there is no case against him. Jasem went to Hamad Town Detention center and was not seen then. His family saw his car in the car park of that center, but the Authorities denied that he is there.
c. Mohammed Ali Yousef (24yrs) from the village of Demistan, was arrested after the SF attacked a peaceful sit-in in his village, dispersing every body and tracing them inside the village. Mohammed was snatched by the SF and was dragged on the asphalted street till the place of the patrol car where he was collectively beaten and taken to Hamad Town Detention center.
2) Hasan Radhi Hasan Albaqali (20yrs) resident of Jidhafs was arrested near Jidhafs Secondary High School for Girls on April 2nd, 2008, by a number of State-militia and armed Special Forces who surrounded him after a phone call setting him up. Before then, the security forces approached him through his address but could not find him and advise his family to surrender their son. Hasan didnot turn himself and was spending most of his time outside his house. After three days of his arrest, a lawyer and one of his relatives managed to see him and reported his ordeal. He stayed in Khamees Detention Center for few days before transported to Refa’a Detention Center. He was subjected to all kinds of torture which include beating on sole of the feet, kicking and electrocution in hand wrests. Recently, he was tortured by being left in enclosed space where bugs killing gas is sprayed intensively on his face until he becomes fainted.
The lower Criminal Court convened on May 15th with out the presence of Hasan’s lawyer and ruled that he is to be imprisoned for one and a half year for the charges of riots, attacking a civilian security personnel and snatching his camera in early February. On the other hand, Hasan was previously charged of theft and prosecuted around the middle of last April, again without his lawyer, and was charged of 6months imprisonment, totaling his imprisonment period to two years.
HAQ expresses its deep concerns over the on going arrests of young Bahrainis whose guilt was to participate in peaceful protests and sit-ins. Moreover, the prosecutions of the detainees on basis of coerced confessions obtained under torture in the CIB, and further having done that without the presence of their lawyers is an undermine of their rights and violations of basic rights of having lawyers present to defend them in the court.
The ruling in the first court session, on the basis of coerced confessions and without the presence of attorneys refresh the memory of the state security measures and its courts during the nineties and previous era. It is an alarming situation giving indication of further deterioration and stability of the social tranquility.
Time: 7:30 local time (4:30GMT)
22 May 2008
