The Public Prosecution charges human rights defenders with serious accusations based on Terrorism Law

Human rights defender Abbass Omran brought to trial without investigation
The Prosecution faces one of the detainees with fabricated confessions taken from Omran
The Public Prosecution charges human rights defenders with serious accusations based on Terrorism Law
16 February 2009
The Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR) expresses its deep concern for including the name of its board member, the human rights defender Abbass AbdulAziz Al-Omran amongst the indictment which the Public Prosecution brought to the Grand Criminal Court on 10 February 2009 in case number 1403/2008, with charges relating to the alleged reveal of a “terror plot”[i].
This is not the first time that Abbass Al-Omran gets targeted because of his activity in the human rights field, especially in the committees he helped the BCHR to establish, among them the Unemployed and Low-waged Committee, the Martyrs and Victims of Torture Committee, and the Families of the Detainees Committee. Noteworthy, Abbass Al-Omran carries a membership in the BCHR since the first year of its establishment in 2002, and he became a member in the BCHR’s administrative board since October 2008. The BCHR believes that targeting Abbass Al-Omran goes back to his continuous and effective activity in the human rights field.
The Center is stunned by the Public Prosecution, who arrested a large number of people who were accused in this case and interrogated them since the last December, 16, however, did not at any time summon Abbass Al-Omran for interrogation or even call him. He travelled normally through Bahrain’s Airport to London twice on 18 December 2008 and another time when he was sent by the BCHR on 28 January 2009. The Prosecution did not make any contact with him before he found his name being published among the indictment dated on 10 February, to be brought to trial with the others on Februray 23, 2009.
The BCHR is surprised that the Public Prosecution – according to one of the lawyers – faced one of the detainees, Sheikh Mohammed Habib Al-Muqdad, with a “confession” against him by Abbass Al-Omran, while the fact is that Abbass Al-Omran was neither arrested nor interrogated, which indicates the kind of methods that the prosecution office resort to in order to pressurize the detainees.
According to the indictment, the Public Prosecution accused the detainees, among them Abbass Omran, of the charge that they: “Joined a group that was established against the provisions of the law, its aim is to disable the provisions of the constitution and laws and to prevent the public authorities from practicing their work, and to abuse personal liberties and the public rights of citizens, while terror is one of its means in achieving its aims; and that they joined the mentioned group to carry out terrorist operations that target important sites, public facilities, and the populated places in the Kingdom and to assault officers and members of the Police Force, with the purpose of undermining security and public order and to cause instability in the country and to cause damage to the economic viability with their knowledge of that group’s aims”. It is an accusation based on law number 58 of the year 2006, regarding protecting the community from terrorist acts and it is the law that was condemned by the UN’s Special Rapporteur and several international non-governmental organizations.
The indictment includes the names of 35 activists and human rights defenders, among them;
1. Thirteen Bahrainis whom the indictments says are fugitives, among them – in addition to Abbass Al-Omran – two other human rights defenders who have recently obtained political asylum in Britain and they are Abdul-Raoof Al-Shayeb, the former president of the Martyrs and Victims of Torture Committee, and Ali Hassan Mushaima the administrative member in the Unemployed and Low-waged Committee.
2. Nineteen Bahrainis who were arrested during the past two months. The indictment said that they are still imprisoned, among them Hassan Mushaima, the General Secretary of the Movement of Civil Liberties and Democracy (Haq), the cleric defending human rights Sheikh Mohammed Habib Al-Muqdad, and the human rights defender Abdul-Ridha Al-Saffar, the activists in the Families of the Detainees and the Unemployed Committees[ii],
3. Three Bahrainis who were released after ending the investigation with them, among them Dr. Abdul-Jalil Al-Singace, president of the human rights committee in Haq Movement,
The charges in this case were based on: 1- the Penal Law for the year 1976 which restricts liberties and punishes practicing them, and 2- the Terrorism law for the year 2006, in which sentences reach life imprisonment, such as article 6 of the law.
The Bahrain Center for Human Rights urgently demands the following:
1. The release of all detainees in this case, specially Abbas Omran and other human rights defenders, as the facts indicate that the motives of their arrest is due to their work in defending human rights and/or them practicing their basic rights to freedom of association, assembly and freedom of expression.
2. Drop all the charges, and stop the trials which will not provide the conditions of a fair trial, because the terrorism and penal laws oppose the international standards, and the lack of impartiality and independence of the judiciary.
3. Stop targeting human rights activists, by smearing their reputation, or accusing them of terrorism, or arresting them and exposing them to torture and ill-treatment.
4. To annul the terrorism law and to amend the Penal Law in accordance with the international conventions and obligations.
5. To bring anyone involved in those violations to trial, and to compensate the affected.

Login