Bahrain: A campaign to defame a human rights defender who was severely beaten and to discredit national and international human rights organizations
May 19, 2009
Bahrain: A campaign to defame a human rights defender who was severely beaten and to discredit national and international human rights organizations
May 19, 2009
After a wave of rage and mounting national and international pressure to investigate the severe assault on May 7, 2009 against human rights defender Ja’far Kadhim Ibrahim, the Bahrain authorities changed their version of the story as to the motives of the individuals behind the incident. On the 9th of May, 2009, a security official stated to local newspapers, that the incident was a robbery, while on the 16th of May, a new official story was revealed to the press claiming that Ja’far Kadhim was abducted and beaten by two brothers of a women who was involved in an affair with Ja’far Kadhim.
Jaffer Kadhim, who was released yesterday from hospital but still under treatment, re assured the BCHR today that the men who abducted and beat him severely were 5-6 persons who were unknown to him and apparently associated with the National Security Apparatus citing their use of walkie-talkies and the batons they used to beat him. He expressed his believe that the authorities, in order to discredit him and to cover up on the real perpetrators of the assault, misused information related to a personal dispute between himself and the family of a woman to whom he has been engaged against the will of her family.
Since the reveal of the new official story of the attack incident, officials and pro government activists and journalists have been publishing statements and articles discrediting national and international human rights organizations for disseminating “accusations and false information” against the Security Apparatus in Bahrain. However, these statements failed to mention that those organizations were reacting to direct testimony of the victim himself and to different official statements two days after the incidents. Pro-government statements also failed to mention that the human rights organizations called for an independent investigation into the case and this was before the new alleged “findings” by the authorities which cannot qualify as an independent investigation.
Taking into consideration previous similar cases of abduction and physical assaults against human rights defenders and the recent, dramatic, change in the official “findings” of the incident , which contradict with the testimony of the victim regarding the identity of the perpetrators, the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights (BCHR) and the Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights (BYSHR), are still calling for an independent investigation into the attack against human rights defender Ja’far Kadhim Ibrahim, including investigating the possible relation between the attack and his human rights activities. Having in mind, that Jaffer Kadhim had been arbitrarily detained before for his human rights activities and was, at the time of the attack, working for the BCHR and BYSHR to document recent cases of torture which could be the motive of the attack.
For further information and photos on the case and previous similar cases please refer to the BCHR and BYSHR websites, including the previous report on the same case dated May 10, 2009: http://www.bahrainrights.org/en/node/2876
http://byshr.org/?p=147