15-7-2009
15-7-2009
In a blatant defiance to his victims and in disdain to the lives of dozens of martyrs and thousands of suppression and torture victims, the former colonel in the State Security Apparatuses Adel Jassim Fleifel announced his intention to run for the coming parliamentary elections. In an interview by Al-Watan Bahraini Newspaper on Tuesday 7th July 2009, Adel Fleifel announced his intention, as an adviser to the Islamic Unity Society, to run for the next parliament and engage in the elections in October 2010, within the fifth electoral district in Muharraq Governorate.
Adel Fleifel
Adel Fleifel’s interview with the mentioned newspaper recalled harsh and painful memories that many of the victims with their various political backgrounds went through. Adel Fleifel’s name emerged between the year 1980 and 2000 as an intelligence officer working in the dissolved State Security Apparatuses, and as an assistant to the well-known Scottish officer Ian Henderson , head of the State Security Apparatuses. He became infamous for his brutality with his detainees and mutilating them during detention, and he is considered one of those directly responsible for the death of dozens of the nation’s people under torture, and thousands of torture victims which he personally participated in torturing, or through orders issued by him or under his supervision. He is responsible for many physical and sexual abuses practiced on the detainees who were in his custody.
Fleifel worked on deporting dozens of Bahraini families who were of Persian origins on primitive ships which lack the most basic safety procedures, and forcibly sending them to Iran without passports or official documentation, in circumstances that lack the lowest humane standards, that almost led to the loss and drowning of some of them in the middle of the sea if they had not been rescued by the Iranian Cost Guards. They were treated as refugees in Iran, and they suffered from difficult living circumstances until most of them were allowed to return to Bahrain after the year 2000. Fleifel was also a reason that many of the best Bahraini students lost their school or college education, and that their future career had collapsed, as well as having many citizens lose their jobs and their sole source of living, yet even many of his victims became poor and needy or displaced, scattered throughout the world.
Fleifel used his power and authority to extort the money of hundreds of families of detainees during that period in order to release their children and rid them of this frightening Apparatuses. He seized the money of many and possessed large tracts of land owned by Bahraini businessmen, or forced them to sell him at a pittance in fear of his might , he even threw anyone who refused to obey his orders in prison, sometimes with political charges of attempting to overthrow the regime, and other times with criminal charges or false drug cases. Through the process of extortion he was able to collect a large wealth estimated to be hundreds of millions of dollars. He committed all his crimes by making use of his intelligence network which was penetrated into the country’s public and private institutions, and from his personal relations and his financial partnership with the King’s cousin and his current adviser Sheikh Khalid bin Mohammed bin Salman Al-Khalifa, and who headed the State Security Apparatuses at that time. The participation of Sheikh Khalid with him contributed in providing a cover to the fraud and extortion crimes he committed.
When the current King Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa took power in 6 March 1999, after his father died the former Prince Isa bin Salman Al-Khalifa, he made promises at the beginning of his reign regarding the reforms, accountability and the elimination of corruption which terrified many of those who were caught up in the corruption and violations of human rights. This led to the escape of the Colonel Adel Fleifel to the Australian town Brisbane in May 2009, promising the people of that city with an economically prosperous era by investing some of his money there. The Bahraini Ministry of Interior had announced at that time that it had asked the international police (Interpol) to return him. His investments in that city were estimated to be a hundred million dollars, which he spent on buying buildings . The BCHR worked with some of the human rights organizations in Australia and some international figures in order to drive Fleifel out of Australia, and to stop providing him with permanent residence there due to his black record and widespread violations which he committed to human rights in Bahrain. Those movements led to the Australian authorities’ refusal to keep him on its lands .
Dozens of demonstrations and protests were led everywhere in Bahrain, and tens of thousands of his victims or their families participated in them, demanding that he be brought to justice. The international organizations wrote about him and asked the Bahraini government to bring him to court for the crimes he committed, and of those organizations are Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International .
In a sudden change, and after the Colonel Fleifel threatened the authorities in Bahrain that if he will be prosecuted he will reveal a lot of information and will drag down many of the Bahraini officials with him, he received pledges and promises from panels in the government that the authorities will not target him if wanted to return to Bahrain, and that the King will even make a special pardon for him. In confirmation of these promises, the King of Bahrain issued decree law 56 in October 2002 and which exempted all who committed torture crimes and violations in the past period from legal prosecution. After making sure that the slogans of accountability and eliminating corruption were not as serious as he thought, he returned to Bahrain on Saturday 23 November 2002 to run his business once again . Adel Fleifel turned from a security officer whose salary does not exceed 600 Dinar to someone who owns a financial and Real Estate Empire spread around the world.
The BCHR and the BYSHR regrets that there are some Bahraini businessmen who exercise trade with this person, who has gathered and accumulated his wealth from imprisoning and torturing thousands of victims, favoring their narrow financial interests over all ethical principals and human values. It is believed that the motives behind Fleifel’s running to next election is the parliamentary immunity that he will be able to have, and which will make him avoid and protect him from any questioning he is likely to face in some of the European countries due to the complaints that can be filed against him by some of his victims living in those countries.
Islamic Unity Society
The Islamic Unity Society was only known in recent days, and it would not have been known if the name of Adel Fleifel had not emerged as a political adviser to it. It is believed that this Society is one of the GONGOs which the Authority created in the last years, within the program referred to by the Bandar Report “The Civil Society – Strategic Management and Rehabilitation” in order to dominate the civil society institutes by creating delusional and fake political and human rights societies, as a means to tighten control over the civil society institutions. The Royal Court had in the last years participated in carrying out this strategy. The establishment of the Society was announced in the year 2007, and it is now headed by Mr. Abdullah Khalil BuGhamar.
Al-Watan Newspaper
Al-Watan newspaper was the only one to interview Adel Fleifel, and it had announced days earlier in a separate news piece Fleifel’s intention in participating in the next elections. Al-Watan newspaper is considered one of the newspapers that are closely related to the Royal Court, and which expresses its positions, and by name it is owned by one of the Bahraini businessmen who are closely related to the government. However, it is believed that the real owner is Sheikh Ahmad bin Atyat-Allah Al-Khalifa, Minister of Cabinet Affairs in the current government and closely related to the King. The name of Ahmad Atyat-Allah is associated with the scandal launched by the former government adviser Dr. Salah Al-Bandar, by heading a dangerous secret network inside the country’s associations which aims at eliminating and marginalizing the Shiite sect and to weaken them election-wise, and to drag them into a sectarian conflict with the Sunni sect, and to work on ruining the election process, and to create fake civil society institutes or penetrate the independent ones. It is understood from having the news interview with the former Colonel Fleifel and giving him this space in the newspaper as a serious indicator and a clear message of the Court’s support to Fleifel in the next elections.
House of Representatives Elections for 2010
The existing data, starting from the direct interference of the Royal Court in the election process, the unfair distribution of the electoral districts, using public boxes, using political money, the Authority providing technical and media support to its candidates, directing the naturalized who are outside Bahrain to vote for the Court’s candidates, and forcing the military men to vote for the Authority’s candidates all those indicators and past experiences confirm that there is large possibility of Fleifel reaching the House of Representatives.
Nabeel Rajab, president of the BCHR, stated, “The name of Adel Fleifel appearing lately among the candidates of the next parliamentary elections is an exasperating and serious matter, and it will lead the people to losing the only glimmer of hope that is pinned on the entire political process, and which is already superficial and worn-out. Having him running for the next parliamentary elections is a defiance, disdain and scorn to the feelings of torture victims and families of martyrs, and a recollection of painful memories and a bitter history that the people of this nation with all their varieties suffered from. The place of a criminal like Adel Fleifel is that he spends the rest of his life between prison cells for the crimes he committed, and not as a representative for the will of the people of Muharraq Town which deserves better than him”.
The BCHR and BYSHR calls for
1. Bringing Adel Fleifel to court for the merciless crimes he committed, and the crimes of extortion and exploitation he practiced.
2. Reserving the money he collected in an illegal manner from his victims, and to put it in a fund to serve the families of martyrs and torture victims.
3. Ending the business and social normalization with the Colonel Adel Fleifel and others who have intensified signs of them being involved in human rights violations.