Bahrain: An Escalation of Arrests and New Claims of Torture with the Approach of the Week of Martyrs and Torture Victims
December 2009
Bahrain: An Escalation of Arrests and New Claims of Torture with the Approach of the Week of Martyrs and Torture Victims
December 2009
The Bahrain Center for Human Rights is observing the deteriorating security status with great concern, and fears that the situation gets out of hand and the impact of that on the overall stability of the country, and the further decline in the human rights conditions, due to the return of the security grip policy to the surface, by the start of a new arrest campaign in many of the Shiite-dominated areas and villages of Bahrain, as well as receiving reports about many of the detainees who are facing physical and mental torture in the interrogation and detention centers. The BCHR learnt that the Security Forces who are made up of Special Forces and Intelligence Men (National Security), at different timings most of them before sunset, broke into several homes in the various areas and arrested at least 15 of the villages youngsters, and led them to the security centers without committing to any of detainees and families’ rights during the arrest and search process and without considering the local laws and the international conventions that Bahrain sanctioned. The arrest campaign comes against the backdrop of the growing protest activities and demonstrations witnessed in the various Bahraini villages and areas, which are becoming almost daily in response to the governments continuous policy in sectarian discrimination at all levels against the indigenous residents of the country from the Shiite community; and the sectarian and political naturalization tended by the governing institution; and the marginalization of the opposition with all its diversity inside and outside the parliamentary institution; and keeping dozens of detainees in prison; and the increasing claims of being subjected to torture, as well as neglecting the torture victims’ issue by the authorities, which aggravates those tensions that are causing those protests and demonstrations, especially with the approach of the week of victims of torture. The protests were penetrated with the reciprocal violence between the parties and the use of excessive force and live ammunition by the Special Security men, and which is faced with stones and Molotov, setting fire to tires and garbage containers to close down the streets in the protest areas. What increases the severity of the tension that is causing those protest acts is the practice of collective punishment against some Shiite villages and areas, and surrounding them and showering them with teargas, and using live ammo against the demonstrators, as well as rubber bullets by the Security Forces which is made up of foreign mercenary forces brought in by the authorities and nationalized and granted the Bahraini citizenship in order to carry out these tasks. Usually these forces are accompanied by civilian cars with individuals wearing civilian clothes. Noteworthy, the villages of Der, Karana, Sihla, Sitra, Ma’ameer, Abu-Saibaa, Duraz, Sanabes, Deh, Jidhafs and Mugshaa – and some other villages – were the scene of the nonstop and escalating confrontations. The majority of detainees faced torture and abuse according to the statements filed by the lawyers working in defense of the detainees or by the statements of the families of detainees who had the opportunity to visit their children in prison.
Due to the deteriorating security, caused by the prevailing state of tension owing to the governing authority’s disability to set down solutions or to end its policy that is causing this continuous and ever-growing crisis in the country, the BCHR fears that the apparent disability might lead the official institutions to cook up any security incidents or an imaginary terrorist act, following it with more arrests as it had done during the month of December in the last years.
Based on all of the above, the Bahrain Center for Human Rights demands the governing the following:
To start an actual, and not a superficial dialogue to solve all the outstanding and controversial human rights files, instead of the security solutions which have and never will be an ideal solution to any of the crisis, it will yet raise them apart and make them far more complex. On top of these files, the vile systematic sectarian discrimination practiced against the Shiite, and which has apparently found care, adoption and support by the ruling elites; To stop the political naturalization and manipulating the social fabric which is targeting both the Shiite and Sunni; and clearing the prisons from the protest detainees and releasing them and to put an end to the systematic torture as a means of extracting confessions from the detainees in disrespect to the magnitude of their crime; and to present the ones responsible for torture to court and to redress their victims; and to dissolve the National Security Apparatus and return its jurisdictions to the regular security bodies; and to return the mercenaries working in the security apparatuses to their countries, and to present any one of them who committed a crime to a public and fair trial. The BCHR also demands that the Public Prosecution institution to be reformed in a manner that ensures its independence and integrity, and to distance it from the executive and security institutions in the country. The BCHR also emphasizes the rights of individuals, affected and victims in the peaceful protest and demonstration, and which is a permissible and legal right guaranteed by the international covenants of human rights. However, the BCHR, at the same time demands that these protests are marked by peace and clarity in demands, and to stay away from violence and counter-violence, and to not give the authority the excuse to its abuse and to its excessive use of force against the demonstrators or the villages and areas they live in.
Background
After protests that lasted more than a week, the village of Der witnessed violent confrontations where the Security Forces intensely used teargas, rubber bullets and live ammo which resulted in the injury of some of them[i][i], and some of the villages cars were damaged by the security forces as part of the collective punishment, and those confrontations were followed by an arrest campaign in the early hours of dawn on Wednesday 18 November, and which included 9 juveniles and youngsters of those villages, the known ones are:
1. Kumail Hasan Al-Ghanami (16 years old)
2. Sayed Ali Sayed Saeed (22 years old)
3. Hasan Ali Hasan (26 years old)
4. Hussein Ali Ahmed Al-Umr (23 years old)
5. Mohammed Faisal Al-Umr (19 years old)
6. Hussein Faisal Al-Umr (17 years old)
7. Ahmed Atyat Al-Umr (18 years old)
8. Ahmed Abd-Ul-Mutalib Al-Umr (16 years old)
9. Ridha Rajab Al-Umr (15 years old)
The reports that were documented by the BCHR indicate that the majority of those youngsters were arrested from their homes, except for Hussein Faisal who was arrested from the streets, and that the arrests took place without presenting any official orders of the arrest or its reasons. Their families were prevented from knowing anything about them until three days elapsed from their arrest, as well as in the Prosecution, which ordered that they be held in custody for 15 days on the charges of crowding, riot, arson and damaging public property. They were interrogated and subjected to torture and inhumane treatment during the questioning without the presence of a lawyer or any legal representation.
In Sihla village, a peaceful protest ended in heated confrontation between the Special Security Forces and protestors, which – as stated by the Ministry of Interior – resulted in the suffering of one of the Special Forces from burns due to a protestor throwing a Molotov cocktail on him, and some protestors were injured, but they were treated at home in fear of being arrested. Those clashes were followed with arrests, which included:
10. Abdul-Aziz Abdul-Ridh Ibrahim (23 years old), Hamad Town, and who was arrested in the morning of Sunday 22nd November from his place of work. The campaign also included:
11. Sayed Sadiq Sayed Ali Mahdi (17 years old), a student in secondary school, a Hamad Town resident, arrested on 23rd November.
12. Sayed Isa Sayed Abbas (22 years old), a Hamad Town resident, arrested on 23rd November, were reports documented by the BCHR stated that the doors to the homes of both Sayed Isa and Sayed Sadiq were damaged, and the contents of their houses were messed and destroyed by the intruding forces.
All the detainees of the Sihla events spoke to their lawyers or members of their families when they met them about the torture they faced since the moment of their arrest and during the interrogation and detention. Yet, the lawyer Mohammed Al-Jishi demanded that his client Sayed Isa be presented to the forensic doctor to confirm the torture wounds which were clearly evident on the body of his client, and based on that the Prosecution referred him to the forensic doctor.
Other villages witnessed several arrests, the known ones were:
13. Isa Abdul-Allah Kadhim (21 years old), from Karana village, and which is witnessing along with its neighbouring villages such as Abu-Saibaa and Mugshaa – a series of almost daily protests, and they are surrounded at night by the Special Forces for several weeks.
The village of Ma’ameer witnessed the same protests at Tuesday noon on 17th November. The Special Security Forces broke into the house of:
14. Majeed Hussein Salil (28 years). He faced severe torture after the arrest by hanging him from his hands and beating him while being hung. The detainee’s family indicates that Majeed was prevented from eating for two days, and during those two days he was beaten with the Falaqa and hung in what was known as the “drawer”, and which is a place that is used for hanging the detainees and subjecting them to torture, to get them to confess. Majeed was put into solitary confinement for 7 days and was prevented from showering, and he was forced to confess what the interrogators dictated him.
15. Hasan Abdul-Ameer Radhi (20 years old), from Ma’ameer village, arrested on 11th November in Belad-Al-Qadeem area. According to his family’s statement to the BCHR, he was forced to confess what the interrogators dictated him. He was prevented from eating and drinking for two days, and during the interrogation he was subjected to beating and hanging in the Falaqa way or hanging in the “drawer” room. He was beaten continuously on his feet until his feet became black, and he was forced to stand for a long time while being handcuffed with metal cuffs, and he was subjected to insults and curses that touch on his sectarian beliefs and threatened to sexually abuse him before detaining him in solitary confinement for 14 days, during which he was prevented from showering.
Violations in the Arrest, Detention and Interrogation Procedures
Most of the cases documented by the BCHR indicate that the Security Apparatuses utilized Special Forces and Civil Militias affiliated with the National Security Apparatus in all the arrest processes, however they were without any official permission clarifying the organization or the reasons of arrest, as well as preventing them from calling their lawyers or their families during the first days of arrest. According to Article 61 of the Code of Criminal Procedures of 2002 which states, “No one shall be arrested nor imprisoned except by an order of the legally competent authority. He shall be treated in such a manner as to maintain his human dignity and shall not be subjected to any bodily or psychological harm. Every person who is arrested shall be informed of the reasons for his arrest. He shall have the right to contact any of his relatives to inform him of what has happened and to seek the aid of a lawyer.”
All the previous cases of arrest clarified that the detainee, not only does not know what he is charged with, he is even prevented from contacting the outside world. The detainee is prevented from eating, showering or performing religious obligations, and he is forced to stand for long hours and is put in solitary confinement for long hours as a punishment to him, and to extract the confession from him, violating by that Article 7 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights which Bahrain sanctioned in September 2006, stating that, “No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.” All who were arrested were not arrested during an act of offense or felony or a crime punished by law, most of them were sleeping in their homes when the Forces broke into their houses. Article 57 of the Code of Criminal Procedures states, “A judicial summary arrest officer shall immediately hear the statements of the accused following his arrest. If he fails to provide evidence of his acquittal, he shall send him to the Public Prosecution within 48 hours.” The law states the presence of a warrant clarifying the “crime” the detainee is charged with and his role in it, before bringing him for interrogation, and it was stated in Article 14 – in the International Covenant on Civil Rights specified for providing the guarantees for each person charged with a crime should be entitled to, during the consideration of his case, and in full equality, the minimum guarantees, some are: “To be informed promptly and in detail in a language which he understands of the nature and cause of the charge against him;
To have adequate time and facilities for the preparation of his defence and to communicate with counsel of his own choosing; Not to be compelled to testify against himself or to confess guilt.”
In the light of the Public Prosecution lacking the standards to protect the detainees and dealing with them on the principles of the non-honourable opponent and on the basis of crime not innocence, as was indicated by the previous testimonies of detainees, the Prosecution is conspiring with the Security Apparatuses[ii][ii] according to what was stated in the BCHR previous report. Usually, the detainee returns to the place of interrogation to face the interrogators and torturers after the elapse of the first “48” hours, despite the defendant’s denial to the charges before the Prosecution and sometimes in presence of his lawyer.
The Bahrain Center for Human Rights
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[i] http://www.bchr.net/ar/node/2982
[ii] http://www.bchr.net/ar/node/2960