In a heated Session which BCHR Vice-President was Prevented from Attending
“The Supreme Criminal Court” adjourns the trial of the Dana detainees until the 26th of September
Detained Activist Plea to Judge to Look into Continuous Mistreatment
Bahrain Centre for Human Rights
Ref: 06091400
In a heated Session which BCHR Vice-President was Prevented from Attending
“The Supreme Criminal Court” adjourns the trial of the Dana detainees until the 26th of September
Detained Activist Plea to Judge to Look into Continuous Mistreatment
Bahrain Centre for Human Rights
Ref: 06091400
The Supreme Criminal Court, with the chairmanship of Judge Mohammed Al Khalifa, adjourned yesterday, the trial sessions of the Dana detainees until September 26th in a session which ended in the families’ shouts and cries and the fainting of two of the detainees, because of their bad health condition and their strike which has reached its 14th day. The defendants who fainted as well as a distressed mother of one of the detainees were moved to hospital, the detainees were later returned to their detention Centre in the Dry Dock.
After the prosecution witnesses testified and were cross examined before the judge and defense, the defendant Moosa AbdAli, an activist with the Unemployment Committee who fainted at the end of the session, stood before the court to demand the judge look into, “their deteriorating health conditions, and the fact that prison guards in the past week, only call for an ambulance after one or two hours detainees faint,” informing the Judge that they, “went on a hunger strike because for the four past trial sessions prosecution witnesses had not attended and court sessions were postponed.” He also pointed out in an intense tone that, “they were exposed to physical torture, and the torture scars are still there, and one of the defendants who is 15 years old got sexually molested, which violates the Child Rights Agreement which Bahrain had joined.”
Abdali also mentioned that, “the defendant is innocent until proven guilty, that is why I request the court’s justice in releasing us on bail, so we can be able to file complaints to the public prosecution about our abuse, and we had already sent three letters to the Interior Minister without getting any reply.”
Significantly, one of the articles of Bahraini Law stipulates that it is possible that “the judge receives complaints from the defendants directly without the need for them to even go to the public prosecution,”. The Judge requested that the lawyers present a written complaint of the former, whether or not any action will prevail is still to be seen.
The defense, (Fatima Al Hawaj and Abdullah Al Shamlawi), posed questions during the session to the prosecution witnesses and they are (an officer with a major rank, and a policeman) about the details of arrest of the defendants.
Al Hawaj asked the two witnesses about using tear gas or rubber bullets, but they denied. One of the witnesses said that the defendants threw stones at them specifically and not randomly.
However, at the same time they were not clearly answering some of the particular questions claiming that they do not remember, as a long time had passed since the Dana incidents happened. One of them said that he found a fire extinguisher with one of the defendants, and when he was asked by the defense about it he said that he “did not keep it.” Furthermore both witnesses confirmed that they did not hear any call by the riot police to the demonstrators to disperse before the attack, a procedure they must conform to before attacking any demonstration.
Al Hawaj called upon one of the defendant’s wife as a denial witness, and the witness said that she was with her husband in Dana Mall for shopping, to “prepare for the awaited baby” and she went to the restroom but when she came out she could not find her husband. She called him several times without getting a respond, “even with a deliberate hang up some times” as she states, until she found out that the riot police had arrested him.
Several people protested in front of the court’s building, carrying slogans that demand the release of the detainees. A concentrated presence of security was noticed in front of the court’s building and inside the session.
Significantly, the Vice-President of the Bahrain Centre for Human rights Nabeel Rajab and one of the activists that was accompanying him, were prevented from attending the trial session.