Among them the son of one of the Opposition Figures
17 October 2010
The Bahrain Center for Human Rights expresses its deep concern for the Bahraini government continuing to criminalize activists due to them practicing their rights, and especially their right to freedom of opinion, expression and publishing, and for it practicing the crime of torture and cruel treatment to extract confessions, and this was lately represented in arresting and torturing two detainees on the charge of sending out photos about Bahrain’s reality to the international news channels and agencies.
Among them the son of one of the Opposition Figures
17 October 2010
The Bahrain Center for Human Rights expresses its deep concern for the Bahraini government continuing to criminalize activists due to them practicing their rights, and especially their right to freedom of opinion, expression and publishing, and for it practicing the crime of torture and cruel treatment to extract confessions, and this was lately represented in arresting and torturing two detainees on the charge of sending out photos about Bahrain’s reality to the international news channels and agencies.
On 7th October, the first court sessions of the detainees Hussein Al-Dirazi and Mohammed Mushaimea[1] was initiated, where the Prosecution charged them with “transmitting photos that would bring harm to Bahrain abroad”, while it accused Mohammed Mushaimea with collaborating with the latter in receiving the photos during his stay in London and transmitting them to the officials in one of the foreign channels and who in turn published them later. The detainees complained that the interrogators had taken their statements by force “under torture, coercion and beating”. Hussein Al-Dirazi complained to the Judge that he is being subjected to severe beating and hanging by the hands and feet in the Falaqa way, and the torture marks and hanging are still apparent on his wrists. The two complained from being beaten all over their bodies, while concentrating the beating on the soles of the feet and then forcing them to walk to make the beating marks and swellings disappear from their feet. Both detainees complained from forcing them to stand for long hours, as well as depriving them from sleep for days. Until the second court session, the lawyers had not met them due to the police forbidding them from doing so, at a time where the Judge had allowed the lawyers to meet their clients.
The Security Forces had in the dawn of September 13 raided the house of Hasan Mushaimea, who is one of the leaders of Haq Opposition Movement, and one of the main defendants in what is named the terrorist cell, and he is in Britain being treated for cancer disease. They then thoroughly inspected his house without a search warrant, according to the statements of the family to the BCHR. They confiscated the computers before arresting his son Mohammed Mushaimea. That arrest took place a few hours after his father Hasan Mushaimea appeared on one of the TV channels to speak about the deteriorating situation of human rights in Bahrain.
On the other hand, the Security Forces arrested on October 2nd the Bahraini football player Mahdi Sa’ad[2] (21 years old) and banned him from travel, when he was heading to Poland within the national team mission as part of the preparations for the Handball World Cup. This arrest took place directly after his sister had appeared on one of the TV channels (BBC Arabic) and spoke about the circumstances of the forced disappearance of their blind brother Ali Sa’ad, and who had already been sentenced with 10 years imprisonment. The latter has been arrested last September without permitting his family to know the place of his arrest or to visit him yet.[3]
The BCHR believes that arresting and criminalizing the relatives and children because one of their family members had spoken to a TV channel or news agency reveals the agitation of the Authority in listening to its critics, and an attempt to conceal the real image of what is happening in Bahrain from the world public opinion. Transmitting photos or news about the incidents in Bahrain to the world news channels and agencies cannot be considered a crime in any form, but it is rather the right of people to express. The arbitrary arrests and trials that target freedom of opinion and expression emphasize the government’s failure in convincing the world of the wrong image it is attempting to promote in order to justify the deteriorating human rights condition in Bahrain. The Bahraini government is enforcing a media ban on all the news related to the case of the cell and the incidents relevant to it.
The Bahrain Center for Human Rights calls upon all journalists, media workers and bloggers to continue to broadcast media coverage about the human rights conditions in Bahrain, and to communicate with all individuals and public institutes to obtain the other side of the reality of the situation and which the government is working on concealing from the world press and international public opinion.
The BCHR considers that arresting and criminalizing activists on the charge of transmitting or contacting foreign media as a blatant violation of the international charters and covenants concerned with human rights and in specific Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights which states that “Everyone has the right to freedom of expression, this right includes freedom to seek various forms of information and ideas, receive and impart it to other regardless of frontiers, either in writing or in print, in the form of art or through any other media of his choice.”
Based on all the above, the BCHR demands the Bahraini Authorities to:
– Immediately release Mohammed Mushaimea, Hussein Al-Dirazi and Mahdi Sa’ad and all the detainees that are charged with baseless accusations.
– Immediately put an end to the mental and physical torture against detainees, and to instantly guarantee their rights to meet their lawyers and families, and to initiate a neutral, public and impartial investigation in the torture allegations and other violations, and to present the violators to justice.
– Immediately stop implementing the Anti-Terrorism Law for its plain contradiction with the international standards of human rights, as well as it being rejected by the United Nations and international organizations.
– Annul all the procedures that restrict freedom of opinion and expression or that prevent the transmission of information.
– Attain its international commitments and respect all forms of freedom of expression and publishing as stated in the international charters and covenants.
—
[1]alwasatnews.com/2954
[2]alwasatnews.com/2950
[3]alwasatnews.com/2956