AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
PUBLIC STATEMENT
AI Index: MDE 11/009/2010
9 November 2010
Amnesty International conducted a fact-finding visit to Bahrain in late October 2010 to update its information on human rights developments, hold talks with government officials, meet civil society activists, and investigate reports of recent human rights violations.
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
PUBLIC STATEMENT
AI Index: MDE 11/009/2010
9 November 2010
Amnesty International conducted a fact-finding visit to Bahrain in late October 2010 to update its information on human rights developments, hold talks with government officials, meet civil society activists, and investigate reports of recent human rights violations.
During the visit, Amnesty International was pleased to have meetings with senior government leaders, including the Ministers of Interior, Justice, Information, Foreign Affairs and Social Development, as well as other senior officials, including the Public Prosecutor. All government officials met by the organization stressed their desire to cooperate with Amnesty International and maintained their willingness to look into all human rights concerns raised by the organization. Amnesty International was able to meet also with families and lawyers of detainees, human rights activists, journalists and other representatives of civil society.
On 28 October, Amnesty International delegates attended the opening session of the trial before the High Criminal Court in Manama of 23 members of the Shi’a community who were arrested in August and September and who face charges of setting up, joining and financing a group which aims to overthrow the government and cancel the constitution and which uses “terrorism” as one of the methods to achieve these goals. Two other men, charged in the same case and who reside outside Bahrain, are being tried in their absence.
The Amnesty International visit took place at a time of new national elections, held on 23 October, and against a background of recent unrest and clashes between the security forces and protestors, mostly youth from within the Shi’a community, who complain that they are discriminated against by the government. This has sparked a rise in tension that threatens the significant improvements in human rights made in the years immediately following King Hamad bin ‘Issa Al Khalifa’s accession to the throne in 1999. In recent months, scores of people have been arrested and prosecuted for participating in violent protests, though most have then been pardoned and released. Others currently remain in prison and are on trial or awaiting trial.
Arrest, detention and trial of opposition activists
One principal objective of Amnesty International’s visit was to obtain updated information about the situation of 23 opposition activists who were arrested in August and September and now face charges under anti-terrorism legislation introduced in 2006. The charges include setting up and financing a group to overthrow the government, abrogate the Constitution and undermine national unity through “terrorism” and other means. The 23 include Dr Abdel-Jalil al-Singace, a leading member of the unauthorized opposition political group al-Haq, and others associated with al-Haq, including clerics and civil servants. In addition, two other opposition activists who reside in the United Kingdom face similar charges and are being tried in their absence.
Most of the 23 were detained in pre-dawn raids on their homes involving officials of the National Security Agency (NSA), who also searched their homes at the same time or subsequently and removed items such as laptops, CDs and mobile phones. In some cases, the officials carrying out the arrests are said to have failed or refused to show arrest warrants, in breach of Bahraini law.
Those arrested were initially held incommunicado for some two weeks during which their families and lawyers were not able to establish their whereabouts or gain access to them. They were held under the 2006 anti-terrorism legislation which permits suspects to be held for questioning for up to 15 days before they are taken before the Public Prosecutor, far longer than suspects held under the Penal Code, who must be taken before the Public Prosecutor within 48 hours of their arrest, according to the Criminal Procedure Code.
When the detainees were taken for questioning by the Public Prosecutor at the end of August and in September lawyers and family members say they mostly denied the accusations against them. Some told the Public Prosecutor that they had been tortured or otherwise ill-treated by NSA officials to force them to sign “confessions”. Several were then referred for medical examination by the Public Prosecutor. The detainees continued to be denied access to their lawyers following their appearance before the Public Prosecutor; the authorities told Amnesty International that this was because the 2006 anti-terrorism law says nothing about legal access for detainees or defendants held under this law, neither providing for nor prohibiting such access. However, the right of all detained persons to have access to and be defended by a lawyer of their choice is a key element of the right to fair trial as elaborated in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), to which Bahrain is a state party, and in Bahrain’s Constitution (Article 20). The detainees were permitted to receive weekly family visits from the end of September.
Amnesty International observed the opening session of the trial before the High Criminal Court in Manama on 28 October, following which it was adjourned until 11 November. The trial session was also attended by diplomats from several foreign embassies, including the USA, the UK and France, as well as members of Bahrain’s National Human Rights Institution. Despite tight security in and around the court, defendants relatives were able to attend and the media was present. Each of the defendants denied the charges when they were read out and, in most cases, told the court that they had been tortured or otherwise ill-treated in pre-trial detention.
Some also said that security officials had threatened them only the day before that they should not complain about their treatment to the court and, if they did so, could be placed in solitary confinement. Despite this, Dr Abdel-Jalil al-Singace stated that while detained incommunicado he had been made to stand for a prolonged time although he suffers from paralysis in one leg, and was denied medicine he needs and not allowed to have his glasses.
Mohammad al-Saffar told the court he had been deprived of sleep for three days, punched and left suspended “like a bird.” The trial judge declined to release any of the defendants on bail but agreed to a defence request that they be moved from Dry-Dock Prison in Manama to protect them against possible ill-treatment by the security officials alleged to have threatened them; currently, however, they remain held at Dry Dock Prison but were moved to a different section of the prison on 5 November and are no longer in solitary confinement.
The judge also agreed that four of the defendants should be examined by a medical doctor and ruled that the defendants should be allowed regular access to their lawyers. Following this, the defendants were allowed to meet their lawyers in private on 6 November, but for no more than a few minutes. As well, they are being allowed only very short visits by their families. Most disturbingly, defence lawyers have reported that several of the defendants alleged on 6 November that they had been subjected to further assaults in detention by security men since their court appearance on 28 October, prompting heightened concern for their safety.
In meetings with Bahraini government ministers in late October, Amnesty International urged that a full, independent investigation be undertaken promptly into the allegations of torture and other ill-treatment of the trial defendants, including those reportedly made by several defendants on 6 November, with a view to establishing their veracity; if that is established, those responsible must be brought to justice. Amnesty International also urged the Public Prosecutor to ensure that no statements or other information obtained as a result of torture or other duress is entered as evidence against the defendants at their trial.
Amnesty International is also now urging the government to ensure that the defendants are fully protected against possible torture or other ill-treatment or reprisals, including by being moved to another place of detention, as directed by the trial judge, and that they are allowed regular access to their lawyers and families. The defendants must be permitted adequate facilities to prepare their defence, including to regularly consult their lawyers in private.
Government interference in human rights organizations
Amnesty International also expressed concern to the Minister of Social Development about her decision, announced on 7 September, to dismiss the members of the board of the Bahrain Human Rights Society (BHRS), an independent legally-registered on-governmental organization (NGO), for alleged “legal and administrative irregularities” by the BHRS in breach of Law 21 of 1989, which regulates the activities of NGOs. The Minister had accused the BHRS of cooperating with “illegal organizations”, publishing information about this on its website and of focusing on “one category of Bahrainis” – apparently, a reference to the arrests of members of the Shi’a community – rather than reporting impartially on all sections of Bahrain society.
The Minister appointed an official of the Social Development Ministry as “temporary administrator” of the BHRS when dismissing its board. Subsequently, the Ministry filed a law suit against the BHRS only to withdraw it a few days later, while the BHRS lodged a court appeal against the government’s decision to dismiss its elected board which is not due to be heard until January 2011.
In her meeting with Amnesty International, the Minister of Social Development insisted that through its actions the BHRS had breached Law 21 of 1989 and that two other NGOs, the Bahrain Centre of Human Rights and the Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights, had been banned several years earlier also for breaching Law 21. She said that among other breaches the BHRS had organized a workshop in Bahrain for Saudi Arabian human rights defenders but had failed to inform her Ministry, causing one of the Saudi Arabians to be detained for a time at Bahrain International Airport. The government, she said, had a duty to uphold Law 21 of 1989, although it recognizes that this law is deficient and in need of reform. She confirmed to Amnesty International that a new law to regulate NGOs is in preparation and is expected to be submitted to the Cabinet and then to the parliament in the coming months.
Amnesty International urged the Minister to ensure that the new law is fully compatible with international human rights law and Bahrain’s treaty obligations as a party to the ICCPR. In particular, NGOs must be able to operate freely and openly, without fear of government interference in their legitimate exercise of the rights to freedom of expression, association and assembly.
Freedom of expression undermined
Amnesty International also expressed concern about the government’s recent closure of a number of websites and publications, including those of legally-authorized political associations on vague grounds of compromising national unity and fuelling discord within Bahrain. On 13 September 2010, for example, an official announced that two websites, the Bahrain Forum and the Arabian Kingdom of Bahrain Forum, had been blocked for carrying comments that the government considered “compromise national unity and fuel discord” and “promote sedition and drive wedges in society.” This followed the earlier blocking of the website of al-Wifaq Islamic Society and was followed on 30 September by the banning of the newsletters of two more political societies, the Islamic Action Society and al-Minbar Democratic Progressive Society, and the withdrawal of their publishing licences.
On 26 August, the Public Prosecutor had also banned media outlets from reporting about the 23 Shi’a community activists who had been detained. In a meeting with Amnesty International, the Chairman of the government’s Information Affairs Agency said that the bans on political association’s newsletters were imposed because they had breached the law by disseminating information to persons other than their own members.
The law permits political associations to produce newsletters but these must be for their own members only. Such restrictions, Amnesty International pointed out, are severely restrictive of the right to freedom of expression guaranteed in international human rights treaties to which Bahrain is party, notably the ICCPR, Article 19(2) of which states: “Everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of his choice.” Amnesty International is urging the Bahraini government to lift the restrictions imposed on political associations’ websites and restore the associations’ publishing licences and allow them to distribute information freely in accordance with international human rights law.
Political associations should have the right to disseminate information freely, including to the general public, and both the laws n publishing and political associations should also be amended and brought into full conformity with Bahrain’s obligations under international human rights law.