Out of court:
Most of the detainees relatives were not allowed to enter court and some of them were even banned from coming near the court or it area. Only one member of each family was allowed in, meanwhile women who were able to reach the building remained outside the court under sever custody from private forces, one of the ladies was temporarily arrested by police forces because of her insistence to enter the court.
Out of court:
Most of the detainees relatives were not allowed to enter court and some of them were even banned from coming near the court or it area. Only one member of each family was allowed in, meanwhile women who were able to reach the building remained outside the court under sever custody from private forces, one of the ladies was temporarily arrested by police forces because of her insistence to enter the court.
Private forces closed the area with metal barriers and surrounded it with uniformed police and disabled human right activists and reporters from entering. Among these were:
• British reporters from the BBC.
• Mr. Mohammed AlMaskati (chairman of the Bahrain Youth for Human Rights Society and representative of the Arabic European Human Right organization- Norway )
• Women human right activist Ms. Ghada Jamsheer
• Mr. Abdul Nabi Al Ekri – head of Bahrain Transparency Society
• Mr. Nabeel Rajab Head of Bahrain Center for Human Rights and the appointed representative of the human rights watch to observe the trail.
Police forces have closed Starbucks café in which theses activists were in and forced them out to deprive them from being close to the court and spreading news about the trail through facebook, twitter and Blackberry Messenger.
Although Bahraini Government had announced that the trail is to be public, the ban on the local press is still in effect. The BBC team faced difficulties while trying to interview families of the detainees who were out of court because of the forces interactions. The security forces have also tried to get the recorded videos from the BBC reporters. Bahrain Center for Human rights will write a report about this issue later.
Inside the Court:
The detainee Hasan al Haddad (30 years old) was seen entering the court with crouches which he didn’t use before or during the previous trail on the 11th of November. Al Haddad has spent some time in the military Hospital because of his torture injuries.
Several embassy representatives have attended the trail some of them from; the American, British, United European and French embassies. Not to mention the representative of the Universal federal organization for human rights. All phones and cameras were not allowed in court.
The trail started around 10am and took around 45 minutes , it can be summarized with these points:
The Public Prosecutor Wael Bu Alay started with appointing:
• That the court had allowed lawyers to visit the detainees but some of them didn’t.
• That the court has done the procedures to investigate the torture claimed, and the detainees have been observed by the appointed doctor and they have created a file of this according to the law.
• Each lawyer had received a copy of the case file and has become acknowledged with their detainee files.
• He started with a request to start the case, but the team of lawyers requested to comment on what he had said.
• He objected to the repeated requests of the lawyers in the previous three trails and demanded to start the trail.
The main points that the defending team raised were:
• That they cannot present a proper defense if the court does not issue an order to investigate the torture allegations.
• They requested stopping the trail until the torture issue has been observed according to chapter (185) and (186) from the law.
Chapter (185) says: ” Criminal Court has jurisdiction to adjudicate in all matters on which the ruling in the proceedings before it depends on, unless the law provides otherwise “.
And chapter (186) says: ”
If the verdict in the criminal case depends on the ruling in a second criminal proceeding, the first one shall be suspended until the the second is adjudicated in. “.
• They repeated their requeste that the detainees should be observed by an independent medical committee , as they have reasons to believe the forensic physician was not neutral. .
• At the time that the detainees had been transferred to Dry Dock prison on the 5th of November, the doctor’s report shows that the obvious torture marks on the body of Ebrahim Taher were caused by his try to run away from prison on the 7th of September.
• Protest over the delay in implementing the court order to change the detainee’s prison which was issued on the 28th of October, but was not activated before the 5th of November.
• The reason why the lawyers have been repeating their requests is that the court is not taking any action about them so it is very normal that they would hold on to the same requests.
• The lawyers have also repeatedly requested to remove the ban of publishing anything about the case especially that it is a public trail.
• Although detainees have been transferred to another block in Dry Dock, the same torturers were transferred with them, contradicting with the fact that the main reason of transferring them is to take them to safer place.
• They appointed some examples of ill treatment of the detainees:
– Restriction when wanting to use the bathroom.
– Forcedly shaving their heads and beards, although it contradicts with some of their beliefs.
– Forcing them to stand and sit using a timed bell.
– Making the visits uncomfortable for them and their families by placing forces with them in the visiting room, which makes freely talking impossible and they can only say hi and bye.
– Taking all holy Quraan from their cells and keeping only one copy for all of them.
One of the detainees talked about:
– Being tortured and using electrical shocks with them before court, and marks of that are still on their bodies.
– After the second trail, the transfer took a lot of time and it is still the same for the forces have not changed and they are still treated inhumanly.
– An example of that is: ” the continues entry of officer Yousif al Manaay to beat the detainees on our faces and chests and curses us and calls us names. Another officer Bader al Ghaith does the same to all of us” .
A summary of the lawyers team requests:
1- Investigating torture claims and stopping the trail until the investigation is over.
2- Assigning a new independent medical committee to check the detainees.
3- Removing the ban on publishing the case news and updates especially that it is a public trail.
4- Investigating the bad conditions of the detainees even after they have been transferred to another prison.
5- Releasing the detainees under any guarantee the court demands.
The judge’s dictions:
The trail has been suspended to the 9th of December to listen to the witnesses, the detainees will remain imprisoned and non of the lawyers requests were obeyed.
Interviews with the detainees families:
The Bahraini human right center has interviewed the families of the detainees who were able to attend the court. Among them was Mr. Hussain Abdul emam the brother of Ali AbduleImam the blogger, who said: “I asked my brother if he was being tortured, he hesitated and I couldn’t take any answer out of him. He may have been tortured again” .
Check the video interview with Mr Husain Abdulemam
View the photos of the trial day
The indictment in the case of the detained activists in the so-called “Terrorist Network”
Previous court sessions
The Observatory observation statement of the 3rd session
Front Line observation report of the 2nd session
BCHR report on the 2nd session
Amnesty International observation statement of the 1st session
BCHR report on the 1st session