Citizens are Tortured In Front of a Member of Parliament
The officer Faisal Al-Mursi and to the right the Exhibition Police Station
24 January 2011
The Bahrain Center for Human Rights expresses its great distress towards the Bahraini Authorities’ persistence in torturing its citizens in the corridors of police stations, prisons and places of detention without taking into account local and international appeals demanding the cease of torture and initiating an investigation in all torture allegations. In the same context, the BCHR received information that a Bahraini citizen was subjected to torture by members of the Special Forces and intelligence officers in the presence of a Member of Parliament[1].
Citizens are Tortured In Front of a Member of Parliament
The officer Faisal Al-Mursi and to the right the Exhibition Police Station
24 January 2011
The Bahrain Center for Human Rights expresses its great distress towards the Bahraini Authorities’ persistence in torturing its citizens in the corridors of police stations, prisons and places of detention without taking into account local and international appeals demanding the cease of torture and initiating an investigation in all torture allegations. In the same context, the BCHR received information that a Bahraini citizen was subjected to torture by members of the Special Forces and intelligence officers in the presence of a Member of Parliament[1].
The details of the incident commenced on Thursday January 6th, 2011 when Mr. Mohsen Al-Sharakhat,, who is in his forties from Sanabis, was returning home after playing football beside his house which he does every afternoon. He was surprised by a white car following him after it had been watching them playing football. The car was driven by an officer of Yemeni origins named Faisal Al-Mursi, known in the area for being linked to several torture cases that targeted Shiite villages. Moments later, more than ten cars affiliated with the police surrounded him and they then arrested Al-Sharakhat after he was close to reaching home, which led to his father and uncle being subjected to severe beating by the officer and the rest of the forces with him when they tried to inquire about the reason of the arrest[2].
Mohsen Al-Sharakhat was transmitted to the police station in the Exhibition Area. His brother Saleh, accompanied by the area’s MP and the head of Al-Wefaq parliamentary bloc Mr. Abdul-Jalil Khalil, followed him to file a complaint against the officer Al-Mursi. They were shocked when an officer from the Special Forces and five others wearing civilian clothing who appeared to be of Yemeni and Pakistani origin started to beat Mohsen Al-Sharakhat until blood appeared on his clothes. Some of them were beating him with sticks on his back and head, and others were punching him in his face while others were kicking him all over his body. They also used vile language and insulted him with offensive words aimed at him and his family. They then turned to his brother Saleh who was grabbed and severely beaten in front of the same MP, and in the presence of the deputy head of the capital municipality, Mohammed Abdullah Mansoor. The MP Abdul-Jalil Khalil later informed the BCHR that he was also subjected to vile language and insults when he demanded they stop the beating and torture of citizens, which was taking place in his presence. It seemed as though they were ignorant of the fact that he was a member of parliament. The MP Abdul-Jalil Khalil heads the largest parliamentary bloc which represents more than 50% of the electoral bloc in Bahrain.
The matter developed when the MP filed a written report against the mentioned people, and against the public scenes of torture he had witnessed. Upon realizing who the MP is, the officer threw himself on the ground and pretended to be unconscious. He then got up and filed a report against the victims they had just beaten. Based on the report filed by the officer, the victims of this incident were held in custody at the police station, and two days later they were transferred to the Public Prosecution who then extended their detention for a week pending interrogation. They were released after the matter was exposed in the Bahraini newspapers.’[3]
The recurrence of these incidents and the increase of torture allegations confirm the statements and reports of the BCHR and many other regional and international organizations which verify the presence of torture in prisons and places of detention in Bahrain, which has systematically returned since 2006.
Commenting on this incident, Mr. Nabeel Rajab, president of the BCHR, stated, ‘If torture and degrading treatment is being practiced so plainly against the defendants without any constraints or apprehension in the police stations and in front of the representatives of people, how are they (the detainees) dealt with behind closed doors away from the outside world, and with the existence of numerous torture allegations against the police officers and members of the National Security Apparatus’.
Several criminal detainees died during the last months in the prisons of Bahrain under mysterious circumstances. However, the security apparatuses quickly came up with justifications and explanations in regards to each death which they related to health issues or diseases. Yet, the BCHR has reason to believe that the death of some of those detainees may have been a result of the torture practiced against them during interrogations and detention.
It is worth mentioning that Bahrain is a signatory party to the Convention against Torture. Bahrain has however failed to implement the recommendations given by the committee affiliated with implementing the aforementioned Convention or to amend the laws to measure up to that Convention, especially that the definition of torture in Bahrain is not compatible with the articles of the Convention. Furthermore, all local and international appeals demanding investigations in torture allegations have been ignored.
Based on the above, the Bahrain Center for Human Rights demands the following from the Bahraini Authorities:-
• To immediately end the systematic torture against all detainees in Bahraini prisons;
• To prosecute those responsible and put on trial those involved in crimes of torture, especially those whose names have been mentioned in the report of Human Rights Watch and the rest of the reports released by the BCHR;
• To adherence to the commitments, treaties and international recommendations it signed, and among them the recommendations released by the UN Committee against Torture.
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[1]www.alwasatnews.com/3047
[2]www.alwasatnews.com
[3]alwefaq.net