Bahrain Center for Human Rights
October 12, 2006
Ref: 06101201
The Bahrain Center for Human Rights is distressed upon receiving information that a number of journalists and human rights activists who have been highlighting the recent Bandargate scandal have been threatened with violence if they do not cease their activities.
Bahrain Center for Human Rights
October 12, 2006
Ref: 06101201
The Bahrain Center for Human Rights is distressed upon receiving information that a number of journalists and human rights activists who have been highlighting the recent Bandargate scandal have been threatened with violence if they do not cease their activities.
Mohammed Al-Maskati, president of the Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights, received an anonymous call on his mobile phone on October 11. The caller told Mr. Al-Maskati to stop issuing statements about the Bandargate scandal, or else he will face bad consequences. The caller told Mr. Al-Maskati to pass on the threat to other human rights activists working on the issue, including BCHR vice-president Nabeel Rajab and Hussain Jawad, vice-president of the Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights. It is worth mentioning that a few weeks ago, a falsified version of the Al Bandar Report was anonymously distributed to local newspaper offices, which attempted to implicate Mr. Al-Maskati, Mr. Nabeel Rajab and Mr. Hussain Jawad in the scandal [1]. (Dr Salah Al-Bandar, the author of the original report, dismissed the falsified report [2]).
On October 9, Mr. Hussain Mansoor, reporter for the Al-Meethaq daily Arabic newspaper and Mohamed Al-Othman columnist from Al-Wasat newspaper received a similar anonymous call to their mobile phone threatening them with the same if he does not stop publishing reports about the Bandargate scandal.
Also on October 6, Ghada Jamsheer, a prominent women’s rights activist and head of the Women’s Petition Committee, received a similar anonymous call and was told to stop issuing statements about the scandal .
It should be noted that these threats coincide with a recent court order prohibiting the publication of information related to the Bandargate scandal, despite pleas by civil societies and the local Press to reconsider the decision [4].
The Bahrain Center for Human Rights is deeply concerned about the recent threats, as in the past, several other human rights activists who have received similar anonymous phone threats have subsequently been targeted and beaten by security forces. Among them are Abdulhadi Al Khawaja and Nabeel Rajab of the BCHR, and trade unionist Abbas al Omran, who were attacked by the paramilitary police in July 2005 at the scene of a planned demonstration [5]. Also related is the case of Musa Abd-Ali, an activist for the Committee for the Unemployed, who was beaten and sexually abused by masked men outside his home in November 2005, and told to cease his activities with the Committee [6].
In light of these facts, the Bahrain Center for Human Rights considers the threats against the mentioned activists and journalists very seriously. The BCHR calls on the government authorities to immediately investigate the origin of the threats and prosecute the individuals involved. The BCHR also urges the government and courts to rescind the recent Press gag on the Bandargate scandal, as it violates the people’s right to information as stipulated in the International Human Rights Conventions.
Background
The Bandargate scandal centers around a 200-page report published by the Gulf Centre for Democratic Development, and authored by Dr Salah Al-Bandar, a Briton working as a consultant to the Ministry of Cabinet Affairs in Bahrain. The report documented a secret organization within the Bahrain goverment that was allegedly attempting to foment sectarianism and unfairly influence the upcoming elections. The organization is allegedly headed and financed by Shaikh Ahmed bin Ateyatalla Al Khalifa, chief of the Central Informatics Organization. Following the dissemination of the report, Dr Al-Bandar was forcibly deported to the United Kingdom by the Bahrain authorities. For more details see the BCHR report: “Al Bander-Gate”: A Political Scandal In Bahrain.