The child Ali AL-Singace: another victim in the series kidnapping, torture and sexual harassment by the security services

The general prosecution continues its role as dishonest opponent in hiding the torture and crimes carried out by the security services

1 April 2012

Bahrain Center for Human Rights expresses its concern on the continued cases of kidnapping and assaults on children by the security men and the secret police in Bahrain. What increases the concern is the impunity policy practiced by the Bahraini authorities to protect the human rights violators and aggressors, and helping them to escape punishment by avoiding conducting serious investigations of the incidents of abuse and with full cooperation of the public prosecution and the judiciary. Most often, the victims are children, which is a direct violation of Bahrain pledges to protect and ensure the rights of the child including the right to protection from physical assault.

The general prosecution continues its role as dishonest opponent in hiding the torture and crimes carried out by the security services

1 April 2012

Bahrain Center for Human Rights expresses its concern on the continued cases of kidnapping and assaults on children by the security men and the secret police in Bahrain. What increases the concern is the impunity policy practiced by the Bahraini authorities to protect the human rights violators and aggressors, and helping them to escape punishment by avoiding conducting serious investigations of the incidents of abuse and with full cooperation of the public prosecution and the judiciary. Most often, the victims are children, which is a direct violation of Bahrain pledges to protect and ensure the rights of the child including the right to protection from physical assault.

On Wednesday morning 21 March 2012, Bahrain Center for Human Rights was informed about the kidnapping incident and abuse of the child Ali Abdalshaheed Al-Singace (16 years), for the third time within one month[2], after finding him by witnesses lying in one of the garages located near (Matam bin Khamis) in Sanabis area where protests regularly take place.

According to the testimony of his father, Ali Al-Singace was heading to school at about seven o’clock in the morning, when he was kidnapped from the street by a civilian car carrying 3 people, who handcuffed Ali with plastic handcuffs and beat him until he fainted.

Upon the arrival of Sayed Yousif AL-Mahafdha – BCHR’s Head of Monitoring & Follow Up– Al- Singace was still unconscious, and handcuffed, without his underwear, he was bleeding, and wounds appeared on his body; his arms, his thighs and abdominal.

After he regained consciousness, Al-Singace reported that the passengers of a black car (Nissan Tida) were members of the secret police, two of which were foreigners, and one of them was an Arab nationality. He was beaten with a knife and punched, and he was sexually harassed by removing his clothes and touching and putting a black plastic on his genitalia several times, and they were trying to sexually assault him but he resisted them[3].

The marks of abuse on the body of Al-Singace, photos were taken on 21 March 2012

This was not the first time to attack Al-Singace, but the third. He was first attacked on 16 February 2012 and was kidnapped and beaten with a knife[4] by the secret security personnel. They asked him to work with them as an informer, but he refused, as a result of his refusal, he was beaten with a knife. Besides, Bahrain center has documented several and similar cases of kidnapping over the past months.

Picture shows the marks of beatings and abuse suffered by Ali Al-Singace when he was kidnapped in a previous time, the photograph was taken on 28 February, 2012

On the same day of the incident 21 March 2012, Ali’s father went to the police station to register a complaint against the secret police that attacked his son, however, the questions and the nature of the investigation led by the officer “Walid Albuflasah” did not seem to be concerned about identifying the attackers, but acquitting the personnel of the ministry of Interior. The child (Ali) was presented to the public prosecution and the forensic doctor on the same day, where the investigation continued with him until late time on Wednesday. The prosecutor did not show seriousness in the investigation, as he commented ridiculously on the victim, by describing his story as a competing story to that of “shahrukh khan”, the hero of Indian movies. This is a violation to Article (12) of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which stipulates the right of the child to have the opportunity to be heard in any judicial and administrative proceedings affecting the child, either directly, or through a representative or an appropriate body, in a manner that is consistent with the procedural rules of the national law.
In addition, the officer at the police station threatened the child Al-Singace that if he “accused the government”, then he will be implicated in a case related to his previous arrest (January 2011), or a case of burning of a police car, then, the officer Albuflasah displayed pictures of one of the activists and asked Al-Singace to sign a statement that this activist is the one who has harassed him. Alsingace was threatened to be prisoned if he refused to sign that statement.

On 23 March 2012 the Public Prosecution said in a statement that the child Al-Singace has injured himself, and he was accused to have made false notification of a crime that didn’t happen, accordingly the investigation in the case was closed by turning the victim into a defendant[5]. Lawyer Faten Al-Haddad commented saying “there are many injuries in the body of Ali Al-Singace and it is impossible for him to be able to reach those parts of his body and injure himself according to the coroner”. This incident caused more anger among people represented in several marches denying the violation of the child rights, but soon the security authorities intervened and suppressed the peaceful demonstrations without justification.

Bahrain Center for Human Rights indicates that this incident is not the first of its kind where children are put under pressure through assault and threats for the purpose of recruiting them to work with the authority’s security services[6], also the incidents of children kidnapping and assault by beating and sexual harassment before throwing them in isolated places were repeated in the past months, and this has been recorded by the center in its last report on torture outside the official places of detention[7].

Bahrain Center considers this quick and unserious investigation in the case of the child Ali Al-Singace and converting him from a victim into an accused, a showcase of the continued policy of impunity practiced by the authorities for the protection of human rights violators affliated with the security apparatus, at the time in which the authority is claiming the implementation of reforms in the police system. This only leads to establishment of distrust between citizens and the security services which most often deliberately obstruct the procedures to submit complaints when the complaint is against the security personnel. In the case of the attack on the human rights activist Nabeel Rajab, in January 2012 the prosecution closed the case claiming that there was no assault to him, despite testimonies of the witnesses. Also, in the case of kidnapping the college student Zahra Al-jalawi from the University of Bahrain last September, she has been accused of making false notification of a crime that didn’t happen [8], while the deceased Haj Mohammed Abdali was subject to increased shooting of tear gases on his house after he complained at the police station, which led to his death later in February 2012. It is clear that the security authorities pursue a retaliatory approach in dealing with the complaints makers in order to discourage people from making complaints in the event of being subjected to abuses.

The government of Bahrain is a signatory to the International Convention on the Rights of the Child, where article 37 (a) stated that ” No child shall be subjected to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.”, while the Ministry of Human Rights declares the compliance with the rules and regulations in the Convention, but the fundamental rights of children in Bahrain brutally violated by security forces without any action from the authorities to put an end to these violations.

Based on the above Bahrain Center for Human Rights demands the following:

– To provide full protection for the child Ali Al-Singace and his family, and to hold the security personnel responsible of any retaliation may he or his family be exposed to.
– To immediately stop using the Public Prosecution as dishonest opponent that proceed on political basis and revenge manner against citizens protesting against the government, and top stop the policy of hiding the crimes of the security services.
– Conducting prompt and impartial investigation in the case of the abuse of the child Al-Singace and taking the accused to a fair and just trial.
– Stopping the policy of impunity and the protection of the violators of human rights and bringing them to justice, including senior state officials who, if not directly supervise the violations are involved in the protection of the violators.
– Stopping all forms of attacks on children in the villages, especially the attempts to recruit and exploit them to work for the security services.
– To provide full care for all the victims of violations, specifically children and to provid them with appropriate compensations for the abuses they were subjected to and the required treatment.
– The commitments to the conventions signed by Bahrain and to take all necessary measures to ensure the child’s right are protected including right to protection from torture and cruelty, especially by the authority staff.

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