The Bahrain Center for Human Rights expresses grave concern over the continued suppression to the freedom of speech over the internet, represented in the kidnapping and incommunicado detention of online user Jaffar Al-Demstani for tweeting about torture.
On 19 Jun 2013, at 12:39pm Jaffar Al-Demstani (@alidemstani) posted tweets that his imprisoned father, the nurse Ebrahim AlDemstani has refused to attend a prison visit for the second time, in protest against denial of access to the specialist doctor he requires for the pain on his back. Jaffar tweeted that the back injury his father suffers from is due to the torture he received on the hands of colonel “Mubarak ben Huwail”. He added that his father had been beaten with hammers on the bottom of his back which caused a fracture in his coccyx bone. Those were the last tweets from Jaffar.
At around 3 AM on 20 June 2013, the house of Jaffar Al-Demstani in Barbar was raided by armed masked men in civilian clothes believed to belong to the secret police of interior ministry, and they have kidnapped Jaffar and taken him to an unknown location. His family went in search for him at the Budiya police station where the officials there denied having him in their custody, which is a standard response.
At the time of writing this statement, there was no news on the whereabouts of Jaffar and his state of wellbeing. There is great concern that he might be subject to torture given his current status of incommunicado detention.
Photo: Ebrahim AlDemstani
The BCHR has previously documented the torture of medics and doctors in Bahrain prison including nurse Ebrahim Al-Demstani, Jaffar’s father, who is now serving a 3 years prison sentence at Jaw prison since 2 Oct 2012 for his role in treating protesters in 2011. The BCHR has received the reports that since he arrest in October 2012, Ebrahim has been deprived from access to the medical care he requires for the pain in his back, which is a result of the severe torture he was subjected to following to his first arrest on 2011 (for more information, see: http://bahrainrights.org/en/node/4726).
Photo: Mubarak bin Huwail
It should be noted that the name of Lt-Colonel “Mubarak ben Huwail” has been repetitively mentioned by victims of torture, and many of the detained medics and doctors, and he is currently on trial for the torture of four of the medics and doctors at the third higher criminal court, however he is still on active duty in his position as “Director of Drug Detection”.
“The principal investigator, Maj Mubarak bin Huwail, tortured us. He blindfolded and handcuffed us during the interrogation. He wrote whatever he wanted to write and then took our signatures on the false statements by beating us. We were humiliated, intimidated and degraded.” – Rula AlSafar, the nursing society chief who was arrested on April 4, 2011.
The BCHR believes that the arrest of Jaffar for his tweets about torture comes as part of the impunity policy granted for torturers in Bahrain, as a result of the ongoing surveillance of online posts and threats to the freedom of speech directed toward those who expose violations to human rights over social media.
Based on the above, the Bahrain Center for Human Rights calls for:
- Immediately and unconditionally release Jaffar Al-Demstani , as well as all prisoners of conscience, as they have been arrested based on reasons related to their practice of their fundamental right to freedom of expression.
- Immediately and unconditionally release the nurse Ebrahim Al-Demstani and the imprisoned medics and doctors who are serving prison sentences for their role in treating injured protesters.
- Immediately stop the acts of kidnaping and forced disappearances of detainees.
- Hold Mubarak Bin Huwail and other officers proved to be involved in torturing detainees accountable of their crimes.
- Hold accountable all higher officials who are aware of and/or order such violations.
- Provide all prisoners with the medical care they require without restrictions and discrimination.
- The withdrawal of all actions that would restrict freedom of opinion and expression, or prevent the transmission of information.