BCHR Vice-President Nabeel Rajab Summoned by Public Prosecution
BCHR Demands Investigation of Alleged Conspiracy Perpetrators, not Activists
Bahrain Center for Human Rights
12 March 2007
Ref: 07031201
Last Thursday, Mr Rajab received a letter from the Public Prosecutor asking him to present himself at the offices of the Criminal Investigation Directorate (CID) in Adliya on Wednesday, 14 March.
BCHR Vice-President Nabeel Rajab Summoned by Public Prosecution
BCHR Demands Investigation of Alleged Conspiracy Perpetrators, not Activists
Bahrain Center for Human Rights
12 March 2007
Ref: 07031201
Last Thursday, Mr Rajab received a letter from the Public Prosecutor asking him to present himself at the offices of the Criminal Investigation Directorate (CID) in Adliya on Wednesday, 14 March.
The letter did not specify the reason for the summon, but informed sources revealed that it was in response to a complaint by an individual listed in the Bandargate report. The complainant, according to the source, is Adel Abdullah, a health ministry employee mentioned in the Bandargate report as being responsible for setting up internet forums to promote sectarianism.
It is believed that the summon, and possible criminal charges, is the latest attempt by the Bahrain government to threaten and silence activists who continue to highlight the Bandargate scandal, as well as to prevent the BCHR from carrying out its activities.
The ‘Bandargate scandal’ is an alleged conspiracy by high-level government officials to economically and politically suppress the majority Shia population of Bahrain using various methods, including the rigging of elections. The details of the plot were revealed in a report authored by Dr Salah Al Bandar, a British consultant to the government, and issued by the Gulf Centre for Democratic Development in September 2006. (See BCHR reports: “Conspiring Against the Shia“, October 2006 and “A Political Scandal“, September 2006).
Previous attacks
Previous actions by the government to quash public discussion of the Bandargate scandal include:
- BCHR president, Abdulhadi Alkhawaja, and two other activists are currently being prosecuted, facing criminal charges of up to 15 years in prison, after they continued to highlight the scandal (BCHR Ref: 07022501)
- In January, two political activists were sentenced to prison for distributing leaflets calling for the boycott of the November 2006 national elections (BCHR Ref: 07022601)
- Dr Salah Al Bandar, the whistleblower of the scandal, was forcibly deported from Bahrain by government authorities, after he delivered copies of his report to the Press.
- Following the revelations of the scandal in October 2006, the Higher Criminal Court, presumably under the directives of the government, issued a ban on all news, information and discussion of the Bandargate case. (See BCHR Ref: 06100500)
- Since the ban, the Bahrain government has been continuously threatening activists and journalists (BCHR Ref: 06101201), and blocking websites and blogs (BCHR Ref: 06110200, Ref: 06103001, and Ref: 06102600) that have been discussing the scandal in public
Mr Rajab recently returned from trips last month to Washington DC and Geneva where he and other BCHR delegates met with representatives of several international organizations to discuss the Bandargate scandal and the general human rights situation in Bahrain. Some of the groups with whom meetings were held are: the Carnegie Endowment for Peace, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and several committees of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Investigate accused perpetrators, not activists
The BCHR condemns the continued threats and attacks on activists who merely seek transparency and justice by highlighting the Bandargate scandal.
“The Bahrain government has so far refused to investigate any of the individuals implicated in the Al Bandar Report, and instead chooses to threaten and attack anyone who asks for accountability of the government officials,” said Abdulhadi Alkhawaja, president of the BCHR.
“This policy of the government only provides further evidence, in the eyes of the public, to the claims of sectarian conspiracy detailed in the report,” he added.