The International Day to End Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists, which is dedicated to all members of the media who have suffered violence due to their profession, is marked on 2 November 2016. On this day, the Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR) renews calls for accountability and an end to impunity for the Bahraini journalists and media professionals who have fallen victim to severe violations since 2011, including arrest, torture and loss of life.
Blogger Zakariya Rashid Hassan Al-Ashiri died at 40 years old under torture on 9 April 2011. The Ministry of Interior claimed at the time that he had died as a result of sickle cell anemia complications. However, the marks of harsh beating and bruises on his body were all too visible. Al-Ashiri, moderator of www.dair.net online forum, was arrested on 2 April 2011 on charges of allegedly “inciting hatred, publishing false news, promoting sectarianism and calling for the overthrow of the regime” via e-forums.
The Bahrain International Commission of Inquiry (BICI) confirmed in its report that the death of Al-Ashiri was attributed to torture (Case No.24 in the report). On 12 March 2013, the first higher criminal court acquitted all five policemen who were charged with the beating that led to the death of Al-Ashiri. The crime of torturing Al-Ashiri to death remains without accountability.
Kareem Fakhrawi was a businessman, founder of Bahrain’s first educational bookstore and a founder of the Al-Wasat newspaper. Fakhrawi died at the age of 49 on 12 April 2011 while in custody, due to torture. He was last seen at the Exhibition Centre Police Station on 3 April as he went to the police station to file a report and complaint about a raid on one of his relative’s houses. His death has been documented by the BICI report (Case No.25) and confirmed to be attributed to torture. Two security men from the National Security Apparatus were put on trial on charges of “beating that led to death without intention.” The criminal court initially sentenced them to seven years’ imprisonment, however on 27 October 2013, an appeal court reduced the sentence to three years’ imprisonment. There is no confirmation that the security men have indeed served any prison time for the crime committed.
Ahmed Ismael Hussain Al-Samadi, a citizen journalist who was video documenting protests, was killed after a gunshot in his right thigh (lower abdomen) fired by armed civilians. He died at only 22 years old on 31 March 2012 while he was filming a gathering of protesters along a highway near his home in a small Bahraini village, who were being attacked by security forces. Although the medical examiner’s report had listed his cause of death as a gunshot wound, his death certificate, which was needed to open a police investigation, mentioned nothing about a bullet. During the following interrogations, several witnesses were called for questioning, in which the interrogators allegedly focused more on the whereabouts of the camera than on Al-Samadi’s assailant. In spite of attempts by his family to achieve justice, no one has ever been put on trial.
The above three cases of death have appeared in the 2016 UNESCO Director-General’s Report on the Safety of Journalists and the Danger of Impunity.
While killers of journalists remain free, the Bahraini government continues to target journalists with arrest and imprisonment. Among the Bahraini journalists who have been sentenced due to their professional undertakings are photographers Ahmed Humaidan, Hussam Soroor, Ahmed Zain Al-Deen, Mustafa Rabea and Sayed Ahmed Al-Mousawi, who have all received 10-year prison sentences for their work. Al-Mousawi also had his citizenship revoked. Most recently, Mahmood Suroor received a 15-year prison sentence, which was issued on 21 April 2016.
BCHR calls on the Bahraini government to:
- End the policy of impunity by those in government and those in power who are responsible for the failure to take serious steps to hold human rights abusers accountable for the grave crimes they have committed;
- Sign the Optional Protocol of the Convention Against Torture (OPCAT) in order to strengthen legal accountability for torturers; and
- Immediately release all wrongfully detained and/or imprisoned journalists, and photographers.