Calls for immediate investigation as British national tortured
As the extent of the human rights violations continues in Bahrain, more international calls were made in the past few days for an immediate end to the torture practices being adopted by the ruling family against the innocent detainees.
Jaffar Al Hasabi, a UK national, has been severely tortured as was witnessed by his lawyer yesterday. He was hung from his hands, beaten on all parts of his body and deprived of sleep. He has been skinned off near his wrists. He lost the feeling in both hands and feet. He was arrested on his return with his family from Mashhad in Iran where he had gone for pilgrimage. In the past week, the regime’s mouthpieces have published names of photos of innocent Bahrainis, being targeted by the Death Squads for arrest and torture. The practice has been denounced even by those who are operating within the Al Khalifa rules and regulations. Al Wefaq Society issued a statement describing this as “a violation of the honour and rights of those individuals”. Anyone who questions the legitimacy of the imposed Al Khalifa constitution and repressive laws, protest against the, or calls for a new constitution based on the will and participation of Bahraini people is termed “terrorist”. Prominent personalities, including scholars and lawyers have condemned these practices. Semi-independent newspapers have called for an immediate halt to what they termed the “inquisition courts” that is turning the situation in the country decades back.
Meanwhile, glimpses of the torture inflicted on detainees have come to the limelight leading to an international outcry. Human Rights Watch called for an immediate investigation of the claims of torture. “Bahraini authorities should immediately investigate these allegations of torture and guarantee the physical and psychological well-being of the four men,” said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “The attorney general has a legal obligation to throw out any coerced confessions and any evidence obtained by ill-treatment, including information that led to the men’s indictments.” In addition, the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint programme of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) “strongly condemns the cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment that Messrs. Abduljalil Al-Sengais and Abdulghani Ali Issa Al-Khanjar were reportedly subjected to, which seems to only aim at sanctioning their human rights activities, and fears for their physical and psychological integrity. Therefore, the Observatory calls upon the Bahraini authorities to take prompt action in order to immediately and unconditionally release them, and to order an immediate, thorough and impartial investigation into the above-mentioned facts, in order to identify all those responsible, bring them before a competent and impartial tribunal and apply to them the penal sanctions provided by the law.
These calls have come in light of the first assertion by some of the detainees that they had been severely tortured. In his first appearance at the Prosecutor’s office, accompanied by his lawyer for the first time after two weeks in incarceration said “…I was handcuffed and blindfolded the entire time, they beat me on my fingers with a rigid instrument; they slapped me on my ears and I was pulled by my nipples and ears by tongs, and I was hit with a rigid object on my back and that was to force me to sign papers I had no knowledge what was written on them…”
On the ground, the vicious attacks on Bahrain’s Shia community have intensified. In the early hours of Friday 27th August, the Death Squads attacked the several houses in Samaheej town and arrested two Bahraini youth: Habib Isa Habib, 22, and Abdulla yousuf, 17. A similar attack by the foreign-staffed forces at the same time on Sanabis led to the arrest Salman Hassan Zaineddin, 21. Later in the day, Hussain Jaffar, 21, was snatched by these vicious squads. In Tubli, two under-aged children were seized by the heartless forces; Ahmad Salman, 13 and Sayye Nouri, 14. In Malikiyya several people were arrested: Isa Mohammad Hassan, 18, Hassan Mohammad Hassan, Ali Mohammad Bu Hamid, Qassim Ahmad, Marhoon Ali, Mohammad Nooh and Abdulla Hamza.
Bahrain Freedom Movement
2 September 2010