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Bahraini Shia Activists Face Torture |
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Friday, 08 February 2008 |
Bahrainis demonstrated in front of the Manama police headquarters on Friday to demand the release of detained activists who have faced torture and been abused.
A new Human Rights Watch report puts Bahrain among nations that are getting away with human rights violations.
Joe Stork, deputy Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch
said: “Bahrain’s response to allegations of torture against dissidents will show
whether it really respects basic human rights. Bahrain should launch an
immediate, thorough and impartial investigation into allegations of grave abuses
in detention centers.”
Relatives of Maytham Badr al-Shaykh, one of the detainees charged in the
protests, told Human Rights Watch during a brief visit to see him at the Adliyeh
interrogation center in Manama on January 16, he told them that officials had
abused him, including by sexual assault and with electricity.
“He said, ‘On New Year’s evening, they “celebrated” with me. They stripped me
and gave me shocks and stuck something wooden up inside me,’” Al-Shaykh’s
father, Badr al-Shaykh said. “He whispered it to me when the guards allowed me
to embrace him.”
Maytham al-Shaykh's brother, Hani, told Human Rights Watch that Maytham said his
interrogators suspended him by his hands and feet and beat him. “He was weeping
while we were talking, and he said, "They violated my manhood." Both men said
Maytham Badr al-Shaykh had bruises they had not seen in an earlier visit and
appeared disoriented.
Nader al-Salatna, like Maytham al-Shaykh a member of the opposition Committee of
the Unemployed, told Human Rights Watch he had been held in the same facility
before his release on January 10. He said he had been blindfolded and beaten
during interrogations, and on several occasions had been partially stripped and
left outdoors for hours while shackled. At least two detainees in the same
facility told him they had been subject to electric shocks during interrogation,
he said. Some recently released detainees report being pressured to confess to
involvement in theft and possession of weapons in connection with the
destruction of the police vehicle.
The trial of 15 Bahrainis on charges relating to deadly unrest in Shia-populated
areas last December was adjourned on Sunday until February 24 after their
lawyers boycotted a hearing held under strict security, an AFP correspondent
said.
The abuse allegations center on several opposition political activists who were
among dozens arrested following confrontations between protesters and security
forces in and around the capital Manama in December 2007. The protests, which
began on December 17 to mark abuses by security forces during political unrest
in the 1990s, grew after the death of one demonstrator following a clash with
security forces.
Their lawyers boycotted Sunday's hearing after the court session was postponed
from the morning until 3 pm (1200 GMT), which they said was "against the law,
which says that a hearing must be held during official working hours," Hafedh
Hafedh, a spokesman for the lawyers, told AFP.
Because of the boycott the trial was adjourned to February 24.
Shias are a majority in the Gulf kingdom of Bahrain and have faced state
discrimination and marginalisation at the hands of the Al-Khalifa dictatorship.
Khalifa ibn Salman Al Khalifah, uncle of the reigning king, has been the prime
minister of Bahrain since 1970. Human Rights Watch have strongly condemned Al
Khalifa, stating that he has "presided over several decades of severe political
repression in the country, including the systematic torture, arbitrary arrest
and forced exile of political opponents."
Between 1994 and 1999, at least 38 people died in Shia-led protests in the Gulf
archipelago which is the home base for the US Fifth Fleet and was among the
countries visited by President George W. Bush in January.
In his January visit, President Bush praised Bahrain's "pioneering reforms" and
for being at the "forefront of providing hope for people through democracy".
Bush then added that Bahrain and the US shared a common vision for the future of
the Middle East and are, in light of their strong alliance, shouldering the
"burdens and risks of maintaining security, as well as defending freedom
throughout the region."
Source: AIM News
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