AhlulBayt News Agency

source : FNA
Tuesday

19 July 2011

7:30:00 PM
254582

Ayat Al-Qurmezi to Continue Resistance against Al-Khalifa despite Severe Tortures

Ayat Al-Qurmezi, a 20-year-old female Bahraini human rights activist who was arrested by Manama security forces for reading a poem criticizing the Bahraini prime minister, stressed that the severe tortures she has experienced in detention have failed to discourage her from continuing resistance against the al-Khalifa dynasty.

(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - Ayat Al-Qurmezi, a 20-year-old female Bahraini human rights activist who was arrested by Manama security forces for reading a poem criticizing the Bahraini prime minister, stressed that the severe tortures she has experienced in detention have failed to discourage her from continuing resistance against the al-Khalifa dynasty.    
 
"The security forces whipped me in the head and face without any mercy and they used electric shock to torture us so badly that they sent us to coma," Qurmezi told on Tuesday.

Meantime, she stressed the security forces' wild treatments and tortures may not dissuade her from continued resistance against the tyrannical rulers of Bahrain.

She said that she recited her poems in a bid to play a role in the materialization of the rights of the oppressed Bahraini people, and underlined that she would continue doing so.

Qurmezi also revealed that her remarks broadcast by the Bahraini state-run TV in which she regretted her past doings were made under the pressure of the Bahraini security forces, and underscored that she does not believe in apology to the al-Khalifa regime.

Ayat Al-Qurmezi was arrested on March 30 for reciting a poem critical of the government and cursing the current prime minister Khalifa ibn Salman Al Khalifa during the pro-democracy protests in Pearl Square, the main gathering place for demonstrators, in February.

She was forced to give herself up after police raided her parents' house and made four of Ayat's brothers lie on the floor at gunpoint. She was not there at the time. One policeman shouted at their father to "tell us where Ayat Al-Qurmezi is or we will kill each of your sons in front of your eyes".

During her detention she was whipped across the face with electric cable, held for nine days in a tiny cell with the temperature near freezing, and was forced to clean lavatories with her bare hands. Some reports say that Ayat was also threatened with rape. On June 21, beaten down by her abuse, Ayat made a televised apology to the king and the prime minister

She was charged with incitement, and insulting members of the royal family. On 12 June, 2011, She was sentenced to one year in prison by a security court without any legal argument or her lawyer being allowed to speak, said a family member present at the trial.

On 13 July, Ayat Al-Qurmezi was suddenly released and hundreds of people gathered nearby her house in Sadad to welcome her nearby her. However, her sentence has not been revoked. Her family fear that she might be re-arrested, as she has not been pardoned and her release was not the result of an appeal against her one-year sentence.

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