AhlulBayt News Agency

source : al Wefaq
Tuesday

3 January 2012

8:30:00 PM
288504

Al-Wefaq: Authorities circumventing and manipulating, Release of detainees should be immediate

In its response to the Supreme Judicial Council's statement, in which it neglected the Bassiouni findings of human rights violations, al-Wefaq opposition party issued a statement denouncing the unjust statement, accusing the authorities of manipulating verdicts.

(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - Al-Wefaq Considered that "the authorities are persisting in prolonging the suffering of the victims of the gross violations through the maze of committees and subcommittees, while the decisions of the violations were taken at lightning speed and at highest levels, particularly the detainees and the unjustly fired employees".

In its statement issued, the main Bahraini opposition party said that "the continuation of detaining citizens in cases related to political background and to their right of speech reflects the persistence of the authorities to prolong the crisis and their lake of intention to find effective political solutions to fix it, stressing that the statements judgments issued by the Authority to review the final was a statement for media consumption only".

Moreover, al-Wefaq believed that the statement clarifies that these assurances are unrealistic unless they result in immediate and unconditional release of all detainees, with the call of the High Commissioner of Human Rights.
Al-Wefaq also indicated that the said statements "talk about establishing a committee to study and look, while the Bassiouni report confirmed that all defendants didn't get any grantees and their accusations were related to the right of speech and the right of peaceful rallying, therefore there is only a need to a political decision that benefits almost all defendants whether they are already sentenced with final judgments or their cases are still pending in court, this decision shall be implemented by fast and urgent administrative procedures, especially that the arrest, interrogation and the sentencing didn't take in major case, the figures case, more than few days. Therefore forming committees and subcommittees is only to manipulate and stall the victims of the judiciary".

Also, al-Wefaq added in its statement, "There is no specific identification to the concept of the accusations the President of the Court of Cassation was talking about, and whether it will include all victims who had been tried based on texts identified explicitly by the report as being used to suppress the opposition or it will be selective, which is the most likely as the biggest challenge will be to cancel the provisions that were issued under the Article 178 / sanctions."

Al-Wefaq criticized the statement, stressing that "they said number of lawyers said, before the verdicts, that the applications of the texts indicated in Bassiouni report to that extent is contracting the international convections and Bahrain constitution, this defense wasn't new but no one listened. The verdicts were issued without the need of the prosecution to prove the evidences of the alleged crimes, the lawyers are still sticking to that defense before the courts in the ongoing cases but it is not read, which means there is a deep defect in the judiciary that would not have been remedied if there is no committee under a pressure cover and international anticipation to implement the recommendations. The judiciary wasn't willing to hear the lawyers or read the defenses of the victims".

In addition, the major Bahraini opposition assured "the courts after issuing the report are still sentencing the victims with harsh verdicts in cases related to the right of speech and the right of peaceful rallying, no week passes by without a number of victims whose right of freedom and physical integrity are being violated by these verdicts. Many verdicts had been corroborated by the Court of Cassation, which is considered by the judiciary as the one who established the principles of punishing the citizens for practicing their right of speech and peaceful rallying, this approach continued even after the release of Bassiouni report."

"shall the victims of authorities' violations wait while some are in jail or banned from travel or work until the issuance of the final verdicts to be reviewed by the commission, can this be wise?" al-Wefaq further wondered in the statement.
"What weren't clarified by the President of Court of Cassation, and as Vice President of the Supreme Judicial Council, are the actions taken against the judicial officials, from prosecutors and judges, who are responsible of the violations of the citizens, by unjustly imprisoning them or issuing systematical verdicts to suppress the opposition. They are returning to the judiciary as if these violations were not accounted by them despite the clear identifications mentioned in Bassiouni report", the statement also read.

It went on to say that any honest implementation of the recommendations should include holding accountability those who are responsible of the violations that are mostly attributed to the judiciary and its members.

Addressing the international community, al-Wefaq opposition party held it the responsibility of demanding the authorities to terminate the suffering of Bahrain citizens and stop all forms of human rights violations.

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