AhlulBayt News Agency

source : Press TV
Thursday

12 January 2012

8:30:00 PM
290454

Bahrain urged to release ill teenager

Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR) has demanded the immediate release of a detained teenager accused of taking part in “illegal” gatherings.

(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - The human rights organization issued a statement on Thursday, saying that the BCHR “will hold the Bahraini regime responsible for any deterioration” in Ameer Abdul Samad Fathi's health.

Bahraini police arrested the 15-year-old on January 2 “from his home” in the town of Muharraq, about 7 kilometers (4.5 miles) northeast of the capital Manama, despite his chronic illness, the BCHR said.

Regime forces arrested several other teenagers on the same day in Muharraq. The youths have been accused of participating in “illegal gathering,” the statement added.

Bahraini demonstrators continue protests against the ruling Al Khalifa regime despite its violent crackdown.

Many health workers, teachers, opposition figures and human rights activists are still facing trial or serving prison terms over participation in anti-government demonstrations in Bahrain.

On Wednesday, the trial of five policemen accused of torturing to death two detainees was postponed to January 30 by a Bahraini military court.

Amnesty International said on Friday that reports about the torture of an 18-year-old student, Hassan Oun, in detention by Bahraini police “is yet another blow to Bahrain's promises of reform.”

The Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI) issued a report on November 23, 2011, saying that the Manama regime had used “excessive force, including the extraction of forced confessions against detainees” in their attempts to choke the demonstrations in the country.

Amnesty International's Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui said on Friday, “Every new case of abuse of protesters makes a mockery of the BICI findings. The Bahraini authorities need to show that they are going to take human rights seriously and must reign in their security forces.”

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