(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - Bahrain Center for Human Rights: repression in Bahrain takes new forms and methods and is continuing without stopping through the use of excessive force, torture, sexual harassment and breaking parts of the demonstrators’ bodies.
Bahrain Center for Human Rights started several months ago and continued until the writing of this report documenting the repression and intimidation adopted by Bahraini security forces and which are of new forms and methods and unjustified in order to spread terror among the citizens who participate in marches and peaceful protests; where they recently proceeded to develop a new way of repression by insulting the victims during their arrest, and taking them to isolated places and torturing them [1]; with the aim of getting them injured as much as possible by breaking parts of their bodies. They also continued breaking into homes early mornings and extracting confessions from detainees under torture exactly as stated in the report of the Bahraini Independent Committee of Inquiry [2].
Bahrain Center for Human Rights has investigated many incidents of assault, which proved that the detainees were subjected to torture, sexual harassment and severe beating in number of places and buildings owned by Bahraini authorities, and that are not official detention centers or police stations. One of those places is the old municipal building located in Karzakan, to which large number of detainees of that area and the neighboring areas were taken after their arrest.
Most of the detainees who were held in those places have reported that security forces tortured and beaten them severely, causing many of them having serious injuries, fractures and bruises, before transferring them to official detention centers or throwing them in remote areas. Additionally, some of them had been threatened with rape as well as sexual harassment and other forms of insulting treatment, including attacking their religious beliefs.
Besides, many of the detainees also reported that they were detained and tortured at another site located in Budayia Road, which was a stable of horses owned by the Authority. It was also known that the headquarters of Civil Defense, which belong to the Ministry of Interior and the "Hostels" premises were continuously used for torturing and beating those detained during the attacks on villages [3] to crush the daily peaceful demonstrations, and which are attached with excessive violence and collective punishment by targeting homes with tear gases and other unknown suffocating gases in attempts to prevent the right of peaceful assembly which is guaranteed constitutionally and internationally.
Bahrain Center for Human Rights also monitored a lot of abuses by security forces on demonstrators after their arrest, including children who were tortured in isolated locations [4] in the areas where protests take place; such as houses that are abandoned or under construction, parking garages, and many often in the security cars [5]. It seemed clear that the security forces behave in the same way, in an orderly manner and using similar methods with the different areas [6], which demonstrates the systematically of this work and the practice of torture and severe beatings [7] which is a barefaced violation of the Convention against torture, cruelty and ill-treatment [8]
Bahrain Center for Human Rights received several complaints from lawyers and detainees’ families who had been tortured and severely beaten outside official places of detention, which states that they were prevented from meeting their clients or their detained sons due to the apparent effect of torturing, beatings, bruises and fractures on their bodies. The center also documented testimonies of a group of lawyers about their meetings with their clients who explained to them what they have suffered from torture and beating and which was clearly visible on their bodies despite the passage of long period since their detention.
Many of the detainees who have been subjected to torture outside the official detention centers, spent periods at the hospital of the Bahraini Ministry of Interior to receive treatment from injuries, fractures, and bruises, and away from their families and their lawyers. They were also prevented from contacting them for varying periods, while some were allowed to call for a short period that does not allow the families to be reassured about their sons’ health or place of detention.
In this case, the young man Mohammed Ibrahim Yacoub, 19 years old, had died just hours after his arrest on January 27, 2012, after being beaten in the yard near the police station in (Sitra), according to what was reported by three witnesses, who provided their testimony at the court saying that they saw Yacoub was beaten in the street by a group of 15-20 policemen who kicked him in the stomach and chest [9]. Also, bruises and cuts were seen on different parts of his body before his burial [10]. While the Ministry of Interior did not take any action against the aggressors and is insisting that the cause of Yacoub’s death was sickle cell anemia [11] -.
Bahrain Center for Human Rights believes that the increasing cases of torture outside police stations is an attempt to avoid accountability, especially by higher rank police officers and officials of the police centers. Bahrain center for Human rights shows great concern from the silence of the Public Prosecution and its complicity with the torturers and covering up the crime. Instead of accounting the offenders from the security forces, the public prosecution deliberately does not record the injuries and the effects of torture, nor open an investigation about the torture. In many cases it deliberately records the injuries apparent on the detainees bodies as being the result of the detainee resistance to the security forces during the arrest, which are denied by the detainees or witnesses who were able to see many cases of violent arrests and where the arrested was peaceful while he was attacked by large numbers of security forces without justification.
It also expresses its concern about the Bahraini government postponement of a visit of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on torture for the second time after he was supposed to attend in March 2012, which seems deliberate to continue hiding the signs of torture and its effects.
Based on all of the above, Bahrain Center for Human Rights calls for the following:
- Adherence of the authorities in Bahrain to the Treaty Against Torture, ratified by year 98.- Stopping all forms of torture and insulting treatment and investigating with all the accused of torture and bringing them to justice.- Stopping the Bahraini authorities from the adoption of the manner of impunity with those accused of committing crimes against humanity and human rights, including the crime of systematic torture.- The closure of all torture and detention centers that appeared recently, including those mentioned above in the report and the impartial investigation of all the incidents that occurred there.- Stopping the general prosecution from the concealment and collusion with the accused of torture and to allow the families of the detainees and their lawyers to meet with them immediately after their arrest and to know their places of arrest.- Allowing the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture to visit Bahrain immediately and urgently, as well as the concerned human rights organizations, and to stop putting obstacles to their work.
Photos and testimonies of torture
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[1]youtube.com/watch?v=Tuq-9HHsowE[2]bici.org.bh/BICIreportAR.pdf[3]youtube.com/watch?v=V1KcUw7ToKw[4]youtube.com/watch?v=wF5YctCN2XU[5]youtube.com/watch?v=p-cvaTr16H0[6]youtube.com/watch?v=_VuHVPKtk0A[7]youtube.com/watch?v=jXgJAAjjaB4[8]unicef.org/arabic/crc/files/C_Ag...[9]alwasatnews.com/3433/news/read/6..[10]bahrainrights.hopto.org/en/node/4999[11]youtube.com/watch?v=iEjzelKQlE0
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