The excessive use of tear-gas in neighborhoods by the Bahraini regime forces has caused suffocation amongst residents. On March 17th, 2014, Jawad Hawi died due to being exposed to large amounts of tear-gas when regime forces were attacking neighborhoods in Sitra island, south to the capital Manama.
The LHRD also documented 228 home raids during the month, all of which the households confirmed security forces’ failure to present legal authorization to enter the homes. The households said the security forces forcefully broke into their homes conducting what the Bassiouni report described as “terror-inspiring” raids.
The families also complained of vandalism and confiscation of private belongings by the security forces during the raids. However, no legal warrant or notice of seizure was handed to the households as proof for police confiscations. It is worth mentioning that a number of households have filed complaints at police stations and the Ombudsman office, as well as the Special Investigations Unit but they have not received any response. Many citizens therefore find filing complaints to these institutions useless.
In regards to arrests, the LHRD was able to document 187 arrests, including 17 children and 3 women. Some families confirmed that their sons or relatives were subjected to forms of degrading treatment during arrest.
117 of the total arrests took place during home raids, while 28 were arrested from streets, 28 from checkpoints, 6 at the borders and 4 from workplaces. Only one arrest was through a summons and 3 through other ways.
During the month, the LHRD documented 12 cases of torture and mistreatment, mostly severe beating during arrest in what the victims described as a retaliative manner. We mention two cases in this report:
Case no.1- a 15 year old victim: during the security forces’ crackdown on a peaceful march in a village on Budiya street, two protesters ran for shelter in a house. They were severely beaten by the forces who raided the house. One of them fell unconscious after his head began to bleed after he was hit with the back of a gun. The forces arrested the second victim who was also suffering from the wounds he sustained from the beating and knife-cutting. The arrested victim said he was subjected to electric shocks inside the police car for a one hour. After that, he said, the forces took him to a remote area where they took turns in beating him. One policeman beat the victim with a hammer on his arm causing a deep wound.
Case no.2- a 60 year old man: according to the victim, on his way back home, he passed through a checkpoint on Budaiya street. A police officer stole an amount of money from him. The victim then complained to the officer/commander in charge at the checkpoint. The commander slapped the man on his face and said to him, “If you don’t get out of here, we’ll hurt you”, he then said, “don’t try and run over the police” meaning to warn the man that he will be accused with attempting to run over the police.
In at least 19 cases, the regime forces vandalized private property, mostly by firing tear-gas grenades on civilian cars. In one case, a religious foundation was attacked by tear gas grenades making the place go on fire. This is the second such attack on this building in less than 6 months.
It is worth mentioning that there has been a rise in attacks on religious places in the past few months. Most recently, the Ma’tam Sanabis was attacked during a religious event inside on March 23rd, 2014. A video footage recorded an armored vehicle stopping right in front of the Ma’tam’s door and shooting tear gas grenades inside.
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Source: Alwefaq