“Despite reluctance of many people to document the torture, and cruel and degrading treatments that they have suffered from, fearing detention and pursuit, the Liberties and Human Rights Department (LHRD) in Al Wefaq was able to observe 144 case of torture outside prisons in 2013, this included 28 children”, this is taken from the 2013 human rights report released by Al Wefaq National Islamic Society in May 2014.
The report clarified in regards to the number of torture cases inside the prison, “The LHRD does not hold comprehensive statistics due to various technical obstacles including the difficulty to reach the victims and speak to them. What the LHRD holds is a documentation of some cases depending on the testimonies of relatives of some victims who were released, or testimonies of some detainees who met those victims, and which are a total of 53 cases, or depending on the statements made by some victims or their lawyers about being tortured while appearing before the public prosecution or while being present at court hearings. This was revealed by media which monitored the proceedings of those trials and they are approximately 306 persons”.
The report came across the objectives and forms of torture used in Bahrain.
A) The objectives of torture:
The information collected by the LHRD indicates that the security men, in most cases, exercised torture or cruel or degrading treatment in systematic manner aiming to accomplish certain objectives related to suppression of the opposition political movement and was not an accidental behavior practiced by one or some of them for purposes related to personal motives or as a reaction to the nature of what he suffered during inadvertent with the some of the protestors, and that the Bahraini authorities resorted to accomplish the following two objectives from practicing torture, and cruel and degrading treatment:
1) Punishment and deterrence
Cases of torture outside the prison show that the security agencies chase protestors during their barbaric offensive on the peaceful demonstrations in villages and areas, arrests some of them and in other instances arrests any person that they encounter in their way who can be distinguished as Shia whose community form the majority of masses of the opposition political movement, and in most cases deliberately transfer him to a remote locations in the same area, or to places that are difficult for the residents to witness the assault that the person suffers instead of transferring him directly to the official police stations, and then intentionally expose them to torture and cruel and degrading treatment.
This behavior indicates that Bahraini authorities believe that they are capable of forming a
deterrent on their political opponents to engage in any activity that is considered by the authority relevant to the political opposition movement and supportive to it, and on any person who document its violations for media or juridical purposes by exposing some of them to severe torture or cruel and degrading treatment, and in most cases releasing him with bodily injuries that substantiate what he suffered to send a message to others that their fate will be exposure to this punishment in case they continue their opposing movement as part of its endeavor to encircle and stifle the popular protests.
The methods of torture or cruel treatment used by the Bahraini authorities varied in cases
of torture outside the prison which was observed by the LHRD during 2013, but they were all characterized by severe effects on the bodies and moralities of the victims, though they caused cuts, bruises and fractures and sometimes disability.
It should be noted that the LHRD observed, since the beginning of 14th February 2011 protests, 15 death cases with signs that they occurred because of torture including 5 cases outside the prison.
Most of the cases that the LHRD was able to document looked identical in terms of repetition of many practices and violations which embodies the intensification in harm by the security services. The victim’s suffering story begins, in most cases, when he is handcuffed, blindfolded and taken to a certain place by the police forces, then he is tortured by using batons and pieces of flexible water hoses in beating him vigorously on all parts of his body, and in some cases the focus would be on certain areas of the body such as knees or head or abdomen or back or penis in addition to slapping, kicking and hitting on the victim’s body. This causes fracture and bruises in several areas of the body, and in many cases those actions led to bleeding from head, nose and mouth, and deep wounds of lips and eyes. The numerous torture operations have also led to serious health complications in the victim’s digestive apparatus due to direct and continuous kicking on the abdomen.
Those victims faced degrading treatment of dignity and humanity by those forces, for they were, in addition to the physical torture that they were suffering, subjected to verbal insults, disgusting words and sectarian abuse as well as numerous kinds of offenses related to social, religious and political affiliation of those abducted. Also, some of them faced sexual harassment and threat of rape and murder, and in most cases the victims are dumped and they are found by individual abandoned on the ground in a pitiful condition, and a small number of these victims are taken to the official police stations where they are detained and accused of crimes relevant to the political opposition movement against the authorities such as rioting and assault on security men.
2) Extraction of confessions
The torture cases that occur inside the prison show that the security services resort to torture most of the time to force the detainees who are charged with serious accusations such as killing of one of the security men or formation of secret cells which the authorities declare discovering them from time to time, and propagates that their members were planning to carry out big violent acts, and those who are arrested during raids on their houses or places where they are present to force those detainees to confess committing these charges. These victims confirm that the confessions which are presented in the case dossier after transferring them to the court, are either attributed to them by forcing them under torture to sign documents in which these confessions, which are not their statements, are written or were forced to make these confessions before the public prosecutor after being dictated to them. Some were even forced to sign blank white papers and a few of the detainees were forced to record televised confessions.
In support of the bureau’s opinion about the methodology and objectives of the torture as concluded by BICI report that regarded that some cases of torture were aiming to “In some cases this practice was aimed at extracting confessions and statements by duress, while in other cases such mistreatment was intended for the purposes of retribution and punishment. On the basis of the Commission‘s investigation, it finds that the National Security Agency and Ministry of Interior followed a systematic practice of physical and psychological mistreatment
B) Types of torture:
From the information collected by the LHRD about torture inside the prison we can conclude that types of torture that the victims were exposed to are classified into three types according to the bureau’s observation and the complaints it received; they are:
1) Physical abuse
This includes various practices such as electrocution, slapping, hitting, punching on the face, continuous beating on top and back of the head, beating with batons, flexible water hoses or canes on different parts of the body, focusing on certain part of the body and beating on it by batons, specially the knee, in order not to leave visible bruises on the body, kicking with focus on the abdominal area in order not to leave visible bruises on the body, forcing the victim to stand for long periods on daily basis and sometimes standing on one leg, prevention of using the bathroom for long periods, sleep deprivation for long periods, denial of eating and drinking for long periods, burning with cigarettes or lighter, blindfolding and handcuffing very tightly as a result of which the victim feels lack of sensation in his hand because of the airtight handcuffs for long periods.
2) Psychological abuse
It includes several practices: solitary confinement, personal abuse and yelling, insulting the religious sect to which the victim belong, irony of the victim’s beliefs and religious practices, sarcasm of the physique, urinating on the victim, using barking dogs during the interrogation, treat of rape, threat to rape wife and dependents, threat to kill, prevention from praying, torturing others near them to hear their screams and sufferings for the purpose of intimidation and deprivation from meeting their families for a period of time.
3) Sexual assault
Like: denudation for the purpose of humiliation, touching sensitive areas of the victim’s body, insertion of solid materials in the anus and tying penis strongly.
It should be noted that most of these methods are similar to those observed by the BICI report in chapter 4 (treatment of prisoners and detainees) in the subject (techniques used during questioning and interrogation.
/129