A Voice Recording Exposes the Threat of the Security Men to the Families of the Wanted in Security Cases

11 August 2010

The Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights expresses its deep concern after receiving a voice recording – the BYSHR owns a copy of it – that proves that the Bahraini Security Forces have a permit to damage and destroy the houses of those wanted by the security apparatuses. The recording shows that the First Lieutenant in the Criminal Investigations is threatening a family from Karzakan area with constantly breaking into the house and damaging and destroying it, if their sons continue to flee and not turn themselves in to the security apparatuses. The Lieutenant stressed that he has orders to terrorize the families until his demands are obeyed.

Information indicates that the First Lieutenant Mohammed Al-Saeedi – Criminal Investigations – broke into a house in Karzakan last Sunday, 1 August 2010 at 4 am in the morning, and the mother of those wanted was at home while their father was outside. The Security Forces used vulgar language, as well as destroying the contents of the house.

Information also confirms that the Security Forces also destroyed a house in the area of Karzakan, where the Security Forces broke into the house in search for the wanted and then it turned out that the owner of the house was not at home, and this house is considered unfit for living, and the Security Forces destroyed and damaged its contents[1].

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Bahrain: Court Ruling Disregards Torture Evidence
19 Convicted in Killing Despite Earlier Acquittal, Lack of Evidence, Coerced Confessions
April 30, 2010

(New York) – A Bahrain appellate court’s March 28, 2010 conviction of 19 men on charges of murder and attempted murder badly undermines the government’s claim that it does not tolerate torture, Human Rights Watch said today.

The government had appealed an October 2009 lower court ruling that acquitted the 19 because of the apparent coercion of their confessions and the absence of any other evidence linking the suspects to the death of a security officer. The appellate court made its ruling despite a report by government doctors that found most of the accused men had injuries consistent with their accounts of abusive interrogation techniques.

“This appeals court decision flies in the face of Bahrain’s claim that it has a policy of zero tolerance of torture during interrogation of criminal suspects,” said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “The government hasn’t offered a single shred of evidence linking the defendants to the incident other than these thoroughly discredited confessions.”

The case arose from confrontations between demonstrators and security forces in the village of Karzakan in April 2008, which left an unmarked police vehicle ablaze and resulted in the death of a plainclothes officer, Majid Asghar Ali, a Pakistani working for Bahrain’s Interior Ministry. The Public Prosecution Office said that 17 of the 19 defendants voluntarily confessed to their roles in the incident and implicated the other two. The 17 subsequently recanted their confessions in court, claiming that they had been tortured and coerced into confessing.

Human Rights Watch issued a report in Manama on February 8 documenting the repeated use of painful physical coercion by Bahrain security officers to secure confessions.

On the basis of the torture allegations, the lower court ordered Health Ministry doctors to examine the defendants. The examinations took place in July 2008. In September, the Health Ministry physicians provided a report to the court detailing their findings regarding 28 defendants (the 19 defendants involved in this case and 9 others in a case arising out of a separate incident in Karzakan). The medical report found, among other things, that:

* 17 of the 28 had scars, bruises or both;

* Five had scars or bruises on their wrists caused by “handcuffing this area or being hung from the ceiling as most suspects testify;” and

* The other scars and bruises could have “resulted from beating.”

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15 April 2010

Re: Bahrain – Four human rights defenders sentenced to three years imprisonment

Four human rights defenders who were acquitted in the High Criminal Court in October 2009 after the case against them collapsed when forensic evidence proved police statements to be false, have apparently now been convicted and sentenced by the Court of Appeal. Reports indicate that the human rights defenders, Sadeq Jawad Ahmed Al-Fardan, member of the Committee of the Unemployed; Sayed Omran Hameed Adnan, member of the Committee Against One Percent; Fadhel Abbas Mohamed Ashoor, member of the Committee to Combat High Prices; and Habib Mohamed Habib Ashoor, member of the Committee for Detainees were sentenced on the 28 March 2010 by the Court of Appeals to three years in prison, for the alleged murder of a police officer and the attempted killing of two of his comrades during a riot. The four human rights defenders have not yet been re-arrested.

On 13 October 2009, Sadeq Jawad Ahmed Al-Fardan, Sayed Omran Hameed Adnan, Fadhel Abbas Mohamed Ashoor and Habib Mohamed Habib Ashoor were acquitted on all charges in the aforementioned case by the the High Criminal Court, after a trial that lasted 15 months, in which the scientific evidence and in particular the forensic report had proven that the police statement related to the case was false.

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The Observatory has been informed by reliable sources about the judicial harassment against Messrs. Sadeq Jawad Ahmed Al-Fardan, member of the Committee of the Unemployed, Sayed Omran Hameed Adnan, member of the Committee Against Tax Deduction of One Percent, Fadhel Abbas Mohamed Ashoor, member of the Committee Against High Prices, and Habib Mohamed Habib Ashoor, member of the Committee for the Release of Political Detainees.
The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint programme of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), requests your urgent intervention in the following situation in Bahrain.

According to the information received, on March 28, 2010, the Court of Appeal sentenced Messrs. Sadeq Jawad Ahmed Al-Fardan, Sayed Omran Hameed Adnan, Fadhel Abbas Mohamed Ashoor and Habib Mohamed Habib Ashoor to three years of imprisonment for the premeditating murder of a policeman and the attempted murder of two of his colleagues and rioting, although they were previously acquitted on October 13, 2009 after a 15-month trial as scientific evidence proved their innocence, in particular the forensic report contradicted the testimonies made by police who witnessed the events.

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Due to Releasing the International Report on Torture

The Court of Appeal Revokes the Acquittal

And the Airport Security Detains Mushaima

29 March 2010

The Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights expresses its great concern regarding the Court Appeal revoking the acquittal in the last session on 28 March 2010 issued from the High Criminal Court in Bahrain on 13 October 2009, where the previous ruling reads (excerpts from the ruling):

1. “The court is not reassured that these confessions attributed to the accused, have been issued voluntarily and optionally, and should all be annulled, including the ones they confessed with visual inspection with the knowledge of the Public Prosecution, according to what was stated in Article 233/2 of the Code of Criminal Procedure”.

2. “The court is not reassured with the first and second prosecution witnesses who were with the victim at the time of the event, especially that they did not show how he was injured, and how he left the car or how he was lying on the ground. They, however, mentioned that all the people who attacked the car were masked, and none of them or both of them did not see the defendants at the scene of the event or being arrested, and documentation did not prove that any of the defendants were injured with rubber bullets which they said they shot towards these people, although they decided that the distance that separates between them and the defendants were only 10 metres.”

3. “The chief medical examiner summoned by the court to ask him about the likeliness of the cause of injury of the victims head and which led to his death after falling from the car and hitting the ground, and this caused a fracture in the skull and internal bleeding, as well as the report of the medical examiner that proved that the burns seen on the neck and face of the victim, and left arm is not related to his death, and then the casual relationship between the acts attributed to the defendants and his death are void, especially that the first and second witnesses did not justify the reason for laying on his back while bleeding.”

4. “The report of inspecting the clothes and shoes of the victim by the criminal investigation laboratory technician proved that the clothes were devoid of the gasoline, kerosene and diesel substances and which questions the statements of the previously mentioned witnesses that the Molotov cocktails hit the car or burnt it, if that had happened the spray contents of the flammable petroleum substances of those cocktails would scatter and would lead to the contamination of the clothes of the victims or its traces would appear on the clothes”.

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MORE INFO

A group of youth has been arrested and there are claims of physical attacks or ill-treatment.

Defend International (DI)

in collaboration with

Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights (BYSHR)

Number and Region: Five young men from Karzakan province.

Names: Hassan Ahmed Hassan, Sayed Shbeir Makki, Hassan Mansour Ali, Jafar Abdalnabi Abbas and Hassan Makki Abbas.

Sex: Male

Authorities: Bahraini

Category: Detention / torture or ill-treatment / Judicial proceedings

The case:

Defend International and Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights are deeply concerned by reports that a group of young people has been arrested because of a security incident in the Karzakan province. Reports indicate that the security authorities surrounded the area, from which the demonstration would have take place on Friday, October 19, 2007.

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Bahrain: Authorities arrest young men on the account of security incidents
Random arrests with no legal evidence and claims of physical attacks

Manama, October 27, 2007

Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights (BYSHR) is highly concerned by arresting a group of young people in a security incident in Karzakan province. These security incidents took place in Karzakan area after an invitation from youth in another province for participation at a demonstration against Bahraini government. Authorities besieged the area of the expected demonstration on Friday, October 19, 2007.

The security siege led to clashes between youth and Riot Fighting Forces in different areas. The Ministry of Interior issued a press release and distributed on news papers immediately after those incidents. It mentioned that Security Forces arrested a group of young people while attempting to bomb a vehicle owned by State Security Forces.

A delegation of BYSHR met with the families of the five detainees in Karzakan province to collect more details on the security incidents that led to their detention.

“My son went out of home on his way to a close restaurant to have dinner. At the same moment, there were clashes between security forces and a group of young people,” father of detainee Hassan Ahmed Hassan – 17, employee – said. “My son ran to the nearest house and hid there. But other four persons ran to the same house. So, security forces besieged the house and asked the five young men to get out. They refused for fear that they might be beaten or arrested. So, the liable officer threw a sound bomb inside the house to force them on getting out. Once they got out, Riots Fighting Forces arrested them and attacked them with wooden sticks.”

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