Bahraini authorities said that they installing video cameras in police stations to prevent torture and ill-treatment of detainees, But the cameras, introduced after an inquiry by Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI).

BICI Report: (1722/G)- “There should be audiovisual recording of all official interviews with detained persons”

The Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights (BYSHR) monitored in recent months, cases of allegations of torture took place in the informal centers of riot police, But the detainees said yesterday (March 28, 2012) that they had been tortured in the police station in Isa Town.

The BYSHR met with victims of torture and ill-treatment in the village of Nuwaidrat and confirmed that they were tortured in the “Isa Town Police Station”.

@Isa Town Police Station

“I was beaten, insulted and spit on my face by the policeman at the police station” Mr.Makki Said, Was released after interrogation.

@Mr. Makki

“During the investigation, the officer running the video camera to record the investigation, but minutes later, police closed the video camera and hit me, then he operated the camera again” Mr.Mohammed Said, Was released after interrogation.

@Mr. Mohammed

OFF-CAMERA BEATINGS:

The Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights (BYSHR) documented allegations of torture of approximately 100 demonstrators informal centers of riot police.

Informal Centers:

1-Chivalry Club ( In the Budaiya)
2-Municipal building ( In the village of Demistan)
3-Sport club ( In the village of Al-Aker)
4-Youth hostels ( In the village of Sanabis)

The Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights (BYSHR) expresses its deep concern due to torture of demonstrators and demanded an immediate investigation into these allegations.

Mr.Mirza Fadel al-Obeidi -22 years old – died today morning (March 10, 2012) in International Hospital of Bahrain.

As witnesses told Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights (BYSHR) that Mirza Was participating in a peaceful protest in the village of AlDiraz on March 1, 2012. Mirza shot directly with tear gas canister from Bahrain Security forces when they used excessive force against the demonstrators and he had been beaten after being shot.

He was transferred to the International Hospital of Bahrain and he has been conducting a surgery in the head.

BYSHR is urging the authorities in Manama to start an investigation and bring the perpetrators to justice.

In 2011, after the authorities cracked down on protests in the Pearl Roundabout, King of Bahrain announced the National Safety Law (Emergency Law), and Bahrain has gone through serious violations of human rights.

Weeks before the first anniversary of the protests, the specter of the National Safety Law – Emergency Law – back again:

1) According to information the Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights (BYSHR), authorities arrested more than 100 people since last January, during the arrest, the security forces, and forces in civilian clothes – masked men – stormed the house and did not show the permission of the Attorney General.The BYSHR documented allegations of torture.

2) A number of prominent journalists have reported on Twitter that they have been denied access to Bahrain in the run-up to the anniversary of the pro-democracy protests on February 14.Nick Kristof and Adam Ellick of the New York Times, Gregg Carlstrom of Al Jazeera, Cara Swift of the BBC and Kristen Chick of the Christian Science Monitor are among those who have been denied entry to Bahrain.

3) A number of prominent international human rights monitors, including Human Rights First’s Brian Dooley, Physicians for Human Rights’s Richard Sollom and Freedom House, were denied entry to Bahrain.

4)The Ministry of Interior returned checkpoints in some areas.

5) The riot police using the shotgun again in the suppression of protests in some areas.

6) The Health Ministry issued a memorandum to the private hospitals require them to inform the security authorities of the injured and wounded, and will be taking legal action against the offending hospital.

7) The Army used barbed wire to close the areas near the Pearl Roundabout.

The Bahraini security forces yesterday (December 24, 2011) detained three demonstrators, and were subjected to brutal torture.

The Security forces used batons and wooden sticks.

The Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights (BYSHR) interviewed them yesterday.

Additional details:

Dozens of protesters took part in the march (Village of Karzakan).At 5 pm, security forces arrested three protesters.

Security forces detained them in a building belonging to the Ministry of the Interior.

Had been tortured for two hours and then were released.

Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights (BYSHR) expresses its deep concern due to torture of demonstrators and demanded an immediate investigation into these allegations

The Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights (BYSHR) welcomes the committee assigned to investigate human rights violations that occurred since February and until today, but the BYSHR emphasizes that mechanisms should be created to uncover the truth, give the victims justice and prepare for a genuine reconciliation with the victims.

The BYSHR believes that the committee should also practice the role of holding the responsible persons accountable, especially that there are still human rights violations in Bahrain, such as repressing gatherings, torture allegations, arbitrary arrests and holding the responsible accountable would prevent them from violating human rights.

The Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights (BYSHR) in coordination with organisations working with human rights locally and regionally will play the role of supervisory on the work of the committee, especially since the BYSHR has already documented cases that have occurred since February and until now.

The BYSHR requests from the committee to investigate the following violations:

1. Torture and ill-treatment in prison, checkpoints, investigation committees in private and public companies, ministries and during arrest.
2. Arbitrary arrest.
3. Targeting the civilian society organisations, and political parties.
4. Targeting local human rights organisations and punishing human rights defenders.
5. Utilising the local media against a certain sector.
6. Unfair dismissal from work (companies, ministries, schools and universities).
7. Withdrawing scholarships at home and abroad.
8. Targeting places of worship.
9. Suppressing protests and rallies that relate to political reform, and targeting religious processions.
10. Targeting health centres, the Salmaniya hospital and the use of ambulances for transporting security forces.
11. Ill-treatment of wounded protestors.
12. Racial discrimination.
13. Targeting migrant workers.
14. Discrimination in employment.
15. Targeting and attacking educational buildings.
16. The use of internationally prohibited weapons (allegations of using nerve gas) and shotguns.
17. Collective punishment on villages and families of the detainees.
18. The use of military courts.
19. The death of four citizens in custody.
20. The death of citizens during protest crackdowns.
21. The use of GCC forces to quell protests.
22. The targeting of children.
23. The targeting of women.
24. Preventing citizens from leaving the country.
25. Targeting local and foreign journalists and prohibiting some journalists from entering the country.
26. Targeting security men.
27. The corruption of security men.
28. Targeting trade unions and punishing trade union members.
29. Unfair trials.

The Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights (BYSHR) affirms that since the 14th of February and until now there have been serious human rights violations, and that the responsible persons should be held accountable for these violations and should not be allowed to escape their punishments.

The Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights (BYSHR) demands that the committee should prepare periodic reports to expose the human rights violations transparently and credibility, and that the committee should be independent and unbiased in order for its reports to be in the protections, promotions and provide justice for the victims of human rights violations.

http://www.change.org/petitions/view/immediate_investigation_of_torture_in_bahrain

RIGHTS groups yesterday demanded access to inmates who launched a hunger strike at Bahrain’s central prison on Sunday.

The inmates at Jaw Prison are understood to be demanding personal items such as razors, extended exercise periods and cell doors to be left open until midnight.

One rights group said prison visits had been cancelled as a result of the protest and accused guards of using heavy-handed tactics to bring inmates under control on Monday.

However, the Interior Ministry yesterday branded inmates’ demands as “illegal” and said police had no choice but to use force to prevent a riot.

“Some of the inmates went on a hunger strike and refused to listen to direct orders,” the ministry said in a statement.

“Police tried to use peaceful and modern methods to control the situation before it escalated and to restore order, but there was no positive response from the inmates.

“They refused to listen to reason and they started breaking chairs and tables in the dining area to use as sharp objects in order to fight the policemen.

“Their demands are illegal because they consisted of keeping the cell doors open until midnight, extending exercise hours until late at night and allowing them to possess dangerous tools such as shaving razors.”

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Welcoming the Interrogation of the Security Men in the Torture Case

Interrogating them In Order to Cover Up on the Previous Torture Cases

10 May 2010

The Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights welcomes the Public Prosecution demand published in the Bahraini Al-Wasat newspaper[1] to interrogate the security men who were accused by a Bahraini citizen of subjecting him torture to make a forced confession in a robbery case. The public defender Abdul-Rahman Al-Sayed sent a letter to the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Interior for Legal Affairs for the interrogation.

The BYSHR believes that interrogating the security men in the torture case – mentioned above – is in order to cover up on former torture cases indicated by the local and international organizations, especially torturing the defendants of security cases.

One of the lawyers of BYSHR had stated earlier that the lawyers and since 2007 had filed complaints to the committee of human rights at the Ministry of Interior on torture, and the Ministry of Interior refuses to inform the public opinion, local and international organizations, lawyers and victims, of the steps it took to carry out the interrogation and the results it reached.

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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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A Video Showing the Effects of Torture on a Saudi Citizen by the Bahraini Security Authorities

12 February 2010

The Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights expresses its deep concern regarding the video it received of a Saudi citizen being tortured by the security apparatuses; the Saudi citizen had been accused in a criminal lawsuit in Bahrain and he was in provisional detention in the “Dry Dock” prison.

Information received by the BYSHR indicates that the Saudi citizen was arrested in Bahrain on criminal charges, and he was kept in the “Dry Dock” prison for 45 days, where he faced severe torture by the security forces and due to that he was transferred to the hospital for treatment from injuries [1].

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