The Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights (BYSHR) expresses its deep concern regarding the violations that have increased due to Formula One in Bahrain, as Bahraini authorities launched a bloody and violent crackdown to prevent protests during the race.

On April 14, the Bahraini authorities have arrested 18 protesters in the village of Bani Jamra, and detainees had been subjected to severe torture during arrest.

Witnesses confirmed that the detainees were screaming loudly after being severely beaten.Eyewitnesses confirmed that the blood was on the ground everywhere.

On April 13, security forces used live ammunition in the villages of Diraz and Sitra, and the BYSHR not received any information about casualties because of the use live ammunition against demonstrators.

Video proves the use of live ammunition (captured in the village of Sitra):

Since April 14, security forces are using birdshot against the demonstrators, and the BYSHR received information confirming wounding more than 10 people in the upper region of the body.

Video proves the use of birdshot (captured in the village of Salmabad):

Video confirms the injured demonstrator Mohamed Ahmed - 15 years – in peaceful demonstrations, and Mohammed has been transferred to the hospital between life and death, and the BYSHR has not received further information about his health condition.

Since April 15 until April 16 in the morning, security forces stormed the villages of Sitra and Ghuraifa and arrested more than 10 demonstrators from the two villages.

The BYSHR received information confirming the arrests took place in other villages also.

On 15 April, security forces arrested a member of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR) Mr.Sayed Yousif Almuhafda and two employees in the Human Rights Watch.The Bahraini authorities have released them later.

The Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights (BYSHR) believes that the security crackdown to prevent any demonstrations against the Formula 1, and the BYSHR calling for the Bahraini authorities to stop oppression and calls for officials of Formula One to cancel the race in Bahrain to protect freedoms.

Bahrain: Set Aside Ruling Against Activist
Judgment Against Leader of Rights Group Violates Freedom of Association
May 14, 2010

(New York) – Bahrain’s criminal court judgment against Mohammad al-Maskati, leader of a human rights group, clearly violates the right to freedom of association and should be revoked immediately, Human Rights Watch said today. Al-Maskati, president of the Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights (BYSHR), was given a heavy fine for operating an unregistered organization, after the government refused it a license.

On May 6, 2010, Bahrain’s Lower Criminal Court fined al-Maskati 500 Bahraini Dinar (BD, US$1325) for operating a nongovernmental organization in violation of the Civil Associations Law, which requires groups to register with the Development and Social Affairs Ministry. The group applied for a license in 2005, but the ministry never responded. The society nevertheless openly carried out activities, including public events and workshops regarding the human rights situation in Bahrain and neighboring states.

“Bahrain’s claim that it respects and promotes human rights is incompatible with this kind of arbitrary restriction against a group that may be critical of official policies,” said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “Mohammad al-Maskati tried to comply with the law, and the authorities responded by punishing him with a large fine.”

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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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Full Report : http://www.hrw.org/node/88201

We’ll go back to the 1990s.

—Ministry of Interior officer to detainee Nadr Ali Ahmad al-Salatne

By the end of the 1990s, Bahrain appeared to have cast off what had been a well-deserved reputation as a country that routinely tortured detainees. The government had taken significant steps to curtail the use of torture and other ill-treatment by its security officials, and reports of such practices became a rarity. This report concludes, however, that since the end of 2007, officials again have used torture and ill-treatment, particularly during the interrogation of security suspects. Human Rights Watch’s conclusion is based on interviews with former detainees and others, as well as its review of government documents.

This reversion to past practices came as political tensions rose in Bahrain. Street demonstrations involving young men from the country’s majority Shia Muslim community protesting alleged discrimination by the Sunni-dominated government deteriorated with increasing regularity into confrontations, sometimes violent, with security forces. Arrests often followed. Security officials appear to have utilized a specific repertoire of techniques against many of those arrested designed to inflict pain and elicit confessions.

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Events of 2009

Bahrain’s government in 2009 continued to subject freedom of expression, assembly, and association to arbitrary restrictions. The year saw increased confrontations between security forces and demonstrators protesting alleged discrimination by the Sunni-dominated government against the country’s majority Shia population. Local rights groups accused authorities of using excessive force against protestors and subjecting detained opposition activists to torture and ill-treatment. In March and April clashes led to the deaths of a Pakistani worker (whose car was hit by a Molotov cocktail) and a Pakistani member of the security forces.

On April 11, Shaikh Hamad Bin Isa al-Khalifa, Bahrain’s king, pardoned 178 opposition activists charged with and in some cases convicted of security-related offenses. However, the decree never appeared in the official gazette, leaving it unclear whether charges and prison terms might be revived.

On November 10, in line with a pledge it had made to the United Nations Human Rights Council, Bahrain established a National Institution for Human Rights, a government body charged with reviewing and developing legislation to comply with international human rights instruments.

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(New York) – Bahrain should immediately begin a thorough and impartial investigation into the abduction and torture of the human rights activist Ja’far Kadhim Ibrahim, Human Rights Watch said today. Men whom Ibrahim believed were working for a Bahraini security agency abducted him on the night of May 7, 2009, and beat him severely with batons.

Ibrahim had been contacting political activists recently released from detention concerning their allegations that they had been subjected to torture and abuse in detention. Nabeel Rajab, president of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights (BCHR), said Ibrahim believes that the men who attacked him are agents of the National Security Apparatus – an official security force – citing their use of walkie-talkies and the batons they used to beat him.

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Bahrain: New Allegations of Detainee Abuse
Rights Group Denied Permission to Visit Detainees with Independent Doctors
(New York, February 16, 2008) – Bahrain should investigate allegations that security personnel have repeatedly abused detained opposition political activists, Human Rights Watch said today.

Human Rights Watch called on the government to allow independent physicians to examine detainees who have alleged abuse including torture and sexual assault.

The detained activists were among dozens arrested following clashes between protesters and security forces in and around the capital, Manama, in December. In one incident, protesters set fire to a police vehicle. Several detainees now face charges including possession of weapons allegedly stolen from the vehicle. In January, relatives of detainees – and also men who had been detained in connection with the clashes and then released – said that interrogators had tortured several detainees and sexually assaulted at least one.

“The silence of Bahraini authorities in the face of multiple complaints of detainee abuse casts doubt on their commitment to the rule of law,” said Joe Stork, Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “Bahrain should immediately allow independent physicians to examine detainees who are alleging abuse.”

The Bahrain Human Rights Society, an independent group which has official permission to operate, said on January 27 that it had asked the public prosecutor for permission to visit the detainees but the authorities refused to allow physicians to take part in the visits.

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Bahrain: Investigate Alleged Torture of Activists
Detainees, Families Report Sexual Assault, Electrocution, Beatings
(New York, January 21, 2008) – Bahrain should investigate allegations that judicial interrogators tortured and in one case sexually assaulted opposition political activists detained after violent protests last month, Human Rights Watch said today. Human Rights Watch also called on the Bahraini government to allow an independent physician to examine detainees who allege abuse and to discipline or prosecute security officials responsible for abusing detainees.

The abuse allegations center on several opposition political activists who were among dozens arrested following confrontations between protesters and security forces in and around the capital Manama in December 2007. The protests, which began on December 17 to mark abuses by security forces during political unrest in the 1990s, grew after the death of one demonstrator following a clash with security forces. In one subsequent incident, according to authorities, protestors set fire to a police vehicle. Several detainees face a range of charges including illegal possession of weapons allegedly stolen from the vehicle.

“Bahrain’s response to allegations of torture against dissidents will show whether it really respects basic human rights,” said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “Bahrain should launch an immediate, thorough and impartial investigation into allegations of grave abuses in detention centers.”

A senior Interior Ministry official on January 17, 2008, denied there had been any mistreatment of detainees. He was quoted as saying that all those alleging abuse had been examined by a forensic physician and none showed any signs of torture. A lawyer representing several of the detainees told Human Rights Watch he had received no response to his request for a second examination by an outside physician.

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