The President of the Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights (BYSHR) Mr.Mohammed Al-Maskati yesterday (December 5, 2011) received death threats on social networks (Twitter).
Adel Fleifel-Former official in the security of the state and accused of torturing hundreds in the nineties-broadcast threat to Mr.Al-Maskati and other activists ( Mr.Nabeel Rajeb – President of the Bahrain centre for Human Rights And a member of the Centre Mr. Yousef AlMahafdha)
Fleifel called previously to the formation of armed militias to face the pro-democracy demonstrators.
Members of the Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights are always subject to harassment :
1-Mr. Yousef Abdul rasool – member of the Board of Directors in BYSHR- subjected to harassment and interrogation by security forces in Bahrain International Airport – Friday, December 2 – After his return from participating in a training session with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.
2- Mr.Ahmed Abbas- Member of the BYSHR- authorities are trying to arrest him because the monitoring and documenting human rights violations in the village of Nuwaidrat.
The BYSHR has been a major source of information to international human rights organizations as well as international journalists since the February 14th protests. Members have acted as guides and translators to these organizations and have been documenting cases of human rights violations as observers. The BYSHR has distributed information and restarted its non-violence campaign since then in order to raise awareness on non-violence strategies.
The BYSHR places full responsibility for any harm to the safety and well being of active human rights defenders on the Bahraini Authorities and warns that these calls for liquidation and killing if left without appropriate reaction will set a dangerous precedence and compromise the work of human right defenders. The BYSHR calls on international human rights organizations to approach the Bahraini authorities in regards to this latest development and require guarantees for the safety and security of human rights defenders.
The BYSHR will continue, regardless of these intimidation campaigns, in its work of documenting human rights violations and providing international human rights organizations and journalists with information regarding the human rights situation in the country.
Background:
On March 2011, the President of the BYSHR Mr.Mohammed Al-Maskati has received numerous phone-calls since yesterday evening of threats to his life as well as insults after his personal information, personal mobile number, CPR number, photo and home address were being circulated through blackberry messenger, forums, twitter, facebook by unknown sources. Mr. Najji Fateel, a member of the BYSHR board of Directors and a torture victim as well as Mr. Abdulhadi Alkhawaja, previous regional Coordinator at Frontline and previous President of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights also had their personal information distributed in addition to their car numbers.
