Bahraini medics about being tortured


This video is called Convicted Bahraini medics cry foul.

From the New Zealand Herald:

Bahraini medics tell of torture ahead of retrial

By Richard Hall

5:30 AM Saturday Oct 8, 2011

Bahraini medical workers who were handed lengthy jail terms for their alleged support of pro-democracy protests hope they will get a fair trial now they have had their sentences overturned.

Appearing to buckle under international pressure, Bahrain‘s Attorney-General ordered retrials in a civilian court for the 20 doctors, nurses and paramedics who treated injured protesters during demonstrations against the ruling Sunni al-Khalifa dynasty.

Ali al-Boainain said that “the accused will have the benefit of full re-evaluation of evidence and full opportunity to present their defences”.

The medics were sentenced in a quasi-military court to terms ranging from five to 15 years for alleged offences including the possession of weapons, stealing medical equipment, and “fabricating stories to disturb public security”.

They protested their innocence, saying they were tortured during interrogation to extract false confessions.

Their sentencing provoked outrage from human rights organisations, medical associations and the United Nations, which called for the convictions to be overturned.

Roula al-Saffar, who had been sentenced to 15 years in prison, said told the Independent that the ruling represented a “new start” and called on the authorities to review the cases of other medical professionals who had been convicted of similar charges.

According to the New York Times in the USA, this video is about:

Large numbers of people filled the streets west of Bahrain’s capital, Manama, on Friday as a funeral march for a 16-year-old boy — who activists said was killed by the police — grew into one of the largest demonstrations in the tiny Gulf nation in recent weeks.

Our reporter says police responding to sporadic village protests with tear gas in Bahrain following clashes tonight: here.

2 thoughts on “Bahraini medics about being tortured

  1. Iraqi coach’s son jailed for one year in Bahrain

    On October 7, 2011

    BAGHDAD (AFP) – Bahraini authorities have sentenced a teenage Iraqi footballer to a year in jail and deportation from the Gulf state, the boy’s father, an Iraqi club football coach, told AFP.

    Zulfiqar Naji, 16, was arrested in April accused of taking part in anti-government protests in Bahrain, and was sentenced on Wednesday, Abdelamir Naji said. He pledged to appeal the ruling.

    “The sentence was a year in prison as well as deportation from Bahrain,” Abdelamir told AFP late on Thursday. “We have spoken to a lawyer in Bahrain, who is following up the case to start an appeal against the sentence.”

    “After sentencing, my son was moved to another prison where he will spend the rest of his sentence, after already spending six months in the first jail.”

    Abdelamir added that he had spoken to his son, who “seemed in good spirits.”

    According to Abdelamir, Zulfiqar is a talented footballer who was attending classes at the Sheikh Abdel Aziz school in Manama and trained in the afternoon with the al-Mouharrak football club’s junior team.

    Naji played with Iraq’s Al-Zawra club from 1978 to 1990 before coaching four football sides in Bahrain — al-Mouharrak, al-Itifaq, al-Ittihad and al-Badiyah.

    Tensions between Iraq and the six Gulf Arab states, including Bahrain, rose sharply earlier this year after Sunni-ruled Bahrain secured military support from fellow Gulf Cooperation Council members to smash a month of pro-democracy protests led by the kingdom’s Shiite majority.

    Bahrain’s two airlines have stopped flights to Iraq as part of the rise in tensions.

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  2. Pingback: Bahrain regime tortures, Washington silent | Dear Kitty. Some blog

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