Bahrain dictatorship’s genital torture of teenager

From AhlulBayt news agency in Britain:

Bahraini boy stripped of his clothes & beaten on his genitals

October 4, 2015 – 9:57 AM

The European-Bahraini Organization for Human Rights (EBOHR) said that it received information stating that detainee Khalil Ibrahim Al-Saffar, who suffers from a cerebral laceration, is being tortured in the Criminal Investigation Department.

EBOHR explained in a statement issued on Wednesday (September 23, 2015) that “we received information about the torture detainee Khalil Al-Saffar is being subjected to in the Criminal Investigation Department. He was stripped of his clothes, beaten on his genitals, beaten by batons and plastic cables on his body parts until he fainted and was transferred to the Al-Qala’a hospital.”

The organization further stated that “Khalil was returned to the Criminal Investigation Department after that and was tortured more than once,” adding that “he is being tortured 3 times a day for more than an hour and a half. He is put inside a small cold room that causes him headaches.”

EBOHR published medical reports about Al-Saffar’s cerebral laceration. He underwent a bone grafting surgery on March 16, 2012 and needed another surgery on June 2012. He underwent a third surgery during which they put a plastic piece in his skull to replace the broken one.

Al-Saffar still suffers from bouts of cramps which require him to take medication continuously.

The organization expressed its deep concern about what Al-Saffar is being exposed to and demanded the United States, Britain, United Nations and international human rights organizations to pressure the Bahraini government into releasing him. Al-Saffar was arrested on September 15, 2015, after civilian forces backed by security forces raided his home in Bilad Al-Qadeem.

His family said that he was taken to the Interior Ministry bus after his home was searched and his mobile phone was confiscated. After his mother asked about the reason behind her son’s arrest, one of the civilians told the family that they will interrogate him for an hour and then release him. No one knows anything about him since more than 8 days ago.

A human rights NGO run by Irish lawyers has submitted to the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHCR) that Ireland may be in breach of international law, owing to the Irish Medical Council’s (IMC) decision last December to grant RCSI-Medical University in Bahrain (RCSI-MUB) accreditation. This came amid alleged human rights abuses, including the torture of injured pro-demonstrators and medics who treated them, by the Gulf state’s ruling regime within the training hospitals it uses: here.

Bahraini authorities should immediately release the unjustly imprisoned political opposition leaders Ibrahim Sharif and Sheikh Ali Salman: here.

Washington, D.C.—Human Rights First today called on the U.S. Embassy in Manama to send observers to the trial against opposition leader Ebrahim Sharif, and to publicly state whether the trial meets international legal standards. Sharif, a leader of the peaceful opposition group Waad, is currently on trial in Bahrain for comments made during a speech calling for reform. The next hearing is scheduled for Monday, October 12: here.

Bahrain: Ongoing judicial harassment against Ms. Zainab Al-Khawaja: here.

15,000 US citizens sign bill urging the congress to stop arms sales to Bahrain: here.

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