Dutch government helps Bahraini torture regime

Translated from Dutch NOS TV today:

‘Deported Bahraini sentenced to life imprisonment without a fair trial‘

A Bahraini asylum seeker who has been deported by the Netherlands has been sentenced to life imprisonment without a fair trial in his native country. Amnesty International and the Refugee Foundation report this, based on conversations with his family and lawyer.

The citizenship of 27-year-old Ali Mohammed al-Showaikh was also taken away and he was fined 1000 euros.

Brother

Showaikh fled to the Netherlands in 2017 because he was afraid of reprisals because of the political activities of his brother. He received no asylum and last October he had to return to Bahrain.

There, according to Amnesty, he was arrested and jailed on arrival without confidential access to a lawyer. He is said to also have signed a confession under pressure and was tortured. Last Thursday he was convicted on the basis of “broadly and vaguely formulated terrorism legislation“.

Human rights violation

Amnesty and the Refugee Foundation say that the Netherlands is guilty of a serious human rights violation, because Showaikh was sent back while “it is known how Bahrain deals with relatives of political activists“.

Since 2016, the human rights situation has deteriorated and more than 150 critics or their family members have been subjected to severe repression, Amnesty reported earlier.

NRC daily has asked the Immigration and Naturalization Service (IND) to respond to this life imprisonment, but the IND says they “never go into individual cases.”

Dutch goverrnment criticized about this: here.