…source

Global campaign for release of former Kent student

By Steve Knight, chief county reporter Saturday, September 3, 2011
8:00 AM

Scholars from around the world are campaigning for the safe release of a former University of Kent student imprisoned in Bahrain.

Professor Masaud Jahromi, who graduated in 2001 with a PhD in telecommunication networking, was arrested on April 14 this year but has yet to be charged with any offence despite spending almost five months behind bars.

The married father-of-one, who is currently chairman of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Ahlia University’s College of Mathematical Sciences and Information Engineering in Bahrain, also suffers from Hepatitis C and has allegedly been refused treatment by his captors.

Eager to raise awareness of Prof Jahromi’s plight is the international Scholars at Risk (SAR) organisation, which exists to promote academic freedom and to defend the human rights of scholars worldwide.

A large number of British universities are members of the network, including the University of Kent.

SAR executive director Robert Quinn said: “Since his arrest, Prof Jahromi was reportedly held in an undisclosed location and initially had no communication with his family.

“According to reports, the police broke into his house in the middle of the night, threatened and harassed members of his family, confiscated the family’s laptops and beat Prof Jahromi. We understand now he was initially brought to AlGalaa prison and later transferred to Dry Dock Prison.

“He has yet to be informed of the charges against him. A date for his hearing has not yet been set in spite of the fact he has been detained for more than four months – in apparent disregard for international standards of due process, fair trial and detention.”

Based at New York University, Scholars at Risk was launched as part of the University of Chicago’s human rights programme in 1999. …more

Unjustly detained blogger, on hunger strike, could die in prison
Published on Saturday 3 September 2011 – by français Partager – Reports without Borders

The international press freedom NGO Reporters Without Borders is very worried about the fate of the blogger Maikel Nabil Sanad and calls for his immediate and unconditional release in order to preserve the democratic nature of Egypt’s political transition.

Freeing the first prisoner of conscience since the revolution would be a powerful symbolic gesture, one that the entire international community would see as a sign of a commitment to openness.

Sanad, who began a hunger strike on 23 August, is now refusing to drink and already has heart problems. Detained since March, his physical condition is very alarming and needs urgent intervention.

“While Sanad’s hunger strike is a personal decision, the authorities are responsible for the cause, an unjust and anti-democratic political imprisonment,” Reporters Without Borders secretary-general Jean-François Julliard said. “If he does not resume drinking, he could very soon die in detention and the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces would have to take full responsibility. Held for exercising his right to freedom of expression, Sanad must not become the symbol of a repressive and unjust post-Mubarak Egypt.”

Aged 25, Sanad was arrested by military police on the night of 28 March and was tried by a military court, which sentenced him to three years in prison on 10 April on charges of insulting the armed forces, publishing false reports and disturbing public order.

Neither his family nor his lawyer has been able to see him of late. He used to be allowed one visit a week that this has been reduced to two visits a month. …source

Candle vigil for martyred Ali Al Sheikh Jawad
Shiapost – September 3, 2011

Candle vigil was organized in Sitarah for martyred Ali Al Sheikh Jawad. Thousands took part in the candle vigil, several other candle vigils were organized in other villages at the same time as the one in Sitrah. Ali Al Sheikh Jawad, the 14-year-old boy was killed on Wednesday after Eid al-Fitr prayers. He was shot at close range, directly in the [face back of the neck], by a tear gas canister fired by Saudi-backed regime forces in the southern city of Sitra.

After the killing of a 14 year old boy, instead of turning to violence, people of Bahrain hold candle vigils. Hundreds of thousands of people have taken to the streets across the Persian Gulf state since the incident to condemn the murder of Jawad.

Jawad was killed just three days after a televised speech by Bahraini King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa on August 28, in which he announced a decision to pardon the demonstrators arrested during the popular uprising that began in February. …source

Everyone, Republican or otherwise has their own particular part to play.No part is too great or too small, no one is too old or too young to do something. Bobby Sands(1954-1981)

Bobbys Sands and his ten comrades were true heroes. These young men were willing to pay the ultimate sacrifice rather than be branded criminals. Criminals don’t starve themselves to death for their beliefs. Anyone with an ounce of sense and not blinded by hatred can see this. Ta ar la anois.

The hunger strike of 1981 was one of, if not the most influential periods in the IRA’s long campaign to remove Britains’ role from irish politics. It not only thwarted Britain’s plans to criminalise the IRA prisoners in the H-Blocks, but concentrated world wide media attention on the war in Ireland, paving the way for Sinn Fein’s entrance into the political arena and the electoral successes that followed.

…source

Bahraini medical professionals, who were arrested at the start of a government crackdown on pro-democracy protests earlier this year, have gone on hunger strike, their relatives say.

They have been held in jail for almost six months, while their trial continues in a military court.

Bahraini and international human rights organisations have called the trials a farce.

Speaking to Al Jazeera, Khalil Al-Mazrooq, a former chairman of the Shia bloc Al Wefaq, said: “The trial of Bahraini medics in a military tribunal is against the country’s constitution. Article 105 of the constitution says civilians should be tried in civilian courts only.”

Adel Al Moawda, chairman of parliamentary foreign affairs, defence and national security in Bahrain, said the medics would receive a fair trial.

Al Jazeera’s Charles Stratford reports. …source

More Bahrain detainees join hunger strike
The Associated Press – Posted on Sat, Sep. 03, 2011 04:30 AM

A rights group in Bahrain says more detainees are joining a hunger strike to protest ongoing trials from the crackdown on demonstrations for greater rights by the Gulf nation’s Shiite majority.

A statement Saturday by the Bahrain Center for Human Rights says the hunger strike now includes nearly 20 doctors who are jailed and face anti-state charges linked to the protests against Bahrain’s ruling Sunni dynasty.

The trials are scheduled to resume on Wednesday.

The Center says at least two other prominent activists, Abdul Jalil al-Singace and Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, have also begun hunger strikes in solidarity. The activists were sentenced to life in prison in June.

Bahrain protests began in February inspired by other Arab uprisings. …source

Jailed Bahrain Shiite activists on hunger strike
(AFP) – 3 hours ago

DUBAI — Two Bahraini Shiite activists jailed for life in June for “plotting to overthrow” the Sunni ruling family have gone on hunger strike, the daughter of one of them told AFP on Saturday.

Human rights activist Abdulhadi al-Khawaja and opposition Haq movement member Abduljalil al-Singace stopped eating on Tuesday in solidarity with detainees held at Bahrain’s Dry Dock prison, Zainab al-Khawaja said.

She said that the detainees, who were arrested as part of a March crackdown on Shiite-led pro-democracy protests, had called their hunger strike in protest at the government’s failure to honour promises to release them.

“I am concerned about my father’s health,” Khawaja said. “He was beaten when detained and his jaw was broken. They also beat him repeatedly on his jaw in court. The doctor had told him to eat well for his health to improve.

“He has already lost too much weight in prison and yesterday he called me and said his blood sugar level has dropped,” she added.

Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, who also holds Danish citizenship, was jailed for life with Singace and six other opposition activists in June.

The Bahrain interior ministry says 24 people, including four policemen, were killed in the month-long protests that erupted in mid-February.

Security forces backed by troops from Bahrain’s Gulf neighbours crushed the protest movement.

The opposition says that scores of people were arrested, and many of them tortured. Hundreds more were dismissed from their jobs.

Four people have been sentenced to death and three to life imprisonment after being convicted of the killing of two policemen during the protests. Nine others were jailed for 20 years after being found guilty of abducting a policeman. …source

Former prisoners bear witness to Bahrain’s security operation
by Zoi Constantine – Sep 1, 2011 – The National

MANAMA- Bahrain’s king this week dismissed charges against some people detained during crackdowns against pro-democracy protests and allowed compensation to prisoners abused by security forces.

But as more Bahrainis have been released from prison in recent weeks, a clearer picture has emerged about the conditions in which they were held and the treatment handed out by members of the security forces. One piece of grainy video footage posted on YouTube shows two men scrambling to get away, as several police jeeps follow them along a dusty Bahraini village street.

Policemen can be seen hanging out of the vehicles, weapons pointed towards the fleeing men as shots ring out and both fall to the ground, before the jeeps drive off.

The scene is just one of many posted online from the height of the government’s security operation in March. Like many of those wounded during the violence that ensued, one of the young men seen on the video was treated in hospital for serious injuries after he was hit at close range with birdshot.

Several days after Bahraini security forces took over the hospital where he was being treated, he disappeared, leaving his family fearing the worst.

That man was Mohammed, the only name he was prepared to give when The National tracked him down. After he was shot, he says, he was taken to a military hospital, where he was beaten as he lay blindfolded and tethered by his hands and feet to a hospital bed for more than three weeks.

Mohammed, in his twenties, remained in detention for the next four months, moving between hospitals and prison medical and detention facilities.

The National Blogs

He is just one of many who speak of arbitrary detention, physical mistreatment and lack of access to legal representation or their families. Others say the screams of other prisoners or threats were as close as they came to torture. There have also been reports that jail conditions improved recently.

The Bahraini government has released scores of prisoners in the past month, including some high-profile figures such as Matar Matar, a former MP and senior figure within Al Wefaq, the country’s main opposition group. Also among those released was Ayat Al Gormezi, 20, who was arrested after she read an anti-regime poem at a rally in March. Ms Al Gormezi has said she was severely beaten during her time in prison.

In a speech on Sunday, King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa said that Bahrain’s Supreme Court would oversee compensation payments for victims of abuse or for families of those killed during unrest, including security forces.

The recently set-up Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry – a fact-finding body charged with investigating human-rights violations since the crisis in Bahrain broke out in February – has so far facilitated the release of at least 157 detainees.

However, it is still not clear exactly how many people linked to the protest movement remain in jail. The Bahraini government has not responded to queries on the issue, but local human-rights activists estimate that there are still between 500 and 600 people tied to the protests in jail.

On Tuesday, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights called for the release of all prisoners detained for exercising their right to freedom of expression. The rights body also called on the Bahraini government to release the names of all of those arrested since March 15.

For those who have been released, the commission is in the process of investigating reports of mistreatment and torture, with forensic medical experts expected to help with the inquiry.

Mohammed’s family says he has already submitted to investigators his account of what happened to him after he was shot by police in March.

Speaking recently to The National, Mohammed recalled how he left his house to go to the supermarket, when he was caught up in a large gathering that turned into a confrontation with security forces.

Lifting his T-shirt, he showed that his back was still dotted with scars left by the birdshot. Around 150 of the small metal pellets remain lodged in his body. A long scar where he had emergency surgery has left his stomach distended and misshapen. He said he was even hit on his wound while in hospital. …more

…watch how many armed adult men it takes to detain this kid.