Bahrain Prisons follow familiar model of Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo with US “Consultants” in the wings

In The Cellars of Death, Bahraini Detainees are Tortured
26 June, 2012 – EBOHR

Bahrain prisons, are not less violent than Abu Ghraib or the Guantanamo as what happened there and still happening is way beyond one’s imagination. Its scary, brutal and so violent! After documenting some of the cases and stories of mass arrests and tortures I am not sure if I could ever survive if I was to be in the detainees shoes.

My father-in-law Mohamed Hasan Mohamed Jawad (Parweez) who is 65 years old is an independent Human Rights Activist and the eldest prisoner in Bahrain. He was convicted in a so-called “terrorist cell” known by The Alliance for Republic, in the top leading cases in Bahrain consisting of 14 opposition figures and leaders.

He was tortured severely after that he was kidnapped by the Bahraini army alongside the Peninsula Shield forces in March 22, 2011. He went missing for more than 50 days where everybody knew absolutely nothing about him and his family started thinking: “he could be dead”. During that time, he was tortured underground in the ministry of interior main office in Manama to a point where his both legs were drilled with an electrical drill, electrocuted, beaten, kicked and punched on the face several times for long cold months. He wrote his first diary from inside AlGurain military prison under the title of (The diaries of a prisoner of conscience in the cellars of death) in which he stated very frankly the very details of his arrest, investigation, torture and military trails and sentence for 15 years of imprisonment. A fact worth mentioning is that he noted in his diaries witnessing Martyr Karim Fakhrawi’s death under torture while being electrocuted with him in the same room.

In addition to all that, he was tortured brutally by the son of the king, Naser Bin Hamad AlKhalifa, who is the Commander of the Royal Guard, the Chairman of the Supreme Council for Youth and Sport, and the President of the Bahrain Olympic Committee. Naser Bin Hamad AlKhalifa who is a father of a nearly 2 years old girl called Sheema worked on torturing my father-in-law Parweez (65 years old) through beating his head continuously with a hose, bashing his head to the walls, while resting in between! My father-in-law still suffers from terrible headaches and pain in head back, legs and pelvis due to that.

Another personal case of a torture was that of my uncle Shaikh Abduladheem AlMohtadi -50 years old- who is a religious scholar and an author of the most Bahraini books published. He was also tortured badly, and his hand -the one which he writes with- was intentionally broken under torture by mercenaries working for the Ministry of Interior. …more