Students Educations Devastated in wake of Regime’s brutal discriminatory crackdown

Bahrain: Students’ rights gravely violated through sham trials, expulsions and unfair detention
12 September, 2012 – Bahrain Center for Human Rights

More than a year and a half following the start of the revolution in Bahrain, university students are still being subjected to sham trials, unlawful imprisonment and prevention from continuing their studies. The Bahrain center for human rights (BCHR) is gravely concerned over these continuous violations of human rights against university students.

Sham Trials

On Thursday 06 September 2012, the high criminal court ruled in the cases of 96 defendants accused in the 13 March University of Bahrain thug attack incident which included students, staff, administrators and a security guard. The court upheld sentences of 84 students, reduced prison sentence against 3 to 3 months’ imprisonment and acquitted 9 [1].

The lawyer S. Mohsen Al Alawi stated to the BCHR, in a previous statement, that some of the accused students were not present in the university on 13 March 2011 and others were from the Isa Town campus while the said events took place at the Sakheer campus. He said that “the judge refused the defense’s request to call upon public figures that stated on Bahrain Television (BTV) that they were present in the University of Bahrain, like the university president and head of Riffa police station”.

Lawyers provided the court with photos of well-known figures from the university incident who were holding weapons, bars and clubs. Even though criminal procedure law allows the court to accuse new defendants when their relation to the case is proved, the judge did not respond to lawyers’ requests. …more