BAHRAIN: Activist describes electroshock, torture by government forces

BAHRAIN: Activist describes electroshock, torture by government forces
May 14, 2011 | 12:57 pm
by LA Times and Carnegie Middle East

After reports this week of security forces in Bahrain torturing detainees, particularly medical personnel, Babylon & Beyond spoke with Mohammed Maskati, president of the Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights who has been working to document human rights abuses in the capital, Manama, and throughout the Gulf nation with international partners such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.

Q: What is your focus now?

50356_10604207164_4576_n A: On Thursday the first nurse got sentenced in Bahrain, his name is Hassan Matooq. He is also a photographer, he took photos of all the injured people who came to the hospital. They charged him with four charges: torturing the injured, illegal gathering, participating in a rally and also broadcasting false news. He was sentenced to three years.

If he has only four charges and he is sentenced to four years, we are very afraid for the 47 medical staff (in custody), many of them have more than 10 charges against them.

Q: Why are medical personnel being detained?

A: They helped the injured and they are witnesses. If the government wants to destroy all the evidence, it’s one answer — you accuse medical staff because the main witness of what happened in Salmaniya Hospital, the number of figures of the injured and what kind of weapons were used at that time, was the medical staff. The medical staff know everything.

Q: Have you spoken with any of the medical personnel?
A: We did not speak with them but we spoke with some people who were with them. They said the police, they were tortured. We talked with the ones who were released.

Q: How many people did you speak with?

A: More than 30. Six talked about the doctors.

Q: Were the doctors treated differently than other detainees?

A: Yes, they get more torture. Some doctors, a very famous doctor, we don’t want to announce his name, they forced him to dance to music and they filmed.

Q: Was that meant to shame him?

A: We don’t know. All of those who were released talk about the security forces forcing them to chant for the government. Some of them forced them to say bad words about another opposition leader. Some of them more than 10 days they were handcuffed with plastic ones, not the normal handcuffs, and blindfolded.

Q: There have been reports police used electroshock on the detainees — did anyone tell you about that? What did they say was done to them?

A: Yes. You know an electric shaver? It looks like that but it is for electroshock. What was explained to us, it is the same size, the same style, but it shocks.

Q: How would police use that in interrogations?

A: They say they put it for 10 seconds, then they take it. Some of them, they say, they say they put it on sensitive places.

Q: Where would they put it?

A: On the back, on the head. Some of them they put it down in their private parts. But they don’t put it more than 10 seconds.

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