The high price of telling hard truth under the brutal AlKhalifa Regime that Rules Bahrain

Soon after the popular uprising began in Bahrain in 2011, 13 opposition leaders were arrested.

Bahrain: The high price of telling hard truths
16 December, 2013 – Amnesty International

Soon after the popular uprising began in Bahrain in 2011, 13 opposition leaders were arrested. Their ‘crime’ was expressing their opinions peacefully: calling for democracy, an end to corruption, opposing the monarchy.

After an unfair trial the men were sentenced to between five years and life in prison. Some say they were tortured, and all are prisoners of conscience. Farida Ghulam, wife of imprisoned opposition leader Ebrahim Sharif, told Amnesty International their story.

Please tell us a little about yourself, Ebrahim and his connection with the other prisoners

Ebrahim is a prominent political figure – he’s been the Secretary General of Bahrain’s secular National Democratic Action Society (NDAS) – the Wa’ad party – since 2007. I’ve been married to him for 28 years. I’ve been a women’s rights activist since I was 17 and have been president of Bahrain’s first women’s rights organization. I’m currently the head of the NDAS’ Women’s Bureau and work as an evaluation specialist in Bahrain’s Ministry of Education.

Ebrahim is an outspoken person who became a threat to the government. If you are in the opposition and telling hard truths that people are afraid to speak about – like stolen lands and secret budgets – you become a target.

He and the others come from different schools of thought, but are all part of the opposition. After 14 February 2011 [when Bahrain’s popular uprising began], people gathered at the Pearl Roundabout [in the capital, Manama], where Ebrahim and the others were giving speeches every night. The government wanted to put them all in one basket and accused them of trying to topple the regime.

What happened when they were detained?

Ebrahim was arrested on 17 March 2011 [all 13 men were arrested between that day and 9 April 2011]. Around 30-40 guards came at 2am and kept ringing the bell. One pointed his gun at Ebrahim’s head. Ebrahim was very calm – saying he didn’t have to use the gun, and that he would go with them voluntarily. They took him, and when I asked where I could contact him they laughed at me. It was a very tough moment.

That night, Ebrahim and others were stripped naked and put in solitary confinement. A teamof torturers beat them for around an hour, three times a day. They threw cold water on Ebrahim’s mattress and turned the air conditioning up high so he couldn’t sleep. After two months the torture stopped because of international attention. The men now suffer from pain, illnesses and the aftermath of torture, and most have not been given any medical treatment. …more