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Front Line delegate: A Gap between the Terrorism Law and its application on the “Security Cases” in Bahrain
02 October 2010 – Manama- Amani Almaskati – AlWasat News

The Head of the European Union office of Front Line, Mr. Vincent Forest, has stressed that there is a gap between the content of the law to protect society from terrorism acts in Bahrain and its application to detainees due to the security issues in Bahrain. Particularly in regards to not allowing them to meet with lawyers as provided for by law and international conventions which were adopted by the Kingdom of Bahrain, such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which was issued in Bahrain as law No. (56) for the year 2006.

This was during an interview conducted by the «Alwasat Newspaper» with Forest, who visited Bahrain to meet with Bahraini officials and diplomats in regards to those detained in relations to security issues.

He (Mr. Forest) stated that the targeting of human rights defenders in any country, would restrict the whole of society, and that countries that seek to put themselves in an advanced stage in the field of human rights, must realize that they must not differentiate between legislation and reality and have to work on reducing this gap.

Following is the text of the interview with Mr. Forest:

What is the Purpose of your visit to Bahrain?

– I am an envoy from «Front Line» on a mission for a period of three days to meet a number of senior officials, diplomats and human rights defenders in Bahrain, to discuss the matter of those detained in relations to security issues, and the dissolving of the board of the Bahrain Society for Human Rights as well as the prevention of a number of activists from traveling.

The basic idea of these meetings is to obtain information and answers to our questions by local officials on these issues, especially regarding the issue of the blogger Ali Abdulemam, as well as to express our concern and fears on these issues on the diplomatic level, and in this context, I met with officials in the French , American, German and British embassies. It is a part of our strategy at «Front Line» to exert pressure if anything happens to human rights defenders in any country.

Who are the officials you have met with?

– I met with officials in the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Interior, Justice, Islamic Affairs and Social Development. This came after a formal request we made a week before the date of the meetings through the embassies in Belgium and Britain.
I am happy with the consent of the official authorities to these meetings, because it enabled us to raise our concern and our questions on subjects related to these cases.

What was the officials response to the questions you raised?

– In respect to those detained in relations to security issues, I was informed by officials from the Ministry of the Interior that the investigation is still ongoing, and when I asked about the charges brought against them I was assured that the picture was still incomplete, and they are still gathering information in order to obtain a complete picture in regards to the charges.

But we have noticed in «Front Line» that there is a gap between the contents of the anti-terrorism law in Bahrain, which has been applied to those detained in security issues, and what is applied in practice. For example, in the case of Abdulemam, it has been more than a month since his detention and interrogation without allowing him to meet with his lawyer, who asked to meet him seven times without getting any response. The same applies to other detainees, although the law gives the detainees the right to meet with their lawyers after two weeks of their detention.

This is a clear violation of the law, particularly the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which was issued in Bahrain as law No. (56) for the year 2006, and this is a negative thing that has us concerned about the mechanism used in dealing with detainees, especially in light of the silence that has been ongoing through the investigation of their cases. ..more at BCHR