Forensic experts to see Bahrain ‘torture’ victims – tainted ointment – questions remain, to what end, to who’s benefit?

Forensic experts to see Bahrain ‘torture’ victims
shiapost | August 11, 2011

Cherif Bassiouni, Chairman of the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry addressing a news conference in Manama (File Photo)

MANAMA — The international probe panel assigned to investigate recent unrest in Bahrain will have a team of forensic medical experts from outside the country come in to look at all individuals who have complained of physical mistreatment and torture.

Chairman of the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI), Mahmoud Cherif Bassiouni, told the Press on Tuesday such plan to ensure better investigation. He said that individuals complaining of tortures will be visited at hospitals and detention facilities, as well as be welcomed at BICI offices.

He said that the panel has helped in the release 137 detainees. Two of the released detainees are former MPs, Mattar Mattar and Jawad Fairuz, members of the Al Wefaq National Islamic Society. “‘The investigative team has made a number of visits to prisons, detention centres and police stations, and hospitals, many of which have been unannounced. They have recorded and collected the testimonies of all the prisoners with whom they’ve met, as well as their families, including documenting reports of cases of mistreatment and torture,” he said.

The commission has interviewed over 300 people at its offices, in addition to an undisclosed number of persons interviewed in Bahrain hospitals, prisons and detention centres, and has received statements from 209 witnesses and victims. …source