King Hamad stop this obscene perversion of justice!
GCHR and BCHR call for the Bahraini King’s immediate intervention to stop persecuting Medical Staff in Bahrain
29 September 2011 – Bahrain Center for Human Rights
The Gulf Centre for Human Rights and the Bahrain Center for Human Rights condemn in the strongest term the unfair and harsh verdicts issued today by the National Safety Court, in other words a military court – against 20 doctors, nurses and paramedics working for the state health sector in Bahrain. The verdicts include 15, 10 and 5 years prison sentences against the 20 health professionals as listed below:
1. Dr. Ali Al-Ekri, 15 years in prison
2. Dr. Nadir Diwani, 15 years in prison
3. Dr. Ahmed Abdul Aziz Omran, 15 years in prison.
4. Dr. Mahmoud Asghar, 15 years in prison
5. Rula Al Saffar, head of Bahrain Nursing Society, 15 years in prison
6. Dr. Abdulkhaleq Al-Oraibi, 15 years in prison
7. Dr. Ghassan Daif, 15 years in prison
8. Bassem Daif, 15 years in prison
9. Sayed Marhoon Al-Wedaie, 15 years in prison
10. Dr. Nada Daif, 15 years in prison
11. Dr. Fatima Salman Haji, 5 years in prison
12. Dheya Jafar Ibrahim, 5 years in prison
13. Dr.Najah Khalil Ibrahim, 5 years in prison
14. Dr. Saeed Samahiji, 10 years in prison
15. Dr. Zahra Mehdi Sammak, 5 years in prison
16. Mohammed Ul-Shehab, 5 years in prison
17. Haassan Mohamed Altoblani, 10 years in prison
18. Ibrahim Abdullah Ibrahim Damastani, 15 years in prison
19. Ali Hassan Alsdda, 15 years in prison, tried in absentia
20. Qassim Mohammed Omran, 15 in prison, tried in absentia
The Bahraini government has presented the military court with a list of ready-made charges against the group such as:
1. The possession of unlicensed weapons and ammunition;
2. The attempt of forcefully occupying a public building (Salmaniya Hospital);
3. Promotion to bring down and change the regime by illegal means;
4. The confiscation of medical equipment;
5. Spreading false news about the wounded;
6. Inciting hatred against the governing regime.
What the Bahraini government has done on this occasion is something that has never happened in the modern history of man-kind; by targeting the health professionals using the most inhuman ways such as: arbitrary arrest, torture, extracting confessions from them while blindfolded and under torture, and bad conditions in prison.
The ill-treatment that they faced from the very first moment of arrest and the huge pressure created an unlimited amount of psychological and physical pain on all of them, while others are now suffering from chronic diseases. Despite the promise of the King of Bahrain and in contrary to national legislation, the doctors and medics who are civilians have been brought before a military court that lacks the basic principles of justice and does not comply with any of the international standards in order to deliver justice to law-abiding citizens. The 20 doctors, nurses and paramedics who have faced criminal charges, are part of 48 doctors, nurses and paramedics who were arrested in March and April 2011, while the second group includes 28 accused of misdemeanors. “The Bahraini government is targeting highly qualified health professionals who have an excellent reputation on both the national and international levels. Their crime is they tried to treat their fellow citizens who took part in peaceful demonstrations,” said Nabeel Rajab head of Gulf Centre for Human Rights and Bahrain Centre for Human Rights. He continued by saying that “the government of Bahrain should instead bring those who attacked the peaceful demonstrators to justice.”
The Gulf Centre for Human Rights and the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights call on the King of Bahrain to intervene personally and immediately to stop this farce and revoke these unfair sentences issued against the medical staff. He should also disable all the arbitrary measures against them and compensate them fairly for all material and moral damages and set up an independent commission to investigate all allegations of torture reported by reliable sources from within Bahrain. …source
