al Khalifa regime back to business as usual with renewed Medic detentions

Bahrain: The continued harassment, intimidation, and persecution of the Medics by the government
Gulf Center for Human Rights – 29 January, 2012

Beirut, 29 January, 2012 – The Gulf Centre for Human Rights and Bahrain Centre for Human Rights would like to express in the strongest possible terms their profound concern following the arbitrary arrest and detention of two medical staff , Dental Assistant Halima Abdulaziz Al-Sabag and Head of Dental Nurses Aqeela Radhi Hammad, which represents a continuation of targeting trends that evolved over the previous months in Bahrain that include medical staff, teachers, students, journalists, worker, as well as human rights defenders.

According to accurate information received by GCHR & BCHR, Dental Assistant Halima Abdulaziz Al-Sabag has been taken from her workplace in Salmaniya hospital on Thursday, January 26, 2012, allegedly she was to have taken first-aid medicines for the treatment of injured protesters, who suffer as a result of the suppression of the authorities. Al-Sabag’s family was not able to know her whereabouts for hours after the arrest and they managed finally to see her at Hoora police station. Al-Sabag brought to the Criminal Investigation Directorate in the same night of her arrest and appeared before the public prosecutor, on the morning of 27th of January 2012, who made the decision to keep her in custody for a week pending investigation on the alleged charge of exploitation of her Job to seize the money of the state, a charge denied by Al-Sabag. On Sunday morning, January 29, 2012, Head of Nurses Aqeela Radhi Hammad has been arrested, in what appears to be linked to the arrest of Halima Al-Sabag.

In a telephone conversation with her family on 28th of January, 2012 Halima Al-Sabag complained that the authorities have kept her in a cell with a number of defendants charged with “prostitution” in a move aimed at including coercion and psychological pressure on her, which is contrary to the provisions of articles of “the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners” issued by the United Nations, which stated in its article (63) (1) clearly that ” The fulfillment of these principles requires individualization of treatment and for this purpose a flexible system of classifying prisoners in groups; ” where the objective is explained in accordance with Article (67 / a) which states: “To separate from others those prisoners who, by reason of their criminal records or bad characters, are likely to exercise a bad influence; ” …more