Bahrain regime beating and torture continues despite numerous reports, international calls to stop

Report: Bahraini police beat, torture detainees
By CNN – 30 April, 2012

(CNN) — Police in Bahrain regularly resort to beating anti-government protesters, despite officials’ pledges to stop such practices, a human rights group said Sunday.

A Bahraini government spokesman denied that allegation and others made in the Human Rights Watch report.

“The allegations are absurd, and unfortunately, we ask for human rights organizations not to rely on unreliable sources,” said government spokesman Abdul-Aziz bin Mubarak Al Khalifa.

Human Rights Watch said interviews revealed at least five instances in the past month in which police severely beat detainees — some of whom were minors, according to a report issued after representatives from the group finished a five-day visit to the island nation.
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Visible injury marks appeared to confirm details of accounts from former detainees interviewed by Human Rights Watch, the organization said.
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Treatment of prisoners inside police stations and formal detention facilities has improved, Human Rights Watch said, and Bahrain appears to have made “rapid progress” in eliminating torture inside police stations after a committee last year recommended installing video cameras there.

But now, according to Human Rights Watch, beating and torture of prisoners is continuing at informal facilities and in secluded outdoor areas, where detainees have been taken for up to two hours before they’re transferred to police stations.

“Bahrain’s leaders need to make clear that they will investigate and punish those responsible for abuses when the cameras are off,” Human Rights Watch said. …more