Bahrain Court Hands Down
Harsh Sentences
to Doctors and Protesters
Women rallied Thursday outside Manama, Bahrain. Protests still occur despite a crackdown.
By J. DAVID GOODMAN
Published: September 29, 2011
The sentences were the latest sign that the country’s Sunni monarchy would continue to deal severely with those involved in widespread protests this year, mostly held by members of its repressed Shiite majority. Much of that effort has been focused on the doctors and nurses who treated demonstrators.A court in Bahrain sentenced a protester to death on Thursday for killing a police officer in March, and it issued harsh prison terms to medical workers who treated protesters wounded during the months of unrest there this spring, according to the official Bahrain News Agency. The punishments drew strong criticism from rights groups.
The agency reported that eight people it identified as doctors who worked at a central hospital in the capital, Manama, received 15-year sentences. Other medical personnel at the hospital, the Salmaniya Medical Complex, Bahrain’s largest public hospital, were given terms of between 5 and 15 years.
At the height of the protests, security forces commandeered the Salmaniya hospital and arrested dozens of doctors and nurses. Rights activists have since accused the government of having made systematic efforts to deny medical services to wounded protesters. The international relief organization Doctors Without Borders stopped working in Bahrain last month after its offices were raided.
Reacting to the verdicts and punishments announced Thursday, Physicians for Human Rights, an advocacy group in Cambridge, Mass., called on the government of Bahrain to set them aside. “These are medical professionals who were treating patients during a period of civil unrest, as their ethical duty requires them to do,” the group’s chief policy officer, Hans Hogrefe, said in a statement on the group’s Web site. “To imprison them as part of a political struggle is unconscionable.”
The Bahrain News Agency, in describing the sentences handed down by a security court on Thursday, said the medical workers had taken over the hospital and used it as a base for antigovernment activity. They were convicted of possessing fuel bombs and light weapons, confiscating medical equipment, and “fabricating stories and lies.”
The medical professionals have said it was their duty to treat anyone who arrived at the hospital and have rejected accusations that treating protesters was akin to supporting their cause.
In the case of the officer’s death, the court said the convicted man, identified as Ali Yusuf Abdulwahab al-Taweel, had run down the officer with his car during antigovernment protests in Sitra, an oil hub just south of the capital, and was guilty of an act of terror. Another man, driving a second car, was sentenced to life in prison for his involvement.
Sitra, known for its activist Shiite population, was a stronghold of antigovernment activists at the height of the demonstrations.
The government of Bahrain, with help from Saudi Arabia, violently quashed the country’s peaceful protest movement in March. Despite the crackdown, demonstrations still occur regularly, especially in places like Sitra, where youths battle security forces after sundown. Graffiti clutters almost every wall there. “We will only kneel before God,” one slogan reads.
“The government has turned to using the law for repression,” said Mohammed al-Maskati, the head of the Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights.
On Wednesday, the security court upheld life sentences for eight prominent political leaders, The Associated Press reported. Earlier in the week, the court sentenced 32 people, including at least two members of the Bahrain national handball team, to 15 years in prison for protesting illegally.
“They are sending a very negative message to the international community that Bahrain is not moving in the right direction in terms of respecting human rights,” Mr. Maskati said.
Human rights groups say that since the unrest began in the Persian Gulf kingdom of only about 525,000 citizens, 34 people have been killed, more than 1,400 have been arrested and as many as 3,600 people have been fired from their jobs. Four people also died in custody after torture, the rights groups say.
Anthony Shadid contributed reporting from Beirut, Lebanon.
>via: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/30/world/middleeast/bahrain-court-hands-down-h...
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This Week In Bahrain:
Women and girls were reportedly tortured following a mass arrest, the Pentagon is selling weapons to the Bahrain government, heavy sentences were handed down to anti-government protesters, and more… here’s what you need to know:
- The Bahraini courts handed down multiple verdicts Thursday - ranging from five years in prison to a death sentence - on cases stemming from anti-government protests earlier this year. One protester was sentenced to death, eight doctors were sentenced to 15 years, and other medical personnel were sentenced anywhere from five to 15 years in prison. The state-run Bahrain News Agency says the convicted were charged with possessing fuel bombs and light weapons, confiscating medical equipment and “fabricating stories and lies.” The UN Human Rights office condemned the sentences, saying they questioned the fairness of the trials based on the harsh verdicts. [Voice of America, New York Times]
- 38 women and seven girls were reportedly tortured or ill-treated following protests against Bahrain’s by-elections, according to Amnesty International. The women and girls were reportedly arrested at a shopping center in Manama. The women’s lawyers say they showed signs of abuse following their detainment. The Interior Ministry says no abuse took place. A government statement said the group was arrested for “racing through the mall, causing panic among families carrying out their weekend shopping”. 23 women and the seven girls were released Monday, but 15 remain in custody, according to the Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights. Their trail is set for September 29. [AFP, Reuters]
- Opposition party Al Wefaq and other Shi’ite-led groups are contesting the government’s figure for the recent by-election turnout. The Bahraini government claims 51 percent of voters participated in this week’s by-election, while Al Wefaq leader Sheik Ali Salman argues the figure is closer to 17 percent. Multiple Shi’ite-led groups called for a boycott of the by-elections in opposition with the government crackdown on anti-government protesters. [AP]
- Iran, Bahrain ministers meet in New York for the first time since withdrawing their ambassadors. During the UN General Assembly Meeting Monday, foreign ministers from Iran and Bahrain spoke for the first time since Bahrain withdrew its ambassador from Iran for “blatant inteference” regarding Bahrain’s anti-government protests. Shortly thereafter, Iran withdrew its ambassador from Bahrain. [Voice of America]
- Need to Know of the week: The Pentagon is set to sell $53 million worth of weapons to the Bahrain government. [Telegraph Blogs]
- Must Read of the week: The Guardian’s interview with Dr. Ali al-Akri, who was charged earlier this year with crimes against the state for helping treat anti-government protesters. He says he awaits the day when he will be called to jail, adding, “It was the security forces who [stopped the ambulances] and that was proven during the trial. […] We witnessed the atrocities. And because we did not obey [the government] we are being punished.” [Guardian]
- Quote of the week: “I lost my sense of time because of the torture … Immediately after I was taken [there was] the beating, the cursing, the kicking, the spitting; even I was electrocuted there at that unknown place… We were forced to [confess] on TV. Me and my colleagues were kept together in one hall and they threatened us with rape, they threatened us with our families and if you don’t just step in front of the camera and say I did this, this, this, this.” [Telegraph Blogs]
[Photos: Thousands of Shi’ite Bahrainis participate in an anti-government rally held by Bahrain’s main opposition party al-Wefaq, at Budaiya, September 30, Credit: Reuters; Bahraini anti-government protesters attend a rally organized by Al-Wefaq, in Quraya, Bahrain, Friday, Sept. 30. Credit: Hasan Jamali/AP; In this photo taken Saturday, Sept. 24, 2011, a Bahraini man covers his nose against tear gas as he passes through narrow, graffiti-covered streets in the Shiite village of Sanabis, Bahrain. The Arabic at left reads: “Our victory is coming,” and beneath a painted image, center, of the Pearl monument that became iconic for protesters reads: “We are coming” and “Our leaders are steadfast. Credit: Hasan Jamali/AP]
>via: http://pantslessprogressive.com/post/10863763554/this-week-in-bahrain-women-a...