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The Bahraini authorities have published on 25/10/2014 four images of defendants in local newspapers, with their cases still ongoing and have not been sentenced. These defendants gave themselves up following a summons for investigation, after they were accused of burning a car in Sitra. This is a common political strategy used by the Bahraini authorities to cause disunity and target political dissidents and activists.
On the flipside, the sentence and imprisonment of the son of a prominent employer was covered in the same media outlets yet no pictures or names were published! Further, during the same week the former colonel in the Ministry of Interior, Adel Fulaifal, has been sentenced to 3 years in prison for “dishonour”, but without express mention of his name or his picture.
Bahrain SALAM for Human Rights condemns the actions of the Bahraini authorities of targeting defendants to punish them and expose them to revenge attacks. Most of the cases of this nature have been against defendants who have not been sentenced or investigations have yet to commence. Thus, this is a breach of these Bahraini citizen’s rights, specifically Article 20 from the Bahraini constitution, Article 11 from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
Bahrain SALAM for Human Rights urges the international community to look closely and delicately at the politics of the security apparatus and judiciary in Bahrain. There is a competent and strengthening case against these institutions where they have been collaborating between each other to target a specific aspect of the Bahraini community – specifically political dissidents and activists in various fields. In addition, ask the international community to push for the immediate halt of these activities that contravenes humanitarian principles and breaches various human rights agreements Bahrain has signed and ratified.
Issued on “28/10/2014”