SALAM for Democracy and Human Rights launches its report entitled "Bahraini Law to Protect Society from Terrorist Acts: Legitimizing State Terrorism against Citizens"

SALAM for Democracy and Human Rights issued a report entitled “Bahraini Law to Protect Society from Terrorist Acts: Legitimizing State Terrorism against Citizens”. In its introduction, Salam stated that, through legal review, all the articles of criminalization in this law are found in the Bahraini Penal Code already where there was no need for a new law.
“The law on the protection of society against terrorist acts is designed to legalize violations by the National Security Agency, the Public Prosecutor’s Office and the judiciary with a view to eliminating all forms of civil mobility, freedom of opinion and expression and instilling fear in society, with the excessive penalties in the articles of this law ” said Mohammed Sultan, SALAM DHR’s Advocacy Officer.
The report also refers to the reasons why the Bahraini authorities issued the Terrorism Act and how it used this law to intimidate citizens from practicing their civil and political rights. In addition, the report mentions how the articles of this law legitimized articles classified by the United Nations as a crime against humanity. In this law, the broad powers of the Public Prosecutor’s Office were extended and the powers of the judges were extended to impose tight sentences and surrounded them so that they could not commute the sentence. The report also shows how this law added powers to the notorious National Security Agency accused of systematic torture against victims.
At the end of the report, several recommendations were made to the Bahraini authorities, including the need to abide by international instruments, treaties and instruments, to restore the powers of the judicial arrest of the National Security Agency, and to abolish the articles that allow the practice of enforced disappearance.

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