BFHR’s conference: Renewed calls for releasing prisoners, making reparation, and compensating victims

To watch the conference: click here

The Bahrain Forum for Human Rights (BFHR) organized a virtual press conference on Saturday May 11 2024, with the participation of Devin Kenney, researcher at Amnesty International (AI), Zainab Khamis, head of the Monitoring and Documentation Committee at the Bahrain Human Rights Society (BHRS), Ibtisam Al-Saegh, head of monitoring and documentation at SALAM for Democracy and Human Rights (SALAM DHR), and Ghina Rebai, researcher at the BFHR. The conference was about the issue of prisoners of conscience in Bahrain and was hosted by Bahraini journalist, Murtada Al-Talbi.

Amnesty International: Not everything has changed, the government still has very sharply drawn red lines

Devin Kenney, a researcher at Amnesty International, said, “Not everything has changed. The government still has very sharply drawn red lines. With over 1,400 prisoners released last month, it's obvious and I don't think it's lost on anyone who was not released. The group of political, opposition, and activist leaders from the mass uprising of 2011.”

“That group has gone under different names. One of the more common local ones is ‘Aromuz,’ the leading figures, of whom 10 are still in prison over a decade after their final conviction in September 2012. I would also add Ali Salman, the leader of Al-Wefaq, to this group, even though his imprisonment came at a later stage. The government did not release any of them in the Eid Pardon, and the government continues to expect silence to be the price paid for release from prison,” He added.

“So the government still expects citizens to be silent and not to express any fundamental criticisms of policy or of the system of government. This isn't new, but what is new is that for the first time in the years since I've followed Bahrain, there's a small margin of space to make such criticisms, and citizens are finding smart and effective ways to use that space. It's my sincere hope that this trend will continue,” Kenney further said.

Ibtisam Al-Saegh: The prisoners who have been released need financial, psychological and social support

For her part, Ibtisam Al-Saegh, head of monitoring and documentation at SALAM DHR, said about the conditions of the released prisoners of conscience, “Today, these prisoners need humanitarian, financial and psychological support. There should be humanitarian cadres, from both the authorities and the society, to adopt and embrace these prisoners who have been released and are in need of financial, psychological and social support.” In addition, she explained that, “There are many cases that urgently need to be presented to a dermatologist, and there is a large number of prisoners who need dental specialists to begin treating their teeth and restore their smiles that were absent due to the prison conditions and the repression they were subjected to.”

“We are talking about prisoners who came out suffering from psychological problems and did not receive treatment in these centers, which are so-called rehabilitation centers,” Al-Saegh added. “The prisoners carried with them many bad memories of the situations and circumstances they lived in prison, which they describe as very, very harsh days that cannot be erased from their memories.”

Zainab Khamis: It is necessary to make reparations, pay compensations, and return the released prisoners to study, work, and normal life.

In the same context, Zainab Khamis, head of the Monitoring and Documentation Committee at the BHRS, said, “There is great responsibility and obligations that fall on the shoulders of the Bahraini authorities regarding the released prisoners. The first project that the authorities should do is implementing transitional justice, which is represented by urgently making reparations, paying compensation, and returning the released prisoners to their studies, work, and normal life. Many countries, such as Morocco, Ireland and South Africa, have implemented this in the past and have had successful experiences.”

“There are hundreds of prisoners’ families waiting for their loved ones to return to their arms. Approximately 550 prisoners and more are still held at Jaw Central Prison, including elderly, youth, and children, some of whom are sick. They have no fault other than expressing their opinions, and their presence in prison prolongs the human rights and political crisis in Bahrain and raises the level of political tension.”

Rebai: We renew the call for the release of those sentenced to death and the civilians in Qurain Military Prison

As for the researcher at the BFHR, Ghina Rebai, she called for the release of all prisoners of conscience, including those arbitrarily sentenced to death, as well as civilian detainees in Qurain Military Prison. She added that in order to ensure that issuing military sentences against civilians is not repeated in the future, the reasons behind this judicial misconduct must be investigated in the first place, and the perpetrators must be held accountable in proportion to the extent of the misconduct. This begins with the dismissal of all those involved in the detention of civilians in the military prison, whether they were in the military judiciary, the Public Prosecution office concerned with challenging jurisdiction, or the security services, Rebai further said.

True political and human rights reform cannot be achieved while there are political detainees in prisons, or under a defective citizenship in which the citizen cannot exercise their most basic civil and political rights, such as running for membership in the General Board of Directors of the Ministry of Social Development – as happened recently for the second time with the former president of the BHRS, Mr. Abdul Jalil Yousef, Rebai added. Comprehensive reform requires ending the policy of political isolation and the policy of dissolving independent political and human rights associations, and also requires unchaining freedoms, including political rights, the right to citizenship, and the other human rights demands found in the recommendations of the Universal Periodic Review, which would put an end to the path of violations, she pointed out.

The conference host, journalist Murtada Al-Talbi, pointed out that the issue of prisoners of conscience in Bahrain is related to multiple human rights violations, including the lack of an independent judiciary that guarantees fair trials, and the existence of legislations that restrict freedoms like the Anti-Terrorism Law. Al-Talbi added that there is a protection system that provides immunity for those involved in torture cases through policies of impunity. Moreover, he said that the civil society space is closed, either by dissolving political associations or by political isolation, and the activities of human rights organizations are restricted.