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

Ghina Rabai - Researcher at the Bahrain Forum for Human Rights

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.

To watch the conference: click here

The following is the full speech of Ghina Rebai, a researcher at the BFHR:

Greetings to everyone watching this virtual conference, which we are holding in conjunction with the recent human rights events in Bahrain related to the conditions of political detainees and the special movement demanding the release of all prisoners of conscience.

There is no doubt that the release of hundreds of prisoners of conscience from Bahraini prisons is a positive step that can be included initially under the title of returning the rights of citizens who were subjected to prosecution and arrest on political grounds. Note that in order for the action to be complete, it requires achieving a number of steps, including reparation, compensation, dropping judicial sentences, and holding those involved in violating the rights of detainees accountable.

As we have noted, the recent releases have not, to date, included any detainee sentenced to death nor the rest of the political opposition leaders. Also, they have not included the civilian detainees of the Qurain Military Prison, and more than 500 prisoners of conscience are still imprisoned.

In fact, I would like to speak in particular about prisoners of conscience sentenced to death.

Since the arbitrary arrests were based on arbitrary judicial rulings, one of the most important human rights steps that must be at the top of the necessary measures, is to drop arbitrary sentences, especially the most dangerous among them, which are death sentences.

Today, there are still 12 political prisoners sentenced to death, whose sentences are conclusive, and the only thing separating them from the implementation of those sentences is the signature of the King of Bahrain.

Overturning these dangerous arbitrary sentences and others, such as life imprisonment, etc., is one of the important steps towards ending the issue of political detainees.

Essentially, it must be followed by ensuring that these violations are not repeated by holding the perpetrators of the violations accountable, especially since the arbitrary rulings were generally based on confessions extracted under torture inflicted by members of state agencies, who have evaded accountability so far.

For example, the death penalty victim, Ali Al-Arab, was subjected to electrocution and sexual harassment, and even his fingernails were pulled out during torture in interrogation centers. Then he was forced to sign confession papers while blindfolded, not knowing what he was signing and what he was confessing to, until he was confronted with the content of those papers during his trial. And, he was executed on the basis of those papers. Most prisoners of conscience in Bahrain are treated this way.

In order for such events and violations not to be repeated, and so that no Bahraini citizen is forced in the future to sign confessions about crimes they did not commit, the release step must be followed by dropping arbitrary sentences and making reparation by holding the perpetrators of the violations accountable along with their accomplices in the judicial system, who issued sentences based on confessions extracted under torture. In addition, those suspected of involvement in such abuses must be removed from state agencies positions.

In short, it is necessary to drop death sentences and arbitrary sentences in general and to carry out administrative reforms in the security and judicial agencies. When we talk about reparations and compensation, we are talking about everyone who has been subjected to arbitrary arrest since 2011 to date, although we did not discuss anything related to the human rights file before 2011.

From here, I move on to the next topic, which is civilian detainees in the Qurain Military Prison

Today, a number of civilian political detainees are still held in the Qurain Military Prison. Not only were arbitrary prison sentences issued against them, but also sentences were issued by the military court that has no jurisdiction to try them as civilians. They do not differ from the rest of the prisoners of conscience in terms of the background of their detention, which was either due to participation in peaceful protests or expression of opinion. Yet, they were treated more strictly and were considered a threat to civil peace, according to the official party’s classification.

Therefore, we also demand the release of civilian detainees at the Qurain Military Prison. 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.

In conclusion, we would like to stress the fact that 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. 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.