Jail Terms for 50 Bahraini Shias Unjust
13 international rights groups and organizations have described sentencing 50 Shia activists in Bahrain as unjust.
The Cairo Human Rights Studies Center, Human Rights Information Network, Maghrib Human Rights Union, Tunisia’s Committee of Defending Human Rights and Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights are among the organizations that have condemned the move by Al Khalifa regime, Sawt Al-Manama website reported.
The ruling regime of Bahrain has sentenced 50 Shia Muslims to up to 15 years in prison, media reported on Sunday.
They had been on trial since July 11 on charges of attempting to form illegal
The 13 human rights groups said that a member of the ruling family and speaker of the country’s Majlis (consultative body) were in the jury that found the defendants guilty, adding that it clearly runs counter to the criteria of judicial independence.
One of the groups regretted that the jury paid no attention to the defendants’ statements about being tortured in prison.
“In order to convict the defendants, the court relied on confessions obtained through awful torture, confessions verified only by those who partook in torturing the prisoners” the group said.
A Bahraini court issued the verdicts on Sunday after it charged the defendants, including Iraqi cleric Hadi al-Mudaressi sentenced in absentia, with forming the ‘February 14 Revolution Youth Coalition.’
Bahraini authorities accuse the anti-regime group of involvement in ‘terrorism.’
The court sentenced 16 defendants to 15 years in jail, four others to ten years and the other 30 to five years.
Since mid-February 2011, thousands of pro-democracy protesters have staged numerous demonstrations in the streets of Bahrain, calling for the Al Khalifa regime to relinquish power.
Manama’s human rights record has come under scrutiny over its handling of anti-regime protests that erupted across the Arab country in early 2011.
According to local sources, scores of people have been killed and hundreds arrested since March 2011.
Physicians for Human Rights say doctors and nurses have been detained, tortured, or disappeared because they have “evidence of atrocities committed by the authorities, security forces, and riot police” in the crackdown on anti-regime protesters.
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The ruling regime of Bahrain has sentenced 50 Shia Muslims to up to 15 years in prison, media reported on Sunday.
They had been on trial since July 11 on charges of attempting to form illegal
The 13 human rights groups said that a member of the ruling family and speaker of the country’s Majlis (consultative body) were in the jury that found the defendants guilty, adding that it clearly runs counter to the criteria of judicial independence.
One of the groups regretted that the jury paid no attention to the defendants’ statements about being tortured in prison.
“In order to convict the defendants, the court relied on confessions obtained through awful torture, confessions verified only by those who partook in torturing the prisoners” the group said.
A Bahraini court issued the verdicts on Sunday after it charged the defendants, including Iraqi cleric Hadi al-Mudaressi sentenced in absentia, with forming the ‘February 14 Revolution Youth Coalition.’
Bahraini authorities accuse the anti-regime group of involvement in ‘terrorism.’
The court sentenced 16 defendants to 15 years in jail, four others to ten years and the other 30 to five years.
Since mid-February 2011, thousands of pro-democracy protesters have staged numerous demonstrations in the streets of Bahrain, calling for the Al Khalifa regime to relinquish power.
Manama’s human rights record has come under scrutiny over its handling of anti-regime protests that erupted across the Arab country in early 2011.
According to local sources, scores of people have been killed and hundreds arrested since March 2011.
Physicians for Human Rights say doctors and nurses have been detained, tortured, or disappeared because they have “evidence of atrocities committed by the authorities, security forces, and riot police” in the crackdown on anti-regime protesters.
1295940
