Posted on by
4

This site has been setup to raise awareness about and show solidarity for the 20 health workers in Bahrain, who were:

  1. arrested by masked gunmen without showing warrants;
  2. tortured;
  3. forced to sign confessions under duress;
  4. given an unfair military trial;
  5. sentenced from between 5 years up to 15 years in prison.

Their crime? There’s a long list of charges which are listed here. But it appears that the reality is the Bahrani government are attempting to silence any of the medics who witnessed first hand the injuries inflicted by government security forces and are likely to speak out about what they have seen (many of them having spoken to the media before they were arrested).

Read some of the personal testimonies of what happened to the doctors here:

See more videos here.

The medics are requesting the following:

  1. All charges should be dropped.
  2. All future court hearings shoulds be observed by the United Nations to ensure its conforms to standards of a fair trial.
  3. All violations of humans rights, kidnapping and mistreatment especially torture need to be investigated as do those who were directly involved.
  4. The medics should be reinstated to their jobs and fairly compensated.
Latest News:

 
On 28th November medics returned to court for the first sitting of their appeal. Much to everyone’s astonishment the public prosecution produced weapons that they said they had found at the hospital, including two AK 47s, ammunition, a sword, an iron rod, three knives, nine nails and bottles. This was in spite of the BICI report which stated in paragraph 841 that allegations that the medics “assisted the demonstrators in the form of supplying them with weapons to be unfounded.”
 

The case resumed on 9th January 2012. This was a one hour session where the Public Prosecution denied that they were waiving the confessions extracted by torture (which they had previously stated to media that they would). The Public Prosecution also appeared confused over the number of medics that had been tortured – suggesting first 8, then 7, and then 6, when in actual fact the medics have been clear that they were all subject to torture. The next hearing was set for 19th March but then was moved forward at short notice to Monday 30th January.

 

On 30th January the medics’ relatives were forbidden to enter the court room so the medics refused to enter either, so the hearing was conducted without them present. The next hearing is now set for 19th March, to which the prosecution has said it will bring its witnesses.

 

The Bahraini government have repeatedly been saying to the international community that the case of the medics has been resolved by transferring the matter to the civilian court for a fair hearing. However, there is clearly nothing fair about this trial. Whilst this case drags on and on in the hope that it will lose media interest, these medics and their families continue their suffering as they are prevented from working and are crippled financially and suffer constant ridicule in the Bahraini news channels (such as ongoing commentary regarding the clothes that they wear to court), when in fact they should now be undergoing therapy to help them overcome the psychological trauma of torture.

 

You can help the medics get the fair treatment they deserve. Please first learn more about the situation on this site, then sign the petition, write to your government to ask them to put pressure on the Bahraini government to drop these ludicrous charges, and then go and ask your friends on colleagues to do the same. It is only when ordinary people start to care and take action that the world will ever change.