This site has been setup to raise awareness about and show solidarity for the 20 health workers in Bahrain, who were:
- arrested by masked gunmen without showing warrants;
- tortured;
- forced to sign confessions under duress;
- given an unfair military trial;
- 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:
- Dr Abdulkhaliq Aloraibi
- Dr Ahmed Omran
- Dr Ali Al Ekri
- Dr Bassim Dhaif
- Dr Fatima Haji
- Dr Ghassan Dhaif
- Dr Hasan Al Tublani
- Dr Mahmood Asghar
- Dr Nada Dhaif
- Dr Saeed Al Samahiji
- Dr Zahra Al Sammak
The medics are requesting the following:
- All charges should be dropped.
- All future court hearings shoulds be observed by the United Nations to ensure its conforms to standards of a fair trial.
- All violations of humans rights, kidnapping and mistreatment especially torture need to be investigated as do those who were directly involved.
- The medics should be reinstated to their jobs and fairly compensated.
Latest News
On 14th June 2012 verdicts were given following an appeal.
Nine medics were acquitted of all charges. They are: Dr Ahmed Omran, Rula Al Saffar, Sayed Al Wedaie, Dr Nada Dhaif, Dr Fatima Haji, Dr Najah Al Haddad, Dr Zahra Al Sammak, Dr Hasan Al Tublani, Mohammed Faiq Ali.
Nine medics had their sentences reduced as follows: Dr Nader Diwani (1 month), Dr Mahmood Asghar (6 months), Dr Abdulkhaliq Aloraibi (1 month), Dr Bassim Dhaif (1 month), Dheya Ibrahim AbuIdris (2 months), Dr Ali Al Ekri (5 years), Dr Ghassan Dhaif (1 year), Dr Saeed Al Samahiji (1 year), Ibrahim Al Demistani (3 years).
Two medics were convicted in absentia to the original 15 years in prison, since they have left the country and are not expected to return. They are Ali Al Sadadi and Qassim Omran.
Lawyers appealed against these verdicts but on 1st October this appeal was rejected and on 2nd October 2012 six of the medics were rearrested to complete their terms in jail, the other four already having completed theirs. Details of all medics now in prison can be read here.
Doctors In Chains believes all medics to be totally innocent. After extensive research into these cases we have never seen any evidence that has led us to believe these medics are anything but honorable professionals who followed their Hippocratic Oath and treated the wounded without discrimination, despite great risk to themselves.