Dr Hasan Al Tublani

Dr Hasan Al Tublani

Dr Hasan Mohamed Al Tublani, aged 43, is a doctor specialized in Critical Care Medicine, who is well known across hospitals in the Kingdom of Bahrain, often being called on for consultation.

He graduated from the King Saud University Medical School in 1993 and became a member of the Board of Internal Medicine in 1998. He undertook a fellowship in critical care medicine in Toronto, Canada from 2000 – 2002 and received a diploma in health care administration in 2005 from the RCSI. In 2005 up until the time of his detention Dr Hasan Al Tublani worked as the head of Intensive Care at the Salmaniya Hospital.

Dr Al Tublani’s work consists of half of his time spent working in the hospital and the other half spent on assignments for the Ministry of Health as well as the medical college. He does not belong to any political party.

Dr Hasan Al Tublani also:

• is head of a private hospital committee;
• is a member of the Bahrain Licensure Committee;
• is Assistant Professor at the Arabian Gulf University Medical School;
• established a state of the art intensive care unit of 22 bed capacity;
• participated in several committees including assignment by the Public Prosecutor and the court to examine and document incidents of torture;
• signed a Vienna declaration for patient safety in ICU representing Bahrain;
• received awards from two Ministers of Health;
• has attended several international and regional conferences;
• has participated in overseas consultation taking care of patients requiring ICU care;
• represents Bahrain in the pan Arab Society of Critical Care Medicine.

Dr Hasan Al-Tublani With Colleagues

Hasan is married with four daughters and one son. In his free time he likes to garden and read. He loves nature and has a particular interest in the environment. He also likes to visit zoos with his family and is a keen collector of antiques.

Dr Hasan Al Tublani was recently charged with:

• promoting to overthrow the regime;
• participation in illegal demonstration;
• encouraging hatred against the regime;
• not informing the police about felonies against the regime.

He was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Here is a testimony that Doctors In Chains received from Dr Hasan Al Tublani:

“Since the beginning of the uprise in February I continued to do my role as intensivist and participated in the treatment of seriously injured cases especially cases that are in a state of shock and requiring mechanical ventilatory support.

I responded to all calls by SMC officials for disaster, the last one was the night before they attacked the Pearl Roundabout till the hospital sieges by the army, I remained in the hospital for 3 days acting as consultant and resident in the ICU.

On the third day we were allowed to leave the hospital after inspection by masked military personal.

After that I complained to the assistant undersecretary and the undersecretary that is unsafe to go to hospital due to inhumane behavior of the army people.

On 13th April while I was doing the round in the ICU they called me for interrogation in hospital by 3 people with several ugly charges and they suspended me.

On 29th April masked people and police personnel attacked my home at midnight, they beat me, woke my kids from sleep, took money and my mobile and laptop, throwing everything at home. It was really very painful for my kids to watch gang men take their Dad who is a well known physician, handcuffed and blind folded.

Three days of standing and torture by beating with a hose and hand; this was the time when they took confessions.

I stayed at CID office for 12 days on tiles with no pillows or mattresses and no blanket and no sleep.

During my stay in the CID building we were exposed to physical and mental torture.

Then I was moved to detention area in Asry.

I had no contact with family for 2 months.

We were taken to the court without our knowledge they tortured us by police and military police.

We were isolated from each other for 3 months.

We met with our lawyer only after 3 months.

My charges

-promoting overthrow of the regime;
-participation in illegal demonstration;
-encouraging hatred against the regime;
-not informing police about felonies against the regime.

I was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment.

This is the story in brief.

The following lines cover in nutshell what happened to me since the moment of my arrest:

• Suspended from work on 11/4/2011, after investigation with me from the employer during the army’s presence in the hospital.

• On 29/4/2011 at about three in the morning, the security men stormed my house in the village of Tubli through the fence; some of them were in uniform and others were wearing civilian clothes and had their faces masked. They knocked the inner door so violently in an attempt to break it. I came down and opened it myself and then they took me to the bedroom, beat me in front of my wife. They searched the bedroom, vandalized it, took money which was in a special treasury including Eid bonus for my children, which were often of a class five hundred fils paper. Someone accused me that I had liberated the death certificate of two injured who had died later in the intensive care unit and I accused security men with that. I refused the charges. Then, they beat and blindfolded me , and scared my children, got them out of their bedroom, screaming in their faces. I did not know what happened to my family as the forces took me in a car blindfolded and handcuffed.

• They took me at the same time to what I thought was a health center and took from me samples of blood while I was blindfolded. Then, they have taken me by car to another place I knew later that it was the criminal investigation department in Adleyaa. I was handcuffed and hours later, a security man took me to the ladder in the building and was beating me on my back while dragging me violently. I was taken to investigators who were dictating the charges while I was blindfolded and one of them standing behind me beat me whenever I denied the charges. I faced that over three days. During one of the investigations in the middle of the night, I was beaten with a hose on the head in the military prosecution, as I was told later. One of the interrogators was Bin Huwail. I was blindfolded and they made ​​me stand all night without sleep during the 3 days of investigation. Then, I was taken to the Office of Special Investigations Department of the drug. I was on ceramics blindfolded with no cover or quilt. I was insulted with all kinds of abuse, they insulted my religion and  family, and also threatened me with rape, kicking me and preventing me from sleep. I remained like that for 12 days with dirty clothes and no  contact with a lawyer or my family. On about the twelfth day I was transferred to the center of the investigation in the dry dock prison in ward number 5, where there were the detained medical staff.

• I was forced to sign the minutes of the investigation while I was blindfolded. I do not know what was written in those papers.

• I was placed in a room with about 14 people. We were only allowed to go to the toilet only five times a day. They took our fingerprints several times and our images by foreigners, mostly Asians, who abused us with verbal insults, and sometimes beat us.

• During the arrest of two months, we did not contact our family. Then on 31/5/2011 we were taken to ward number 60 in a small room isolated completely as they only open the door window when they served the food.

Dr Al Tublani meeting his children in prison for the first time after two months

• On 6/6/2011, we were told to be ready to go somewhere after dawn prayers; We were 30 people taken blindfolded and handcuffed from behind and were beaten from all sides by foreign security men. We were taken to Asry prison in deplorable conditions and we did not know what would happen to us. Once again, we were taken in a bus crammed on each other and when we arrived we were told that we are in the military court. We were treated harshly by the military police and some of us dressed inappropriately because we did not know where we were heading. Dr. Abdullah Durazi’s nose was broken in this process. We remained detained in the hot sun waiting for our entrance to the courtroom for almost an hour and a half. We had not meet after our lawyers yet.

• What happened in court was a disaster in terms of what our psychological and physical situation has become due to torture. They squeezed 25 of us in the dock. Then I met a lawyer for the first time and only for a minute.

• I was subjected to a severe case of depression that I lost 14 kg in one month because of the ill-treatment, unjustified detention and preventing me to meet or contact my family.

• During the arrest, they have taken my PC, mobile phone, as well as cash, my wallet and my wife’s wallet.

• I was threatened during the investigation (by Ben Huwail) with sexual assault.

• Doctors who had performed their duty were detained but those who were absent from work were rewarded.

• We have witnessed how our colleagues were beaten and tortured.”

Dr Al Tublani with his family

On 14th June, largely due to international pressure that came about through your support to this campaign, Dr Hasan Al Tublani was acquitted of all charges following an appeal. He must now be reinstated at work, fairly compensated for his ordeal, and his torturers must be brought to justice. Some of his colleagues were not so fortunate and now face a return to prison.

You may also wish to post a message of support here for Dr Hasan Al Tublani using the form below. Note that all messages will be moderated and any that are abusive or damaging will not be published, as this family has suffered enough already.

You may also read Dr Mahmood Asghar’s testimony here.