Middle East Focus-Arabia Deserta: Is There Really Torture on the Persian Gulf? Do Bears do It in the Forest?…..………..

Arabia Deserta

Is There Really Torture on the Persian Gulf? Do Bears do It in the Forest?…..………..

“In a meeting shortly before our news conference, Shaikh Rashid bin Abdullah Al Khalifa, the minister of interior, told me that the ministry investigates all allegations of abuse, and would do so again. But neither his ministry nor the Ministry of Justice responded to our requests months ago for information about any investigations of torture allegations, and to date no officials have been able to cite a single such investigation. After our report appeared, Foreign Minister Shaikh Khalid bin Ahmad Al Khalifa issued a statement saying that the government would examine the allegations and take "necessary actions" if violations were found. But the interior ministry's public statement flatly denied that any torture happened, and contended that such allegations were politically motivated, despite the abundant evidence presented in the report…….. This was when we started hear, with disturbing regularity, allegations of systematic abuse. Some prosecutors referred those making these complaints to medical examinations by government doctors affiliated with the Public Prosecution Office. Other prosecutors, though, were consistently derelict in meeting their responsibility under Bahraini law to make such referrals. And to our knowledge, in no case did the Attorney General, as head of the Public Prosecution Office, meet his responsibility under the law to conduct a criminal investigation into the allegations. In the face of persisting impunity for serious abuses, those abuses continue……… In my meeting with Shaikh Rashid, the minister of interior, he stressed the need for discipline in society……....”
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