{"id":11508,"date":"2012-08-06T08:23:18","date_gmt":"2012-08-06T15:23:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/?p=11508"},"modified":"2012-08-06T08:23:18","modified_gmt":"2012-08-06T15:23:18","slug":"made-for-show-torture-arrests-absurd-prosecution-complicit-in-regimes-bloody-efforts-to-repress-calls-for-democratic-rule","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/?p=11508","title":{"rendered":"Made for Show &#8216;torture arrests&#8217; absurd &#8211; prosecution complicit in regimes bloody efforts to repress calls for democratic rule"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Bahrain prosecution complicit in torture: rights group<\/strong><br \/>\n6 August, 2012 &#8211; Al Akhbar<\/p>\n<p>A leading Bahraini human rights group rejected on Monday an announcement by the country&#8217;s chief prosecutor that 15 police officers would be charged with torturing doctors.<\/p>\n<p>Nawaf Hamza, chief investigator in the public prosecutor&#8217;s office, said in a statement he was officially making known that members of the forces of law and order would face torture charges for their role in a crackdown on pro-democracy protests last year.<\/p>\n<p>He said the charges were being brought following an inquiry launched on the basis of a complaint by doctors at Salmaniya hospital, the main medical facility in the capital Manama.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This procedure confirms the intention of the Bahrain government to bring to account all those found guilty of human rights violations and to recompense the victims,&#8221; Hamza said.<\/p>\n<p>The complainants, also numbering 15, had said they were badly treated during their detention. Some of them underwent medical examination during the inquiry.<\/p>\n<p>But Said Yousif, deputy head of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, accused the public prosecution of being complicit in the suppression of the protests.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe public prosecution are part of the torture, we have testimony of detainees who have been tortured inside their building,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We also have testimonies of people who have told the public prosecution they have been tortured and they have been ignored. We don&#8217;t believe it is an independent institution, it is part of the problem.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Yousif added that a number of ministers had been accused of being complicit in the torture but had not been investigated.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Senior members of the ruling elite were involved in torture but they are only charging the low-level officers,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>Bahrain came under strong criticism from international human rights organizations over its crackdown on a pro-democracy uprising which began in February 2011.<\/p>\n<p>Saudi Arabia sent troops in March 2011 to help Bahraini authorities crush the protests.<\/p>\n<p>An international panel commissioned by King Hamad to probe the government&#8217;s clampdown found out that excessive force and torture had been routinely used against protesters and detainees, leading to the deaths of a number of protesters. <a href=\"http:\/\/english.al-akhbar.com\/content\/bahrain-prosecution-complicit-torture-rights-group\" target=\"_blank\">&#8230;more<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"igit_tsb_button\" style=\"float: left; margin-right: 10px;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/share?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.crookedbough.com%2F%3Fp%3D11508&amp;text=Made+for+Show+%27torture+arrests%27+absurd+-+prosecution+complicit+in+regimes+bloody+efforts+to+repress+calls+for+democratic+rule&amp;count=horizontal&amp;via=\" style=\"\" class=\"twitter-share-button\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bahrain prosecution complicit in torture: rights group 6 August, 2012 &#8211; Al Akhbar A leading Bahraini human rights group rejected on Monday an announcement by the country&#8217;s chief prosecutor that 15 police officers would be charged with torturing doctors. Nawaf Hamza, chief investigator in the public prosecutor&#8217;s office, said in a statement he was officially <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/?p=11508#more-'\" class=\"more-link\">more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[247],"tags":[743],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11508"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11508"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11508\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11509,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11508\/revisions\/11509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}