Friday, Jun 10, 2011 12:44 ET
\nDC law firm defends Bahrain on human rights crackdown
\nA top law firm will be paid $550 per hour to help Bahrain respond to allegations it fired trade unionists
\nBy Justin Elliott<\/p>\n
The Bahraini government’s brutal crackdown on a Shiite protest movement has shifted from the public scenes of police attacking protesters in the streets to the detention and prosecution of opposition figures and doctors.<\/p>\n
And now the Bahraini regime has inked a contract with a high-priced Washington law firm to help fight a labor complaint filed by the AFL-CIO about an under-reported aspect of the crackdown: the firing of hundreds of workers and union leaders for participating in strikes and other pro-democracy actions. Sorini, Samet & Associates will be paid at a rate as high as $550 per hour, plus expenses, to help Bahrain’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs lobby against the April complaint submitted by the AFL-CIO under the U.S.-Bahrain Free Trade Agreement. …more<\/a><\/p>\n