{"id":19545,"date":"2013-12-31T10:15:53","date_gmt":"2013-12-31T17:15:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/?p=19545"},"modified":"2013-12-31T10:15:53","modified_gmt":"2013-12-31T17:15:53","slug":"regime-rhetorically-addresses-torture-allegations-after-pressure-from-rights-community","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/?p=19545","title":{"rendered":"Regime Rhetorically addresses torture allegations after pressure from Rights Community"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Bahrain says probing torture claims by men jailed in bombs case<\/strong><br \/>\n30 December, 2013 &#8211; Reuters<\/p>\n<p>Bahrain said on Tuesday it was investigating torture claims by three men jailed for 15 years for two homemade-bomb attacks &#8211; including one during last year&#8217;s Formula 1 car race.<\/p>\n<p>On Sunday, five men &#8211; including two who were tried in absentia &#8211; were convicted by a court for their role in the blasts, which destroyed several vehicles but caused no injuries, according to the Gulf Arab state&#8217;s official BNA news agency.<\/p>\n<p>BNA said the men had admitted being behind the bombings but the men&#8217;s lawyer, Jassim Sarhan, told Reuters they pleaded not guilty to involvement in the attacks and told the court their confessions during questioning were obtained under torture.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The Kingdom of Bahrain does not and will not tolerate any form of torture or mistreatment. The Special Investigation Unit (SIU) did receive complaints from the defendants,&#8221; the government&#8217;s Information Affairs Authority (IAA) said in an emailed statement to Reuters.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The SIU takes these allegations very seriously and have looked into these claims. Their investigation is currently ongoing. We can&#8217;t give further information until the investigation is completed.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Bahrain, home to the U.S. Fifth Fleet, has been in political turmoil since a 2011 uprising led by majority Shi&#8217;ites who demand more say in running the kingdom, which is ruled by the Sunni Muslim al-Khalifa dynasty.<\/p>\n<p>Widespread and excessive force, including confessions under torture, was detailed in a report by an international human rights commission led by Cherif Bassiouni, a prominent Egyptian-American jurist.<\/p>\n<p>The Bahrain government says it has taken steps to address security forces actions, but activists say abuses continue.<\/p>\n<p>The SIU was set up as part of the Bassiouni commission&#8217;s recommendations.<\/p>\n<p>The Manama government quelled the 2011 revolt in the island kingdom, but almost daily protests and small-scale clashes continue, and bomb attacks have been increasing since mid-2012.  <a href=\"http:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/2013\/12\/31\/us-bahrain-torture-idUSBRE9BU0BY20131231\" target=\"_blank\">&#8230;source<\/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%3D19545&amp;text=Regime+Rhetorically+addresses+torture+allegations+after+pressure+from+Rights+Community&amp;count=horizontal&amp;via=\" style=\"\" class=\"twitter-share-button\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bahrain says probing torture claims by men jailed in bombs case 30 December, 2013 &#8211; Reuters Bahrain said on Tuesday it was investigating torture claims by three men jailed for 15 years for two homemade-bomb attacks &#8211; including one during last year&#8217;s Formula 1 car race. On Sunday, five men &#8211; including two who were <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/?p=19545#more-'\" class=\"more-link\">more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[247],"tags":[1441],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19545"}],"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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19545"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19545\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19546,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19545\/revisions\/19546"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}