{"id":3305,"date":"2011-09-28T18:26:41","date_gmt":"2011-09-29T01:26:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/?p=3305"},"modified":"2011-09-28T18:26:55","modified_gmt":"2011-09-29T01:26:55","slug":"military-trial-verdicts-affirms-obamas-lack-of-interest-in-reform","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/?p=3305","title":{"rendered":"Military Trial Verdicts affirm Obama’s Lack of Interest in Reform"},"content":{"rendered":"

Military Trial Verdicts Expose Bahrain\u2019s Lack of Interest in Reform<\/strong><\/p>\n

For Immediate Release: September 28, 2011 – Human Rights First<\/p>\n

Washington, DC \u2013 Human Rights First today condemned the harsh prison sentences confirmed by Bahrain\u2019s military court for 21 prominent dissidents. The group said the sentences expose the government\u2019s flawed legal process and its lack of interest in reform.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of the men have credible evidence that they were tortured in custody, but they were not allowed to raise that evidence during their trial, which fell well short of any legitimate legal standard,\u201d said Human Rights First\u2019s Brian Dooley.<\/p>\n

According to Dooley, eight of the 21 dissidents had life sentences confirmed in today\u2019s appeal. Among those before the military court today were human rights activist Abdulhadi Al Khawaja and political leader Hassan Mushaima. The original June 2011 prison sentences \u2013 ranging from two years to life in prison \u2013 for the other 19 on trial were also confirmed at today\u2019s hearing.<\/p>\n

The 21 dissidents are seen as leaders of the pro-democracy movement that became part of this year\u2019s Arab Spring movement. Bahrain is ruled by a monarchy in which the king\u2019s uncle has been the unelected prime minister for the last 40 years. In response to calls for reform, the Bahrain government cracked down violently on peaceful protests, arresting over 1000 people. Torture in detention was widespread and at least four dissidents have died in custody. Violent attacks on peaceful protests continue almost daily.<\/p>\n

The Bahrain government has made no real attempts to engage in negotiation with the democracy movement. Instead, government leaders organized a sham \u201cNational Dialogue\u201d with only selected groups.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Bahrain government today revealed its real intentions on reform as it condemned these leading opposition figures to years in prison after a show trial,\u201d stated Dooley. \u201cIn May, President Obama told the Bahraini government that \u2018\u2026you can\u2019t have a real dialogue when parts of the peaceful opposition are in jail.\u2019 Unfortunately, the Bahrainis chose to ignore President Obama\u2019s advice, and the U.S. Government has since failed to publicly press that point. Today\u2019s verdicts against peaceful jailed opposition leaders make the prospects of real negotiations, regional stability and democratic reform more remote.\u201d …source<\/a><\/p>\n

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Military Trial Verdicts Expose Bahrain\u2019s Lack of Interest in Reform For Immediate Release: September 28, 2011 – Human Rights First Washington, DC \u2013 Human Rights First today condemned the harsh prison sentences confirmed by Bahrain\u2019s military court for 21 prominent dissidents. The group said the sentences expose the government\u2019s flawed legal process and its lack more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[247],"tags":[582],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3305"}],"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=3305"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3305\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}