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A crime against 14 Bahraini Prisonres of conscience in Jau Central Prison, which several official bodies are involved in covering up:
- Bahraini Ministry of Interior
- The Ombudsman
Human rights organizations supporting the Bahraini security authorities The Bahrain Forum for Human Rights issued a brief report under the title 'Bahrain: Details about Cutting Off the News of 14 Prisoners of Conscience in Jaw Central Prison', as on August 10, 2022, communication with 14 prisoners of conscience in Jaw Central Prison in Bahrain was cut off, whether by telephone or family visits. All of which were canceled by the prison administration for unknown reasons, which the prison administration said were “administrative” reasons. To read and download the report, please click here Introduction This summary report documents the information that the Bahrain Forum for Human Rights (BFHR) was able to gather about the conditions of 14 prisoners in Bahrain, who are subjected to collective punishment by being denied communication with their families by the security authorities and being subjected to unknown conditions in Jaw Central Prison. The information indicates that they continue to be subjected to ill-treatment and torture in prison. It is known that the security authorities adopt enforced disappearance as a means of torture against victims, either to extract information or to subject them to severe beatings and degrading treatment for malicious reasons, according to many testimonies that were documented during the past few years, especially in the notorious Jaw Central Prison. For his part, Hussein Nooh, head of monitoring and documentation at the BFHR, indicated that the security authorities, as usual, benefited from the auxiliary institutions to cover up the violations that the detainees are subjected to, including the Ombudsman, which issued a statement that was in favor of the Jaw Central Prison administration and did not serve the 14 detainees. It is worth noting that the deteriorating prison conditions in Bahrain represent the other side of arbitrary detention. Prisoners are held in correctional institutions that do not meet the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, and provide a fertile environment for torture and ill-treatment, which are used to extract confessions on the one hand and represent a tool of revenge against the masses of the opposition on the other. Details about the incident subject of the report: On August 10, 2022, communication with 14 prisoners of conscience in Jaw Central Prison in Bahrain, whether by telephone or through family visits, was interrupted. All family visits were canceled by the prison administration for unknown reasons, which the prison administration said were “administrative” reasons. In the circumstances of the interruption of communication with them, it was later learned from other prisoners of conscience staying in the same cells that on the evening of August 10, 2022, members of the security services, dressed in civilian clothes, came into the prison and called the names of the 14 detainees in several groups to step forward, and then transferred them to an unknown destination. Since then, communication with the 14 detainees was completely cut off. The last communication with the last of them, detainee Aqil Abdul Rasoul Muhammad, before their news was cut off, was on August 11, 2022. Those detained with them reported that there were no verbal arguments, violence, or any event indicating that their fellow inmates were to be transferred, and that it happened suddenly without clear reasons. Later, after the prisoners were transferred and there was no news of them, police officers came into the cells in which the 14 detainees were being held, and they collected and took the detainees' belongings. The families of the detainees demanded the prison administration to enable communication with their sons, but the prison administration always responded with different pretexts. Some of the pretexts were that the detainees themselves did not want to call their families or that their phone credit had expired, and sometimes they did not answer the calls at all. The detainees' families refuted the reasons given by the prison administration, stressing that they were following up on the phone balances of their sons, and that it is unreasonable that the detainees refuse to contact their families. This raised the concern of the families of the detainees greatly, and prompted them to communicate with several influential parties, namely: - Ministry of Interior Affairs - Crown Prince's Office - National Institution for Human Rights - Ombudsman - United Nations office Between the 22nd and 30th of August 2022, 10 detainees out of the 14 victims were allowed to phone their families. The calls lasted for several minutes and gave a common impression to all the families, which is that these calls were carefully monitored. The detainees did not answer all the questions they were asked, they only answered by "yes" or "no" during most of the call, and sometimes they refrained from answering. In addition, screams similar to the sounds of people being tortured were heard in the background. When detainee Salman Abbas Al Ismail was asked, on August 25, 2022, if they had been beaten, he replied, “Yes, and we still are.” Moreover, detainee Sayed Muhammad Mustafa Al-Tublani stated during a call on August 25, 2022 that they were in Building No. 3, Ward No. 3 (ie, the Criminal Investigation Building). When the detainees were asked about the reason for their transfer and cutting off communication with them, they answered that they did not know. The only call that differed from others was from detainee Muhammad Abdul-Nabi Jumua al-Khor, on August 22, 2022, who appealed to his family for help and said that if he was harmed in any way, he held Lieutenant Muhammad Rashid directly responsible. As a result of what he said, the call was immediately cut off. Out of the 14 victims, the four detainees who were never allowed to communicate with their families, are: 1- Hussein Ali Al-Sheikh Hussein 2- Hassan Ahmed Radhi Sarhan 3- Muhammad Abdul-Jalil Mahdi Jassim 4- Aqeel Abdul Rasoul Muhammad On September 1, 2022, the Jaw Central Prison administration contacted eight families, including the family of Hussein Ali Al-Sheikh, and informed them that there was an available visit to their sons on Monday, September 5, 2022 at 8:00 am. On the scheduled date of the visit, September 5, 2022, the eight families went to Jaw Central Prison. After the families waited for an hour and a half, they were officially informed that the visits had been canceled, and several reasons were given for that, including that there was an error in the visits system and administrative reasons. One of the officers on duty told the family of detainee Sayed Muhammad Mustafa Al-Tublani that he had a video stating that Al-Tublani refused to contact his family. When the family demanded to watch the alleged video, the officer refused for “security reasons.” As for detainee Hussein Ali Al-Sheikh, the reason given by the prison administration is that Hussein is in the Salmaniya Hospital, and they did not provide any other details. The family of detainee Hussein Ali Al-Sheikh then tried to contact the concerned authorities in Jaw Prison to find out the reason for his presence in the Salmaniya Hospital, but their call was not answered. Afterwards, the family contacted the Salmaniya Hospital to inquire, and they were informed that there was no patient named Hussein among the patients admitted to the hospital recently, and that Hussein's last visit to the hospital was in February 2022. A statement was issued by the Ombudsman, which the families of the 14 detainees visited in an effort to reveal the fate of their sons. The statement included the following: “A team from the Office of the Ombudsman visited, on September 6, the Jaw Reformation and Rehabilitation Center, where it conducted investigations into the allegations of enforced disappearance and deprivation of communication against a number of inmates. The field visit is within the framework of the Office of the Ombudsman's professional and legal tasks assigned to it with regard to visiting prisons and places of detention, among others, in accordance with the provisions of decree (27) of 2012 on its establishment, as amended by Decree (35) of 2013. During the visit, the team followed the necessary procedures to investigate into the allegations. When asked by the Ombudsman’s team about the aforesaid allegations, the management of the Jaw Reformation and Rehabilitation Center stated that the necessary administrative measures had been taken immediately against the inmates in question for committing legal violations on August 10, 2022, and that the Public Prosecution had been informed about that incident to take its action.” What the Ombudsman’s statement said contradicts the reasons provided by the prison administration to the families of the detainees, and contradicts the testimonies of the fellow inmates of those 14, who confirmed that there were no arguments or problems prior to the separation of their mates. Up until the date of issuing this report (September 10, 2022), the news of the 14 detainees was still completely cut off, and their whereabouts were unknown. The 14 detainees are: 
Name: Hussein Ali Mohsen Ali Muhanna Date of birth: March 12, 1996 Date of arrest: December 14, 2017 Region: Sanad Total sentences: 31 years in prison Health status: He is wounded by shotgun pellets in his leg and still suffers from complications due to the injury and the lack of treatment. Last contact date: August 30, 2022 
Name: Hussein Ali Ahmed Ali Ahmed Sheikh Hussein Date of birth: November 25, 1995 Date of arrest: December 28, 2018 Area: Nuwaidrat Total sentences: 27 years in prison + BD 200,000 in fines Health status: He suffers from severe back pain, which sometimes prevents him from moving. He also suffers from deviation of the nasal bone and noticeable swelling, because his nose was broken during his first arrest in 2012 and he was repeatedly beaten in the nose during his detention. Last contact date: August 10, 2022 
Name: Muhammad Abdul-Jalil Mahdi Jassim Date of birth: September 11, 1988 Date of arrest: July 3, 2016 Region: Hamad Town Total sentences: Life imprisonment Health status: He does not suffer from diseases Last contact date: August 9, 2022 
Name: Aqeel Abdul Rasoul Muhammad Date of birth: February 21, 1978 Date of arrest: December 29, 2013 Region: Al-Qurayyah Total sentences: Life imprisonment Health status: He suffers from skin allergy and a curved nose as a result of the violence that took place in Jaw Prison against prisoners of conscience in 2015. Last contact date: August 11, 2022 
Name: Hassan Ahmed Radhi Sarhan Date of birth: June 26, 1992 Date of arrest: February 24, 2012 Region: East Aker Total sentences: 31 years in prison Health status: He did not complain of any diseases Last contact date: August 9, 2022 
Name: Muhammad Abdulnabi Jumua Al-Khor Date of birth: May 30, 1996 Date of arrest: August 28, 2015 Region: Karana Health status: He suffers from pain in the ears, sinusitis, and pain in the knees. Total sentences: Life imprisonment Last contact date: August 22, 2022 
Name: Salman Abbas Salman Al Ismail Date of birth: September 7, 1996 Date of arrest: December 20, 2017 Region: Nuwaidrat Total sentences: 7 years in prison Health status: His face was partially paralyzed as a result of being beaten by the security forces. Last contact date: August 25, 2022 
Name: Ahmed Jassim Al-Qubaiti Date of birth: November 7, 1993 Date of arrest: March 17, 2017 Region: Jidhafs Total sentences: Life imprisonment Health status: He suffers from a stomach disease that causes severe pain Last contact date: August 25, 2022 
Name: Sayed Muhammad Mustafa Issa Ahmad Muhammad Al-Tublani Date of birth: November 11, 1999 Date of arrest: October 30, 2018 Region: Tubli Total sentences: 26 years in prison Health status: He does not suffer from diseases Last contact date: August 25, 2022 
Name: Hussein Ali Saleh Mahdi Ayyad Date of birth: August 15, 1997 Date of arrest: February 27, 2017 Region: Iskan Shakhoura Total sentences: 15 years in prison Health status: He sometimes suffers from stomach pain and high fever because the food served in prison is not suitable for his health condition. Last contact date: August 30, 2022 
Name: Ammar Abdul-Ghani Khamis Ibrahim Abdullah Al-Sadadi Date of birth: April 11, 1999 Date of arrest: June 29, 2017 Region: Al-Daih Health status: He frequently suffers from pain in the head and the foot, and is subsequently transferred to the hospital Total sentences: 18 years in prison Last contact date: August 30, 2022 
Name: Hussein Fadel Abdullah Salman Abdulnabi Al-Biladi Date of birth: July 1, 1993 Date of arrest: June 4, 2014 Region: Bilad Al-Qadeem Total sentences: 37 years and 3 months in prison Health status: He suffers from kidney disease and dental problems Last contact date: August 25, 2022 Name: Yasser Ahmed Abdullah Al-Momen Date of Birth: --- Date of arrest: March 17, 2017 Region: Sitra – Al-Kharjiya Total sentences: --- Health status: --- Last contact date: August 25, 2022 Name: Hussain Ahmed Abdullah Al-Momen Date of Birth: --- Date of arrest: March 17, 2017 Region: Sitra – Al-Kharjiya Total Judgments: --- Health status: --- Last contact date: August 30, 2022 |
