Urgent Appeal
Bahrain:Human rights activists are targeted after being exposed to torture in earlierperiods
4 July 2017
The signatory human rightsorganizations denounce the new arrest campaign against one of its cadres and members,human rights defender Ebtisam Alsaegh and independent human rights activistMohammed Khalil AlShakhouri by masked security forces in plain clothes whostormed their homes at dawn today.
On the morning of 4 July,armed and masked security personnel stormed the house of human rights defender EbtisamAlsaegh without providing search or arrest warrants, during which she was handcuffedand transferred to the Criminal Investigation Directorate CID, as they claimed.It is the very same directorate, in which hundreds of activists and opponentsreported being subjected to torture.
It is in the same time whensecurity forces in civilian clothes raided the house of independent humanrights activist Mohammed Khalil AlShakhouri and transferred him to the sameadministration, where there are real fears for their wellbeing and exposure totorture again during interrogation sessions.
It is worth mentioning that thisis the second time that AlShakhouri and Alsaegh have been arrested in twomonths, where they have been arrested in May of this year for several hours atthe National Security Agency NSA facility in Muharraq City. They reportedsevere beatings, electric shocks and sexual harassment in order to forcing themto suspend theiractivities and work in the field of human rights and to announce this throughsocial networks such as Twitter.
Prior to the drafting andwriting of this statement, Bahraini human rights organizations received informationthat human rights defender Ebtisam Alsaegh was seen in Isa Town Women Prisonwhere she was transferred to solitary confinement for a few hours and thentaken back to an unknown destination. Reports testified that Alsaegh was seenin a poor physical state, which raises doubts that it is being subject toill-treatment and torture.
Amnesty International alsoissued a statement last monthcondemning the arrest of Alsaegh and demanding that those involved in the torturebe held accountable. Alsaegh gave testimonies to a number of internationalhuman rights organizations.
The signatory human rightsorganizations believe that the recent arrest of Mrs. Alsaegh and Mr. AlShakhouricame as revenge for their outspokenness in exposing their torture,ill-treatment and sexual assault to international human rights organizations.
The signatories also see thatMrs. Alsaegh and Mr. AlShakhouri's valor in revealing what happened to them andworking in exposing the perpetrators of torture in the National Securityapparatus is a courageous and is what the activities and actions of humanrights organizations and bodies is based on. The promotion of human rights principles and pressure to end anyviolation challenging those principles.
These arrests are a message ofintimidation to all those who seek to expose the crimes of torture committed bythe Bahraini authorities through their security apparatuses in a systematic andrapid ways. When the purpose of this intimidation is to silence and implicateall voices demanding respect for human rights and effective pressure to end anypractices that would confuse the principles of human rights and its internationallyrespected values.
The signatoryhuman rights organizations call in this statement on the authorities in Bahrainto:
1. Immediately andunconditionally release human rights activists Ebtisam Alsaegh and MuhammadAlShakhouri.
2. Stop targeting human rightsactivists and allow them to carry out their work without any harassment orretaliation campaigns.
3. Immediately release all humanrights activists who have been imprisoned for their peaceful human rightsactivities.
4. Pursue accountability of thoseresponsible for the torture of Alsaegh and AlShakhouri in the security facilityof the National Security Agency NSA in the city of Muharraq.
5. Stop using torture as a meanof pressure to extract false and unreal confessions.
6. Respect article 5 of theUniversal Declaration of Human Rights and article 7 of the InternationalCovenant on Civil and Political Rights, which stipulate that no one shall besubjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
7. Respect the obligations of theGovernment of Bahrain to protect human rights defenders and protecting theright to opinion and expression.
8. Allow the Special Rapporteuron Torture and Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders to an urgent visitto Bahrain.
Signatories:
· SALAM for Democracy and HumanRights
· Bahrain Center for HumanRights (BCHR)
· The European-Bahraini Organisationfor Human Rights (EBOHR)
· Bahrain Forum for Human Rights
· Gulf Institute for Democracyand Human Rights (GIDHR)