BFHR: Healthof torture victim Hussein Khamis deteriorates while security members amusethemselves by calling him crazy The Bahrain Forumfor Human Rights (BFHR) revealed that the health of torture victim Hussein AliKhamis continued to deteriorate, amid the involvement of the Ombudsman incovering up the violations he is being subjected to and covering up thecontinued deterioration of prison conditions in Bahrain. The BFHR pointed outthat the security members in prison amuse themselves by calling him crazy andlaughing at him as his psychological state deteriorates, instead of providing theappropriate treatment for him. The BFHRemphasized that the continued issuance of statements by the National Institutefor Human Rights that sugar-coat the violations and deny the continuedill-treatment in prisons whenever it is reported that violations have continued,encourages the prison administration to further subject prisoners to degrading treatment,especially since Bahrain's prisons have become a breeding ground for torture. The BFHRpointed out that “Victim Hussein Ali Khamis (born on July 3, 1996) wasarbitrarily arrested from his home in Markouban area in Sitra Island onSeptember 29, 2014, during an illegal raid at about 2:30 am. The security membersheaded to Hussein's room directly, dragged him by force to the car and went tothe Criminal Investigation Directorate (CID) building.” “Hussein wastortured in the CID building in order to extract false confessions from him,and some of the practices of torture included hitting him in the genitals,pouring cold water on him, tying his hands with a rope and tying the other endof the rope to a fan making him attached to the fan and other forms oftorture,” the BFHR said. “The detainee was tortured in the CID building forfive days before he was transferred to the Public Prosecution. When the victimrefused to confess to the malicious charges, he was returned to the CIDbuilding to continue to be tortured for another five days. Afterwards, heconfessed, under torture, to the charges brought against him, which are burningthe mail, gathering and riots.” “The PublicProsecution detained him for about six months before being tried. Then, he wassentenced to 15 years and 6 months in prison, which were reduced to 7 years and6 months after the appeal, and the levels of litigation on the chargesmentioned ended. He was also sentenced to 15 years in prison in a case known asthe Jaw Prison Events, but the Court of Cassation reduced the sentence to 10years,” the BFHR added. "Thetotal of his sentences today is 17 years and 6 months. He is currently beingheld in the Jaw Central Prison, where he suffers from a short-term memory loss.He remembers events that took place many years ago, but does not remember the recentevents or even his friends from before his arrest. He suffers from severe painin the head and back, numbness in the feet and frequent convulsions andfainting, making him incapable of taking care of himself alone. In addition, heis harassed by prison police, who call him crazy and treat him like a “clown”. The BFHRpointed out that the Ombudsman was involved in covering up the violationscommitted against the victim by a nominal procedure, in which the psychologicalstate of the detainee was not taken into account, and his answers were trusted withoutsubjecting him to a thorough medical examination. The BFHR noted that on July 3, 2019, detainee HusseinAli Khamis became 22 years old, and on that day he was placed in solitaryconfinement without taking into account his critical mental and physicalhealth. July 9, 2019 BahrainForum for Human Rights |