Bahrain Freedom Movement

Another young citizen, Mohsin Al Salman, 27, has been kidnapped today by the death squads of Sheikh Hamad. He is from Jad Hafs area and had been in jail before. Earlier this year, he spent with his brother, Jawad, several months in torture chambers because they had participated in a peaceful protest at the airport.

This is the third arrest in the past week and is a serious indication as to the direction of the country under the new despotic regime of Sheikh Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa and his clique. Political prisoners are often ill-treated and often subjected to torture. Torture is widely practiced by the Al Khalifa regime and torturers are given impunity by Sheikh Hamad’s notorious decree 56/2002.

There has been an international indignation at the continued detention of Dr Mohammad Saeed Matar and Hussain Abdul Aziz Al Habshi. The Al Khalifa have refused to allow visits by their families and their lawyers have limited access to them. They are accused of possessing leaflets calling for the boycott of the elections scheduled for tomorrow.

Meanwhile, in a dramatic development, Musa Abd Ali, the former political prisoner who was released last month from months of unlawful detention, has recognised one of his attackers last year. As he was taking part in today’s demonstration against the Al Khalifa hereditary dictatorship, he spotted the criminal, and started to shout. The criminal immediately took cover with the other police units and disappeared from the scene. There are pressures on the government to come clean by investigating the sexual crimes committed against Mr Abd Ali who is determined to pursue his attackers in international courts.

The Al Khalifa hereditary dictatorship suffered a serious setback today as thousands of demonstrators took to the streets to protest the continued silence of the ruling family on the criminal activities of the group exposed by Al Bandar’s report. The demonstration passed by the government house while the participants chanted anti-regime slogans. They called for the immediate dismissal of Sheikh Khalifa bin Salman al Khalifa, the prime minister who had been the chief engineer of the policies of torture and human rights violations since he took office in 1971.

There is also wide condemnation of the way the al Khalifa mercenaries dealt with yesterday’s protest against the detention of the political prisoners. Scores of these mercenaries were seen attacking peaceful protestors including senior popular figures like Abdul Wahab Hussain and Hassanm Mushaime. The protest attracted good publicity from the journalists covering the elections. Several news media broadcast balanced accounts of the protest.

Bahrain Freedom Movement
24 November 2006