Bahrain uses torture to instigate fear in opposition: Rights group
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Bahraini men mourn during the funeral of Ali Abdulghani, 17, who died of injuries suffered in a police chase, in the village of Shahrakkan, south of Manama on April 5, 2016. (AFP)
A Bahraini human rights group says the Manama regime uses torture systematically to instigate fear in its opposition.
On Sunday, the Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR) published a report titled "From 2011 to 2016, The Screams of Torture Still Echo" in which it strongly condemned the Ale Khalifah regimes’ crackdown on voices of dissent.
The publication of the report coincides with the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture.
The BCHR documents Bahraini authorities’ different methods of ill-treatment and torture of political prisoners and minors, which include beatings, forced standing, electric shocks, sleep deprivation, food deprivation, humiliating and degrading treatment, threats against family members or of a sexual nature.
The advocacy group also stresses that the Bahraini government does not abide by international law with respect to the crime of torture.
“Bahrain acceded to the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (UN-CAT) on 6 March 1998. In accordance with its obligation under the convention, Bahrain’s report was due in 1999. However, the government of Bahrain submitted its report five years late, in 2004. Although Bahrain’s first treaty Periodic Report was due in 2007, no Periodic Report has been submitted since,” said the report.
Since February 14, 2011, thousands of anti-regime protesters have held numerous demonstrations in Bahrain on an almost daily basis, calling for the Ale Khalifah family to relinquish power.
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