Sunday, 24 June 2012

Members of the Bahraini Royal Family Beating & Torturing Political Prisoners


Nasser Bin Hamad Alkhalifa

Testimonies of Victims of Abuse
After the crackdown on the pro-democracy movement in Bahrain reports have been received from victims stating that they were subjected to severe beatings and torture by people they identified as members of the Bahraini royal family. Five members of alkhalifa have been specifically mentioned by victims
Swedish Citizen tortured by Nasser Alkhalifa, son of King Hamad
After the crackdown on the pro-democracy movement in Bahrain reports have been received from victims stating that they were subjected to severe beatings and torture by people they identified as members of the Bahraini royal family. Five members of Alkhalifa have been specifically mentioned by victims, they are: Noura Bint Ebrahim Alkhalifa, Khalifa Bin Ahmed Alkhalifa, Khalifa Bin Abdulla Alkhalifa and sons of the King, Khaled Bin Hamad Alkhalifa and Nasser Bin Hamad Alkhalifa. One of the victims subjected to torture by Nasser Bin Hamad Alkhalifa is Swedish citizen, Mohammed Habeeb Al-Muqdad, currently imprisoned at Al-Gurain military prison.
Another victim also testified that he was interrogated by Khalifa Bin Ahmed AlKhalifa, who had a picture of the victim in a peaceful protest by the Ministry of Information. The victim says he was asked repeatedly about his participation in that protest, then was blindfolded, beaten and electrocuted on his genitals.
In another case, three of the activists arrested and sentenced for attempting to overthrow the regime also reported that they had been beaten by members of the royal family. The first, Abdulla Isa Al-Mahroos, said he was beaten by Nasser Bin hamad Alkhalifa, and that Nassar forced him to open his mouth then spat in his mouth. Al-Mahroos was also beaten by Head of the Security Apparatus Khalifa Bin Abdulla Alkhalifa. Who kicked him repeatedly in the stomach and ordered the prison guards to walk over his stomach which caused internal bleeding in the abdomen. Afterwhich Al-Mahroos was transferred to the military hospital where he had two surgeries.
The second is Swedish citizen Mohammed Habib Al-Muqdad, who was detained in an underground prison in the National Security Apparatus in the Fort. Al-Muqdad recalls that while being tortured suddenly everybody was silent. He heard his torturers say “your majesty” someone asked him “do you know who I am?” When Al-Muqdad said no, his blindfold was removed and the man infront of him said “I’m Prince Nasser Bin Hamad Al-Khalifa. When you protested outside our castle in Safriya, only a wall separated us”. Then Nasser asked Al-Muqdad what chants he had said that day at the protest. When Almuqdad said “Down Down Hamad” Nasser slapped Al-Muqdad who fell to the ground, then with the help of torturers beat him severely.
There is a wealth of evidence confirming that, at the very least, the government and the ruling establishment had knowledge and condoned the actions of the security forces. The most notable example of this is the actions and speeches of Nasser Al Khalifa , the son of the reigning monarch. In a public forum, on state television, Nasser Al Khalifa threatened retribution to all those involved in the protests regardless of their position in society and their profession. In a telling final statement, Nasser Al Khalifa noted that, as an island state, those involved in the protests in Bahrain had “nowhere to escape too”. If any doubt could be attributed to his unequivocal assertions, such doubt would be obliterated by the actions of the government and the personal actions of Nasser Al Khalifa. Within a few hours of this statement, the systematic targeting of athletes involved in the protests commenced. To compound this, Nasser himself became personally involved in the torture.
Mohammed Hassan Jawad (64 yrs old) was blindfolded and handcuffed when Nasser Bin Hamad asked him “do you know who I am, its Nasser with you” Then the son of the king started interrogating Mr. Jawad about the Safriya protest and accusing him of organizing the protest. To force him to confess, Nasser beat Mr. Jawad with a hose on his head until he fell to the ground. Then Nasser started kicking him mostly on his back, while swearing at shia clerics and imams.
Al-Safriya checkpoint
Different victims beaten at tha Al-Safriya checkpoint (close to the palace of the king) gave their testimonies but asked we do not share their names out of fear for their safety. The first is a bus driver who was driving high school students when he was stopped under gun point by the Bahraini army at the checkpoint. He was shocked when Nasser Bin Hamad, son of the King, came wearing a military uniform and started beating him. The victim says Nasser never used his hands but kicked him, in sensitive areas, in his head and chest, and mostly on his face until he started bleeding. When soldiers told Nasser that they would beat him, Nasser replied “No leave him to me”. After severe beating the victim was arrested for two weeks until the marks on his body faded.
Many other victims came forward but were afraid they would be targeted if they spoke out and asked us not to include their accounts in our report. Putting members of the royal family in the positions of torturers and interrogators has only lead to more mistrust and anger towards the monarchy.

Evidence of Nasser Alkhalifa leading security services during crackdown on protesters in Sitra.
Nasser Alkhalifa on national television threatening all those who revolt against the regime.

http://www.bahrainrights.org/

VIDEO: ESPN Report on Arrest & Torture of The Athletes Of Bahrain

ESPN Report on Arrest & Torture of The Athletes Of Bahrain 

 

http://search.espn.go.com/bahrain/video/6

Detailed list of the referees and the violations they encountered:


Detailed list of the referees and the violations they encountered: 

1. Muammar Ameen Wattani (International Referee):
Muammar's picture was published on BahrainTv in the sport program “Hadath Khas” [Special Event], which is presented by Fayiz AlSada, and hosted Majed sultan, Abdullah Bunoval and Faisal AlSheikh. Where they libeled the athletes and called them traitors and other unmoral descriptions. Before the program, a defamation and distrust campaign invaded the social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and governmental and sectarian forums through publishing pictures of him in the march or in the Pearl Roundabout with sectarian and racist comments.
10th April, 2011, Local governmental newspapers published his final suspension from arbitration for participating in the march (The Handball Federation was the only sports body that published in the newspapers names of those who were suspended for participating in athletes march).
11th April, Muammar was dismissed from his job in the Ministry of Health, two days later; he was arrested and spent 79 days in detention, where he faced physical and psychological torture. The referee was in Noaim police station and transferred between Dry Dock and Hoora police station.
2. Isa Mohammed Sowayed (Retired International Referee -Chairman of the Referees Committee)
10th April, 2011, local newspapers published his suspension from all his positions in the Sport Federation as the Director of the Federation and the Chairman of the Referees Committee due to his participation in the athletes march (The Handball Federation was the only sports body that published in the newspapers names of those who were suspended for participating in athletes march).
3. Abdulwahid Al Eskafi -Retired International Referee and referee’s observer (a board member of Bahrain Handball Federation)
He was sacked from arbitration and arrested on April 13, in Noaim police station for 15 days and encountered to psychological torture and insults.
4. Abdul Ridha Kadhem Al Owaynati – Handball referee.
He was arrested on March 18, used to work in the Ministry of Interior and sentenced to four years. On August 8, he was released, since then he wasn’t called for arbitration resumption, although he was not banned from the Handball Federation.
5. Issa Jaffer – First referee
He was dismissed from his job in Bahrain National Gas Company (BANAGAS) for more than 6 months, and then returned under unfair terms.
Other suspended referee’s due to expressing their views:
15th April, 2011, the secretary general of the federation (Khalid Najim) stated that dismissing all referees made by the Handball Federation were taken based on pictures shown on Bahrain TV, after his meeting with the new committee where he called the dismissed referees as traitors.
* Radhi Habib – International lecturer in International Handball Federation , referee’s observer and a member in the Referees Committee
* Ghassan Ameer – International Referee
* Ali Ebrahim Al Shamrookh – Continental Referee
* Mohammed Habib Radhi – Continental Referee
* Hassan Abbas – Second Referee
* Ali Al Shuwaikh – Second Referee
* Hani Al-Shahabi – Second Referee

Wednesday, 20 June 2012

Britain urged to ban royal head of Bahrain Olympic committee

Britain urged to ban royal head of Bahrain Olympic committee

Son of Bahrain's king set to visit London 2012 despite being accused of violating athletes' human rights during Arab spring
Sheikh Nasser
Bahrain's Sheikh Nasser has been accused of torturing detainees during the Arab spring. Photograph: Marwan Naamani/AFP
This article is the subject of a legal complaint made on behalf of His Highness Sheikh Nasser bin Hamad Al Khalifa. A response from the President's office, Bahrain, was published here on 22 June 2012.

Britain is being urged to deny entry to the head of Bahrain's Olympic committee – the son of the king – on the grounds of alleged involvement in serious human rights violations in the Gulf island state.
Prince Nasser bin Hamad Al Khalifa is claimed to have been "personally engaged" in beating, flogging and kicking pro-democracy protestors during Bahrain's brief chapter in the Arab spring last year.
Documents submitted to David Cameron and William Hague, the foreign secretary, and seen by the Guardian, describe how Sheikh Nasser launched "a punitive campaign to repress Bahraini athletes who had demonstrated their support (for) the peaceful pro-democracy movement.
"Following his directives more than 150 professional athletes, coaches and referees were subjected to arbitrary arrests, night raids, detention, abuse and torture by electric cables and other means," said the European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR), a Berlin-based group.
Mohammed Hassan Jawad described how he and Mohammed Habeebe al-Muqdad were treated by the king's son at Manama Fort prison clinic on April 9 after they had taken part in a demonstration calling for the overthrow of the regime. "He started abusing us, began to flog, beat and kicked us everywhere," Jawad told a dissident newspaper quoted by the ECCHR. "He took a rest and drank water and then resumed the torture by pulling us from our hair and beards. No one else was involved in our torture and hence agony... He ordered the jailers to put our feet up to beat us. The torture continued for almost half a day until dawn."
Sheikh Nasser denies the allegations. The government of Bahrain acknowledges that human rights abuses have been committed by the authorities and says they, along with Sheikh Nasser, "unequivocally condemn them". Abuses were investigated by the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI), appointed by King Hamad to examine the handling of the unrest.
The UK government has said in relation to the Olympics that "where there is independent, reliable and credible evidence that an individual has committed human rights abuses, the individual will not normally be permitted to enter the UK."
Bahrain is a sensitive case in the wider context of the Arab spring protests since King Hamad is treated as a valued ally of the west who plays host to the US Fifth Fleet and is close to Saudi Arabia, the regional powerhouse and the Middle East's biggest oil exporter. But his Sunni Al Khalifa dynasty rules over a restive Shia majority which has experienced sharp polarisation since the events of last year, when some 50-60 people were killed. The government in Manama has often blamed Iran for fomenting unrest.
Britain regularly urges the Bahraini government to implement the findings of the BICI, especially as they relate to human rights. King Hamad was in London for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee celebrations earlier this month.
Unlike other more prominent figures, such as the Syrian president Bashar al-Assad or Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe, Sheikh Nasser is not subject to an EU or UN travel ban, so a committee of officials and ministers from the Foreign Office, Home Office and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport will decide whether to grant or deny him a visa.
"The irony of welcoming to the London 2012 Olympic Games an individual who is alleged to have led an organised and brutal repression of athletes because they peacefully exercised their internationally recognised right to freedom of expression and association during Bahrain's Arab Spring would be a blow to all athletes around the world, and irreconcilable with the UK commitment to human rights and claimed support to peaceful pro-democracy movements," the ECCHR said. The bid is being supported by Bahraini opposition groups.
"Anyone can make allegations but without evidence they are not valid," said a spokesman for the Bahraini embassy in London. "We are very disappointed with NGOs who are focusing on Bahrain and forgetting about Syria."
The issues of sport and politics in Bahrain met explosively earlier this year over the Formula One Grand Prix, which went ahead despite concerns about ongoing human rights abuses.
Avaaz, the online campaigning group, is also circulating a petition demanding that Sheikh Nasser be denied entry to the UK. The ECCHR campaign is based on the argument that the prince could be held criminally liable according to international human rights law standards. It urged the government to act on this case and ensure it is "not subjected to politically-driven double standards".


http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jun/20/bahrain-olympic-prince-human-rights

Thursday, 24 May 2012

UK in Olympics human rights hypocrisy


Just days after Britain raised human rights activists’ condemnation for welcoming King of Bahrain at Queen’s jubilee lunch, it has hypocritically announced leaders with human rights abuse records will be banned from Olympics.


"Where there is independent, reliable and credible evidence that an individual has committed human rights abuses, the individual will not normally be permitted to enter the UK,” Foreign Office Minister Jeremy Browne said in an answer to a written query by the MPs.

This is while the continuation of bloody crackdown on protests by the al-Khalifa regime in Bahrain is now the focus of international human rights groups and even the United Nations.

The Human Rights Watch said in the weekend that the UN Human Right Council should scrutinize Bahrain’s deplorable record during the country’s Universal Periodic Review on May 21 to ensure “Bahrain’s routine suppression of basic political rights” as well as “grave human rights violations” are accounted for.

Human Rights Watch also criticized the international response to the bloody crackdown in Bahrain saying the voice of the international community regarding Bahrain’s manifold violations has been subdued.

On Wednesday, the UN Human Rights Council said Bahrain has agreed to consider 176 recommendations on its human rights situation.

This is while Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry under the very al-Khalifa regime acknowledged in a report in November 2011 to a number of human rights abuses including systematic torture of detainees yet the Human Rights Watch said they have not been implemented.

“The king established an independent inquiry to investigate these potential abuses, but it failed to fully implement the inquiry’s recommendations - namely holding senior officials accountable for crimes such as torture or for failing to free protesters who were jailed for exercising their right to free expression and peaceful assembly,” it said.

Against such a colorful backdrop, a major question hangs in the air: whether the British government’s Olympic ban includes the Bahraini king who dined with the Queen just last week.

And if yes, whether British officials were unaware of the al-Khalifa crimes when they welcomed King Hamad in London.

AMR/HE


VIP treatment: Life is golden in the Olympic fast lane

VIP treatment: Life is golden in the Olympic fast lane

As the rest of us get used to being also-rans in the race for tickets, a chosen few are preparing to enjoy nothing but the very best of London 2012

Time at the web browser, please, ladies and gentlemen, that's your lot. With last orders called on Olympics tickets yesterday as the final batch went on sale, if you haven't already got your pass to the greatest show on earth, football notwithstanding, the overwhelming likelihood is that you never will. A few tickets for boxing, diving, taekwondo and a smattering of others remain, almost all with prices tags reaching well into the three figures, but that is it.
Those having to make to do, then, with enviously peering over the crowds this summer from their seat on the sofa, will find their eyes alighting on a decidedly generous handful of people who, believe it or not, haven't spent the last 12 months forlornly clicking the "Refresh" button on the London2012 website. The Olympics remains the unrivalled showcase for the globe's moneyed and powerful. About 120 heads of state, the heads of almost all the governing bodies in world sport and the chief executives of the world's biggest companies are only a small proportion of the thousands of portly felines who will stroll past the queues at Heathrow into their waiting BMWs, be driven in their special lanes to the best hotel rooms – reserved for them at preferential rates by London's organising committee – and after a cocktail or two, park their posteriors in the best seats in the Olympic house.
Just who is and isn't on London's glittering guest list this summer would bewilder even the most fearsome bomber-jacketed bouncer.
First there are the heads of state, believed to number about 120 – comfortably more than the 87 who journeyed to Beijing. The Foreign Secretary, William Hague, won't reveal exactly who or how many there are, but the list will have been finalised some time ago.
The Metropolitan Police are expecting to provide plain clothed armed protection for about 150 people attending the opening ceremony on 27 July. These men (and one or two women) do not travel light, and will bring their own, unarmed we are told, security detail, too. Quite what events they will attend will have already been ironed out in phone calls between embassy staff. If some don't turn up, don't expect their tickets to go back into the hands of the public. They will be seated "in royal boxes and such like," say organisers.
Kings and queens and presidents do not even form part of the much vaunted "Olympic Family", which numbers about 80,000 people. The biggest proportion, by some distance, are the sponsors. About 25,000 people working for the Olympics' 55 official partners – from McDonald's and Dow Chemical to Thomas Cook, Heathrow Airport and Holiday Inn.
Locog, the committee organising the Olympics, say these 55 companies have been allocated somewhere between four and six per cent of the tickets, about half a million seats. Many of these will find their way into the public's hands through competitions and such like.
Most sponsors are providing payment in kind – Panasonic are doing the big screens, BT the wi-fi. The law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer are the official legal advice providers, including, more than a little comically, on whether the eye-wateringly expensive corporate hospitality packages might land anyone who buys them foul of the Bribery Act. Procter and Gamble are another, though they are publicly giving all of their allocation to the friends and family of Team GB athletes.
But they will still have a gay old time. Coca-Cola, one of the seven "top tier" international sponsors have hired out, London's Langham Hotel in its entirety for the games. Not even the usually public bars will be open.
Then there's the International Olympic Committee, which at 204 has 11 more countries on its books than the UN. The heads of individual countries' National Olympic Committees dish out the tickets to the general public of their nations, but invariably not without holding a few for themselves and their guests.
Last but not least, the heads of the governing bodies of the 26 Olympic sports, everyone from water polo to football. So eyes peeled for Sepp Blatter, coming to an Olympic Zil Lane near you.
Heads of State
Anyone with an EU travel ban will be prevented from attending, so that rules out Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe, Belarus's dictator Alexander Lukashenko, and the world's persona non grata No 1, Bashar al-Assad, of Syria. But that doesn't cover Uzbekistan's despotic leader Islam Karimov and his Turkmen counterpart Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, who are both hoping to attend.
Sporting bosses
The heads of all the Olympics' 26 sports will be in London this summer, from the men and women who run water polo, taekwondo and such like, to those who perch a little higher up the money tree, not least football's Sepp Blatter. Expect to see "lovely lady" and "daughter of a sultan", as Sepp described her, Lydia Nsekera too. Burundi-born Nsekera has been a member of the International Olympic Committee since 2009, and as of this week, is FIFA's first female board member.
CEOs
Andrew Liveris, the Australian CEO of Dow Chemical, will be wrapped up safe inside the Dow-sponsored stadium, the headache for the organisers that isn't going away. Recently he said those still trying to sue Dow over the 1985 Bhopal disaster are "trying to drag us in because we have deep pockets." They undoubtedly do. Their 10-year Olympic sponsorship deal cost £64m. Muhtar Kent, Coca-Cola's CEO, may be propping up the bar at London's Langham Hotel sipping, of course, a Coca Cola-based cocktail.
Olympic chiefs
Every nation has its own National Olympic Committee. Some of its heads are more savoury than others. Sheikh Nasser bin Hamad al-Khalifa is head of Bahrain's Olympic Committee and hopes to attend, despite torture allegations against him. Syrian army general Mowaffak Joumaa is head of the Syria's Olympic Committee and also plans to attend. UK border staff may refuse both men entry, if independent evidence of human rights abuses is available, but the Foreign Office will not comment on individual cases.


London 2012 Olympics: Ban King’s Son and Head of Bahrain Olympic Committee - Activists

By Anissa Haddadi: Subscribe to Anissa's
May 24, 2012 1:14 PM GMT
 
Human Rights activists have set up a petition on the Avaaz community petitions website in a bid to prevent the president of the Bahrain Olympic Committee from attending the Olympic Games in London.
 
Activists are seeking to secure at least 15,000 signatures for the petition in a bid prevent Sheikh Nasser bin Hamad al-Khalifa, one of the King of Bahrain six sons and president of the Bahrain Olympic Committee, from attending the London 2012 Olympics.
"Sheikh Nasser bin Hamad Al-Khalifa is the president of the Bahrain Olympic Committee. As such, he is entitled to attend all events at this year's Olympic 2012 in London free of charge, receive discounted accommodation in a luxury hotel and be chauffeured to and from the games in a BMW," a statement on the website said

In addition to protesting against the sheikh's position on the country's Olympic committee, the petition takes issue with him having publicly called for "a wall to fall on the heads" of demonstrators who participated in peaceful mass pro-democracy protests last year.
He also headed a committee that arrested, imprisoned and tortured up to 150 sportsmen and sports officials, including a disabled athlete, activists said. Some of thpse detained during the incident claimed to have been beaten up by Sheikh Nasser.
"They were arrested, imprisoned and many were tortured. Some prisoners claim that they were personally beaten or tortured by Sheikh Nasser himself. Their crime? Peacefully demonstrating and calling for the downfall of the Al-Khalifa ruling monarchy, of which Sheikh Nasser is a leading member and the King's son." the petition said.
Activists were further angered by Sheikh Nasser's reaction following the arrest of Mohammed Hubail, who plays for Bahrain's national football team, in April 2011 for taking part in pro-democracy protests.
Upon learning that Hubail had been sentenced to two years' imprisonment, Sheikh Nasser tweeted: "If it was up to me, I'd give them all life."

The petition calls on Prime Minster David Cameron and Jacques Rogge, president of the International Olympic Committee, to prevent Sheikh Nasser's entry to the UK and declare it as "undesirable".
Last week, international powers criticised Bahrain's human rights record during a United Nations Universal Periodic Review in Geneva.
Representatives from the United States said the country still had to implement the most important recommendations of the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry.
The commission was appointed by the King of Bahrain following the brutal crackdown on protesters during unrest in February and March last year.
Delegations from the US, France, Switzerland and Denmark also called for the release of of Abdulhadi Alkhawaja.
Alkhawaja, a leading Bahraini human rights activist and former president of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights, was arrested last year.
He was convicted by a military tribunal of plotting to overthrow the state after taking part in pro-democracy protests.

e has been on hunger strike for more than 100 days in protest over his conviction.
His daughter, who also is an activist, was sentenced this week to one month in prison for attending an illegal gathering and assaulting a police officer
The Bahraini government continues to insist that it is committed to political reforms and human rights.
To report problems or to leave feedback about this article, e-mail: a.haddadi@ibtimes.co.uk
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