V. Bahraini Government Officials’ Denials

While visiting Manama, Human Rights Watch met with a group of officials at the Ministry of Interior, including deputy minister Brigadier Tariq bin Zina and inspector general Brigadier Ibrahim al-Ghaith.[190] The officials denied that torture had taken place in the cases documented here and claimed that the consistency in the accounts of abuse reflected the fact that the individuals Human Rights Watch interviewed had been imprisoned together and had consulted the same group of defense lawyers. In the stated opinion of these officials, the consistency of the specific allegations of abuse was evidence that the allegations had been fabricated. The officials also said that the former detainees who alleged abuse were trying to arouse political sympathy.

When Human Rights Watch pointed out that many of the victims said they had been kept apart from other prisoners for much of their detentions, the officials said this was not true, and that even in the CID headquarters the detainees were confined in groups of three or four persons. We note, however, that at least in the Hujaira case, the court ordered the end of solitary confinement for the defendants more than a month after they had made specific allegations of abuse to the court.[191]

Human Rights Watch told the officials that much of the alleged abuse occurred during interrogation and that in the Jidhafs case, for example, interrogations seemed to focus on finding the weapon that protestors had allegedly taken from a police vehicle. Inspector general al-Ghaith said that videos in the possession of the authorities allowed them to identify exactly who took the weapon, making it unnecessary to coerce such information.[192]

The officials acknowledged that abuse of detainees had been a problem in the past, referring to the period before Shaikh Hamad assumed power in 1999, but said that the Ministry of Interior now has an appropriate system in place to investigate allegations of torture and ill-treatment. “Abuses happen,” one official said, “but we are serious about prosecuting.” The officials told Human Rights Watch that inspector general al-Ghaith—in conjunction with the Internal Affairs Department—was responsible for carrying out such investigations and reporting to the chief of police.

The officials also said that some cases of abuse by government agents have gone to the Police Court, an arm of the Ministry of Interior.[193] The officials told Human Rights Watch that between July 1, 2007, and June 12, 2009, 163 investigations had been completed, 17 of which resulted in convictions. The officials said that there had been no convictions for torture or ill-treatment arising from complaints of detainees in the Jidhafs, Karzakan or Hujaira cases. Col. Muhammad Buhamad, assistant undersecretary for legal affairs and a former prosecutor, said he had sent his officers to the CID “to look for the alleged instruments [of torture], but they didn’t find any.”

Human Rights Watch also met with Ali Fadhul al-Buainain, head of the Public Prosecution Office, which is under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Justice.[194] Al-Buainain told Human Rights Watch that, by law, suspects are brought to meet with a prosecutor within 48 hours of arrest, except in counterterrorism cases. He said that in meetings with prosecutors, suspects are accompanied by counsel. He also said that a prosecutor will ask a suspect whether he has suffered beatings or any coercion, and look for signs of abuse. If the suspect complains of abuse, according to al-Buainain, the prosecutor continues the interview, but then refers the case to “our forensic doctors.” Some who complain of abuse nevertheless confess, al-Buainain said, but such confessions, by law, have to be ignored and the prosecutor must rely on other evidence to prove the case in court. Some defendants, he said, only raise allegations of abuse when they get to court.

Al-Buainain confirmed that torture complaints are referred back to the Ministry of Interior, which conducts an investigation and deals with the accused officer in the Police Court. He said that, as far as he could recall, he had not referred any such cases to the Ministry of Interior since December 2007, when the first of the incidents documented in this report occurred. Bahraini law gives the Ministry of Interior the responsibility for investigating allegations of torture and ill-treatment by security officials, al-Buainain said, and his office follows up with the Ministry of Interior.

Like the officials with whom Human Rights Watch met at the Ministry of Interior, al-Buainain said that the consistency of the allegations of abuse by detainees was a reason why, for him, they “do not ring true.” He acknowledged that there may have been some “individual mistakes,” but not the kind of systematic abuse that had been alleged.