Hasad al sahat 2014

Independent e-newspaper concerned in Bahrain issues

Fields’ Outcomes 2014 A book that records the events of the Bahraini Revolution on the political, legal, social, local and international levels. It is published annually

First editon, Beirut, September 2015 Š Copyright. Bahrain Mirror. All rights reserved

www.bhmirror.no-ip.org | www.bahrainmirror.com editor@bahrainmirror.com | info@bahrainmirror.com ISBN 978 - 9953 - 0 - 3387 - 7

Fields’ Outcomes 2014

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English section

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“After The Sheikhs” Arabic edition introduction Christopher Davidson interview: By 2018, there will be significant changes Wave of hostility towards Britain escalates after Al-Wefaq leader’s arrest Iain Lindsay: "I am Charles Belgrave!"

Important Document: Jordanian policemen costing Bahrain millions Muharraq extremist group recruits school students Nabeel Rajab reveals correspondences with regime before February 14 Inside Nabeel Rajab’s mind: Bahrain involved in embracing ISIS Official newspaper’s anti-Shiite insult exception or part of campaign?

Naturalized citizens replace boycotters in voters list Bahrain’s children: Regime opponents behind bars Detained children: Back to Jail on first school day REDRESS: Evidence of torture and abuse in Bahrain Hussain Hubail captures toxic gas images: now ill-treated in prison Nabeel Rajab reveals: Police tortured Ali Haroun

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To the Leaders of Refrom since 1923..

One day you shall reap what you sowed

9 The introduction of the Arabic edition of "After The Sheikhs" Christopher Davidson "After the Sheikhs", Arabic-edition introduction, published by Awal Centre for Studies and Documentation First published in English in 2013 by Hurst and then Oxford University Press, After the Sheikhs: The Coming Collapse of the Gulf Monarchies is now in its fourth imprint.

It has been reviewed widely by the international media, with articles appearing in The Economist, The Independent, The Guardian, and many other leading newspapers and magazines. Sections of the book have also been adapted and published by Foreign Affairs and Foreign Policy, and earlier in 2014 a Farsi language edition was published in Tehran. As 2014 draws to a close I am delighted to endorse this official Arabic translation of After the Sheikhs, which I hope will help the book's ideas reach an even wider and more critical audience.

Much of course has already changed since the book's first edition, as the Persian Gulf region and the broader Arab world continue to face unprecedented turbulence in the wake of the 2011 Arab Spring. On an external level there have been the dangerous and divisive efforts by certain powers, many of them Gulf monarchies, to extinguish the burst of Arab cosmopolitanism and the glimpse of the new Arab political order that we were so privileged to witness on Tahrir Square and in so many other Arab cities over the course of that year. These extinguishing efforts, to my mind, are best understood as emanating from three camps: firstly an outright counter-revolutionary axis headed

by Riyadh and Abu Dhabi that seeks the support and installation of fresh dictatorships - most notably in Egypt - so as to undermine attempts to set up more representative governments in the region; secondly a ‘fake' pro-democracy camp funded by Qatar's vast resources and backed by Turkey's great clout - they appear to be using existing political Islam organizations as a reactionary mechanism to also engineer outcomes in the region that seem far from the spirit of the Arab Spring; and thirdly a ‘resistance camp' including Syria's Al-Assad regime, the beleaguered Baghdad government, along with Iran and its allies - all of which were caught wrong-footed by the Arab Spring and have

10 not only had to withstand domestic pressures and uprisings, but also the opportunistic advances of both the counter-revolutionary and reactionary axes who have seen a golden chance to remove their old enemies. Meanwhile, the international community has been alarmed by the rise of the mysterious Islamic State, which is undoubtedly the nastiest manifestation so far of the counter-Arab Spring efforts and likely connected to one or more of these camps.

Similarly on a domestic level, the ground is also shifting fast from under the feet of the Gulf monarchies. Although After the Sheikhs was never intended to be an exercise in crystal ball gazing, I am grimly aware that many of the arguments I put forward back in early 2013 are now sadly proving valid. Notably, the attempts by these regimes to ‘contain' the Gulf's own version of the Arab Spring have now led to mass and unprecedented repression, with political arrests having mushroomed in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, and even the United Arab Emirates - once the ‘relatively liberal' darling of the Western powers. Even a critical ‘tweet' will now land a young Gulf national behind bars. This emergence of ‘police states' in the Gulf at a time of rapid modernization and powerful new communications technologies will very soon have serious consequences for the social contracts and legitimacy formulas of the various rulers. Perhaps even more dangerously, the strategy of ‘demonizing' opposition discussed in After the Sheikhs is now clearly spiralling out of control with both Bahrain and Saudi Arabia actively provoking sectarian conflict, while the UAE and Qatar are now in a full blown cold war with each other on how to deal with political Islam - with Abu Dhabi viewing the Muslim Brotherhood as a terror organization while Doha continues to view it as a necessary counterweight to Saudi regional hegemony. Finally on the economic front, efforts to diversify away from oil and gas exports have still come to nothing, with almost all of the Gulf monarchies still hurtling towards the point at which their government spending - massively increased since the Arab Spring - outstrips their declining oil revenues. The subject of my October 2013 article in the New York Times, the now fast-falling oil prices in the wake of huge advances in US oil production has meant the situation is deteriorating perhaps even more rapidly than I had earlier expected in After the Sheikhs, with now more than half of these states having ‘breakeven' oil prices that are much higher than the current price of oil. Very soon, perhaps within the next few months, we will see many of the Gulf monarchies have to cut back sharply on subsidies and other wealth transfers to its citizens - an event horizon that will have a profound and likely irreversible impact on their legitimacy and popularity.

Dr. Christopher M. Davidson, Durham, November 2014

11 Christopher Davidson in an interview with "Bahrain Mirror": By 2018, I am fairly certain that there will be some very significant changes.

The Author of "After the Sheikhs", British professor Christopher Davidson, states that it is no surprise that a Bahraini was the first to produce a full length translation of "After the Sheikhs", pointing out that he was always struck by the vibrancy, intellect, and curiosity of Bahrain's people.

"Bahrain Mirror" did an interview with Davidson, as the Arabic-edition of his book: After the Sheikhs: The Coming Collapse of the Gulf Monarchies, is being launched by Awal Centre for Studies and Documentation.

Davidson is a professor of political science and international affairs and specializes in comparative Middle East politics at Durham University in the United Kingdom. His book, whose first edition was released in the beginning of 2013, is the first academic work that predicts the collapse of the gulf monarchies, which made it one of the most controversial research publications in the world.

Davidson told "Bahrain Mirror" that he is: "fairly certain that there will have been some very significant changes." He also explained that: "a positive example of a constitutional state in either Kuwait or Oman for example, could begin a chain of similar developments in other countries."

Davidson sees as well that: "Such political systems don't seem capable of introducing the necessary measures such as taxation or the removal of subsidies."

Despite criticizing his country's (Britain) attitude towards the movement in Bahrain, Davidson said that "ruling families and autocrats should not assume too much of their friendships with the West, as the Western powers are quick to change and move on, if they need to."

The following is Bahrain Mirror's interview with Professor Christopher Davidson: "Bahrain Mirror": How did your academic interest in issues concerning the gulf grow?

Christopher Davidson: Having lived and worked in the Gulf states, including writing

12 a PhD thesis on the UAE's political economy and then working full-time as a member of staff at a university in Abu Dhabi, my interest continued to grow. This was further fuelled by a fascination for the study of tribal politics, the Islamic religion, and the Arabic language.

"Bahrain Mirror": Do you think that it means something that the first translated version of your book was done by a Bahraini side?

Davidson: It is no surprise to me that a Bahraini was the first to produce a full length translation of After the Sheikhs. Having visited Manama many times I was always struck by the vibrancy, intellect, and curiosity of its people.

"Bahrain Mirror": How do you expect your book to be received as the Arabic edition is being launched today?

Davidson: I expect the Arabic version of the book to be well received - indeed the English language version attracted interest from a wide audience, including key members of government in the Gulf states, human rights activists, opposition members, and even high profile ruling family members. I dedicate the book to free speech and my belief that provoking open, fair debate is essential for the progress of society.

"Bahrain Mirror": You say in your book: "I began researching and writing (After the Sheikhs) in summer 2009," predicting that the collapse of the Gulf monarchies will be within the next 5 years. How do you see it now as five years have passed?

Davidson: In the original version of the book, which was published at the beginning of 2013, I predicted that within the next 5 years the current system of government in the Gulf monarchies will have collapsed. Thus, by 2018 I am fairly certain that there will have been some very significant changes. That's not to say revolutions, as we have seen elsewhere in the Arab world, but perhaps instead moves towards electing prime ministers, limiting the power of autocrat sheikhs, and so on. Sadly, it is also quite possible that the increased repression of citizens and the increasing dangerous foreign policies of certain Gulf monarchies may also greatly destabilize the region leading to less positive outcomes.

"Bahrain Mirror": Will the collapse you talked about be similar to the fall of the Soviet Union?

Davidson: I doubt we will see a ‘fourth wave of democratisation' as we saw with the fall of the Soviet republics. This is partly because the Gulf monarchies are so different to each other, and democracy still seems a distant but not impossible prospect. It is

13 likely, however, that a positive example of a constitutional state in either Kuwait or Oman for example, could begin a chain of similar developments in other countries.

Sadly, however, it is also possible that a series of violent events and confrontations in Saudi Arabia or Bahrain for example, could begin a chain of instability in the other Gulf monarchies too.

"Bahrain Mirror": When reading your book, the reader finds himself overwhelmed with so many details and facts. Would it have been possible to summarize all these informative details?

Davidson: I tried to use as many details, stories, and facts as possible to support the arguments. This explains why there are a huge number of detailed references packed into a 300 page book.

"Bahrain Mirror": You pretty much focused on the revenue-dependent economy and its role in the continuance of these monarchies and the legitimacy it grants them. What could maintain stability in the gulf in case the revenue-dependent economy fails? Would the opposition in these monarchies be able to guarantee the region's stability without revenue-dependence?

Davidson: Unfortunately, with the currently autocratic governments in place, I don't see effective solutions for dealing with the fast approaching collapse of the oil dependent rent-based states. Such political systems don't seem capable of introducing the necessary measures such as taxation or the removal of subsidies. Indeed, if such measures were introduced then the legitimacy of ruling families would be greatly harmed. Opposition movements and future governments must instead focus on honesty and openness - the sooner the populations can be made aware of the economic problems ahead and the type of measures that will have to be introduced in order to preserve stability, the better. This will be no easy task, but with the right strategies in place I believe it is still possible.

"Bahrain Mirror": You say in your book: "Unsurprisingly the new, post-2011 opposition in the Gulf monarchies has manifested itself in different ways". How is that?

Davidson: Since 2011 opposition movements seem better organized, more focused, and more determined. Successful movements elsewhere in the region have provided role models, and new more modern communications (especially social media) have greatly strengthened and emboldened oppositions. Moreover, opposition movements now seem more aware of the strategies and tricks being used by autocratic regimes to weaken them.

14 "Bahrain Mirror": You stated in your book that gulf regimes have succeeded in convincing the west that they can guarantee stability in the gulf region and that doubts are starting to be raised over that conviction. What we are witnessing in Bahrain; in particular, contradicts this. Britain, for instance, is still explicitly supporting the regime in Bahrain as it is without any political reforms, how do you explain this in light of western support? Will this allow the collapse of the monarchies?

Davidson: From the Western point of view, little has changed unfortunately since the time of JF Kennedy and the Cold War. The belief that vicious, repressive governments could be the ‘caretakers of modernization' and ensure that revolutions didn't take place, still seems with us today. In this sense Britain's ongoing support of the repressive Bahraini government isn't much different to the Kennedy government's support of the brutal Baathist regime of 1963 or the Bush government's whitewashing of Saudi Arabia's likely role in the September 11th 2001 attacks. Nonetheless, ruling families and autocrats should not assume too much of their friendships with the West, as the Western powers are quick to change and move on, if they need to. If there is a sense that ruling families no longer have legitimacy or have provoked too much anger from their populations, it will become increasingly hard for Western governments to still demonstrate that they have foreign policies that are stable and sustainable. Moreover, in a new era of abundant oil, the West and in particular the United States are far less likely to tolerate problematic alliances or relationships with countries such as Saudi Arabia.

15 The wave of hostility towards Britain has escalated in Bahrain after arresting Al Wefaq’s secretary general The wave of hostility towards the British government has escalated in Bahrain after arresting Al Wefaq's secretary general, Sheikh Ali Salman. The opposition groups accused the British authorities for inciting the Bahraini regime to strictness towards the opposition that sought to end up the acquisition of Al Khalifa family on the authority since 2011.

Unlike EU and USA who expressed their concern regarding the arrest of Al Wefaq's secretary general and its effects on the escalating of tension in Bahrain, Britain did not issue any stance regarding the arrest of Sheikh Ali Salman.

The protestors burned the British flag in A'ali, south of Manama, which is considered the first of this kind of action in Bahrain where the protestors used to burn the American flag during pro-Palestinian protests.

The Bahraini opposition declared in a statement (on 6th December 2014) its refusal to establish a navy base for Britain in Bahrain after both sides announced reaching an agreement through which Bahrain builds a British base at 8 million dollar cost.

British ambassador to Bahrain, Iain Lindsay, attacked the Bahraini opposition for boycotting the parliamentary elections held in November 2014. Meanwhile, he considered Al Wefaq's rejection to establish a British base an opposition to the international alliance against ISIS. From its side, Waad, the opposition society, considered the British ambassador's statements, "an interference in the internal affairs through launching improper and incompatible characteristics to the public inciting and aggravating for conditions media policy and a try to demonize the opposition and blockade of a main component in the country."

Nabeel Rajab, the president of Bahrain Center for Human rights, said, "I think we will see a lot of people who reject this base, especially that it is related to a government that opposes our struggle for democracy and human rights and totally supports the repressive regime in Bahrain."

16 Andrew Smith, the spokesman of Campaign Against Arms Trade, revealed (in the past September) that Bahrain bought lastyear 18 million dollar worth of arms from Britain in return of its silence regarding the violations in Bahrain.

17

Iain Lindsay: "I am Charles Belgrave!"

In 1816, Bahrain's ruler, Abdullah Bin Ahmad Al Khalifa, was eagerly awaiting the arrival of Captain Bruce, the Political Resident in the Gulf, anticipating the moment he steps off his ship. It was the first visit paid by the empire on which the sun never sets; it was a long-awaited visit. Great joy filled the heart and mind of the Bedouin, whose only thought was of gaining rewards for his tribe rather than a national state, as stated in some of the royal family's publications in an attempt to deceive us.

It is the same mind, heart and attitude the royal family had, which has never changed.

In 1843, Mohammad Bin Khalifa, "The Reckless Bedouin," as the Historian Nasiri Al-Khairi described him, was also waiting for the British ally to help him defeat his uncle. He was the first Al Khalifa friend of the "Great Tribe" (Britain), so described by tribesman who had no concept of a nation state.

In 1869, Issa Bin Ali lay in wait for the Britons, to be chosen as the leader who vows to take no step in Bahrain unless he has the permission of those who appointed him.

Also, in 1923, Hamad Bin Issa waited for the British vessels to besiege Manama and force his father to step down, so that he would come to power amid the opposition of pro-government tribes. In 1926, he anticipated the arrival of British Advisor Belgrave in order to take over the authority on his behalf!

Never have they stop waiting. In 2013, King Hamad Bin Issa explicitly said to the British: "Who told you to leave?" We have been waiting for you since 1816, and until this day, we are still waiting for you. This island is a partnership between us and our relationship defines our common interests in this partnership."

Indeed, before the end of 2014, the British had actually returned to Bahrain, bringing with them the vocabulary of the 19th century's imperialism: "East of Suez", i.e. the Gulf. Therefore, following the first treaty of occupation signed 200 years ago, Bahrain's king signed another agreement with Britain, allowing them to establish, this time, an already paid for military naval base. This return has sparked an uproar on English and

18 western media, which found no explanation for this action but to offer "protection" and "support" to the Bahraini regime once again!

Bahrain is a tribal reward, in the eyes of the ruling family, in which they are "investing" with the foreign English colonialists since signing Bahrain's treaty of friendship or peace in 1820. This treaty aimed at providing a route for the practices of piracy. Al Khalifa at that time were the most prominent group practicing piracy, for they have turned Bahrain into a market for selling commodities obtained by pirates of the Gulf.

What proves that the Al Khalifa family still considers Britain to be a trade partner in their "prize" (Bahrain) is an investigative report recently published by the Financial Times, which established that King Hamad sold underwater plots to himself in exchange for stakes in multibillion dollar ventures with Islamic banks. He later established a group of companies, assigned to "make investments in London". This group purchased more than 21 luxury investment properties in Britain for over 900 million dollars, with its capital represented in the underwater plots!

From London, Premier Group, an investment vehicle owned by the king, manages all of the King's private projects in Bahrain (Bahrain Bay, Diyar al-Muharraq, and other projects). These are projects that promise billions of dollars in returns every year, and are worth more than $22bn.

Thanks to Britain, Hamad Bin Issa and his family now own the Four Seasons Hotel, a retreat run by Marriott Hotels, and an office block opposite Harrods in the city of fog!

A person familiar with the financial dealings of the King's companies told the Financial Times that "the company chose London as an investment haven".

Thus, what is happening now is not only a recall of the imperialistic history, but also a combination of common political and trade interests, whose instruments differ depending on the factor of time, and the place remains the same: Bahrain's coastlines.

However, figures, even if they changed, they are by no doubt repeating themselves: For instance, many say that the British Ambassador Iain Lindsay's personality resembles that of the British Advisor to Bahrain Charles Belgrave (19261957-).

Lindsay's recent intensified statements left no doubt that he is nothing more than a British employee in the Bahraini government, acting as an official spokesman, and military and trade coordinator; and serving Bahrain's diplomacy, security, media, economy, judiciary

19 reform, and counter-terrorism. Of course, the opposition reacts to this...In the end, he is also "the King's close friend", even though he didn't name his son "Hamad" as Belgrave did!

The ruling tribe proves the following equation: "Liberation from Britain=Liberation from the Al Khalifa family". They both represent autocracy and in order to be liberated from this autocracy, this anticipation, which has long-existed since 1816 to date, must be broken.

21 Bahrain Mirror publishes important document regarding Jordanian Police: 499 policemen are costing Bahrain 1.8 million dollar per month Bahrain Mirror reached important documents that assure the existence of about 499 Jordanian policemen in Bahrain whose financial allocation mounts to approximately 700000 Bahraini Dinar monthly (about 1.8 million dollar).

The documents issued by the Bahraini Ministry of Interior on February 11, 2014 and fully published by “Bahrain Mirror” unveil the names, salaries and bank accounts numbers of all policemen found in Bahrain. These documents also show that these names were merged within the ministry staff.

Moreover, these critical documents signed by the finance affairs manager related to the Ministry, Khaled Abdullah Ali Almoaili, reveal that transferring the police’s salary happens via Arab Jordan Bank, where the salaries are asked to be paid to those “attributed to the Ministry” who appear to be of the blood of known Jordanian families.

The average salary for each policeman stands at 1200 Bahraini Dinar (about 31000 Dollars) This new information refutes the announcements of the Jordanian Minister of State for Information Affairs, Official Spokesman of the Jordanian Government, Mohammed Hussain Al-Moumini, who said yesterday on Tuesday, April 1 that “the Jordanian policemen are found in Bahrain for training purposes and for qualifying the Bahraini policemen.”

A letter dated on February 11, 2014 holding the number “A-M-4361-6-” under the title of “Dues to those attributed to the ministry” states that: “enclosed, you will find payment returns of 699.604.073 Dinar (Six hundred ninety nine thousand six hundred four dinar and thirty seven fils) as salaries for February 2014 for those attributed to the ministry.”

These documents states that “the number of accrued persons is 499 one”. All of the names are enclosed within the letter.

22 This number does not include all the Jordanian security members found in Bahrain, but only those who have been recently recruited.

Another letter holding the same date and the number “A-M-46-” notices that the dues transferring is conducted through the “National Bank of Bahrain” to the “Arab Jordan Bank” which opened bank accounts to all the Jordanian policemen within “Special arrangements regarding this issue”, as stated in the letter.

Before considering that “the Jordanian policemen existence had nothing to do with the Bahraini crisis”, the Minister of State for Information Affairs, Sameera Rajab, affirmed during a lecture in Jordan on Tuesday that the Jordanian policemen are found in Bahrain pursuant to a security agreement. Ms. Rajab also underlined that “arrangement and security cooperation with an Arab state is better than that with a foreign one”.

23 An extremist group in Muharraq tries to recruit Bahrainis including school students to fight in Iraq The Gulf Daily News reported that a WARNING has been sounded over a radical group allegedly trying to recruit young Bahrainis to join an insurgency in Iraq and Syria.

It comes as Sunni extremists from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) cut a bloody swathe across Iraq - seizing cities and executing captured government soldiers.

Bahraini MP Abdulhaleem Al Murad, who is president of the Al Asala parliamentary bloc, claimed a new gym in Muharraq was being used by ISIL supporters as a recruitment centre for jihadists.

"There is a well-known group in Busaiteen that is responsible for recruiting young Bahrainis to fight in Syria and Iraq, in the meantime, because of unrest prevailing there," alleged Mr. Al Murad.

He claimed that members of the Busaiteen group have already started visiting intermediate schools for boys to convince students to participate as fighters in regional conflicts.

"They go and meet the boys in school and use religion as a tool to manipulate their thoughts. If not the school, these group members and their leader visit houses and are welcomed by families", said Mr. Al Murad.

According to the Gulf Daily News, Mr. Al-Murad expressed particular concern over the gym that he claimed was recruiting young Bahrainis to become fighters.

"This gym attracts a lot of young boys and, based on my information, it is being used by this group for their recruitment," he said.

The MP, who represents a Sunni Islamist movement, is now calling on police to act.

"There is going to be a surge in the number of people planning to fight in Iraq and the Interior Ministry should deal with these groups according to the law," he said.

24 The journal mentioned that at least four Bahrainis are known to have died since 2011 after signing up to fight in Syria against President Bashar Al Assad's forces.

The Interior Ministry in March offered amnesty to Bahrainis fighting in conflict zones if they returned to Bahrain within two weeks.

However, Mr Al Murad said as far as he was aware none had taken up the offer.

"No one has returned and we urged all clerics in Bahrain to play a bigger role in educating young men in Bahrain," he said.

Meanwhile, Muharraq-based Sunni Islamic scholar Shaikh Salah Al Jowder confirmed he was also aware of a movement in Busaiteen, which was allegedly sending Bahrainis to foreign conflict zones.

He revealed the group arranged plane tickets and other transportation for young Bahrainis travelling to Damascus and Baghdad.

"Many parents are still waiting to hear from their sons, while there are others who have just disappeared and no-one knows about them," said Shaikh Al Jowder.

"I know that young men under the age of 17 are been targeted by these groups in the name of Islam to participate in holy wars."

Bahrain recalled its diplomats from Baghdad on Monday as the bloodshed continued in Iraq.

However, embassy officials say that around 30 students in Najaf have decided to stay.

Sunni militants have sliced through northern and central Iraq since seizing Mosul last week, capturing the key towns of Hawija and Tikrit in the north before facing resistance in southern Salahuddin province.

Government forces yesterday said they repelled an attempt by insurgents to seize Baquba, capital of Diyala province north of Baghdad, in heavy fighting overnight.

25 Two hours with Nabeel Rajab: Nabeel unveils all his correspondences with the regime before 14 February and blows the secret of the American's waiver of protection Bahrain Mirror had a deep talk with the recently-released prominent human right activist, Nabeel Rajab, the president of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights (BCHR).

For the first time, Mr. Rajab uncovers the story of the existence of American protection to him. How and why this protection was waived from him as a step to for his arrest.

Mr. Rajab also talks about his meetings with the American Embassy since the launch of the calls for protests on 14 February 2011 and until him being arrested on 9 July 2012.

Mr. Rajab mentions his letter to the Bahraini king which included some demands needed for reform. Rajab also brought up the phone call of the Minister of Interior to him only few hours before the eruption of the events.

During his meeting with "Bahrain Mirror", Mr. Rajab disclosed some forms of economic pressure exerted by the Gulf States regimes to stop any kind of pressure made by the super powers on the Bahraini regime. In addition, he unveiled ready to be signed deals of millions of dollars with Bahrain being its key, or else!

Following are some extracts of his conversation: Bahrain Mirror: Why was Nabeel Rajab arrested after he seemed to enjoy international protection?

Nabeel Rajab: I am going to say this for the first time, I remembered it while being in prison and I haven't ever mentioned it to any before. After15 March 2011, and after Abdulhadi Alkhawaja and other political figures were arrested, I was arrested for hours before setting me free.

Two days later, I was asked to go to the American Embassy where I met a senior official who told me that the Americans had informed the Bahraini government not to even think about detaining Nabeel Rajab. The official said to me that they told the Bahraini government, "Nabeel is a worldwide famous human rights activist and has his effective human rights role worldwide. Do not arrest him."

26 I remember getting disappointed at that time, although they aimed at making me happy by telling me that news. I started thinking that America had given the Bahraini government the green light to arrest Abdulhadi Alkhawaja and the political figures. I felt annoyed, for, personally, I did not ask for the protection of any and I have no special relation with the Americans. I professionally do my job as a human rights activist, which is the only thing that concerns me.

Bahrain Mirror: When was this protection waivered?

Rajab: About one year later, the embassy asked to meet me and the officer there said to me: Nabeel you don't call for illegal and unlicensed protests? I answered: yes. Then she asked: Do you call for licensed protests? I answered: these protests can't be licensed.

Here, she asked: are they illegal? I replied: Maybe. The law does not mean justice for me, some laws are unjust and I support rebelling against these laws. I continued: if Martin Luther King followed the American laws, the American laws wouldn't have changed today. Moreover, had been Nelson Mandela to obey South Africa's laws, Africa wouldn't have witnessed a change, and had Gandhi followed the English rules, change wouldn't have been achieved. The officer said: this is maybe good struggle thinking, and I may, personally, agree with you, but we are in a public government that deals in what is legal and what is not.

I replied: with all due respect, but yes I call to rebel against the laws that do not match with the norms, particularly, in the absence of a real and effective mechanism for people to change those laws.

It was obvious that the Americans wanted through these questions to get a confirmation from me regarding those issues before their protection waiver, for the authority in Bahrain had told them that Nabeel is breaching the law and causing them troubles.

This took place after my interview with Julian Assange, the Wiki Leaks founder. I think that interview irritated the Americans and may be one of the reasons to take off their protection from me; however, I have nothing at hand to prove this, it's only a gut feeling.

Bahrain Mirror: As long as your unlicensed calls for protests were the cause of withdrawing the protection from you and made your arrest easier, will you repeat your calls for such protests after being released?

Rajab: I can't give you now an absolute answer. All I can say is that every session has a different discussion, I have a lot to do and I want to be outside jail to enact my role and

27 make the Bahrainis' voice heard everywhere. I leave the answer to this question for the coming events to respond, as the events will decide my stances and calls.

Bahrain Mirror: Few days before 14 February, you wrote a letter to the Bahraini King that included some demands to reform the Bahraini situation. Do you see that your letter and demands are still valid and effective till now?

Rajab: Before 14 February, I used to hold meetings with the American Embassy and we had several meetings within a short period of time. At first, neither the Americans nor the Bahraini government knew the seriousness of the 14 February movement, and so was the case with the political societies (parties). The government told the Americans that nothing important is going to happen, while the associations said that the movement is but a storm in a teacup. However, I knew since the beginning that the movement will be a new turn in the Bahraini history. When they asked me in the embassy about the calls for protests, I told them that the issue will be serious, they asked me then: what will happen? I replied: it will be a new turn for the country. They asked: did you address the government? I said: no, I didn't, but this is a good idea. I will write a letter to the King.

Indeed, I wrote a letter on 11 February 2011. The demands were way more less and simple than now. In my letter, I asked to release the political detainees, initiate a dialogue with them and dissolve the National Security Agency. The letter did not grab any official attention, the government and its followers mocked me and they wondered why the king would consider my letter. I say it loudly today, had the content of my letter been taken seriously, the country would have avoided all what happened following my letter and all what it has escalated to today.

Bahrain Mirror: How did they deal with you adopting the call to 14 February demonstrations?

Rajab: the Americans kept on meeting me every two or three days to closely stay updated with the developments of these calls until 14 February came. On that day, few hours before the start of the protests, they called me from the office of the Minister of Interior.

The speaker said: Nabeel...we heard that you called for demonstrations. I said, "I didn't call for demonstrations, I said I will walk in a protest from my home in Bani Jamrah to Sar, this is one of tens of the protests that will be formed in many Bahraini regions.

I have nothing to do with the other protests." He said, "But you called for protests in public, we don't know who called for the other protests." At that time, Abdulwahab Hussein and I were the only ones to adopt supporting the protests by our names, thus, we

28 changed the ambiguity of the calls for protests to known names. The speaker informed me that: "the Minister of Interior sends you his greetings and tells you that it is better for not to go out in a protest because you have no license and it is better to ask for one". "If you really wanted to give me a license to go out in a protest, you would have called me before now, and not only few hours before its start", I replied. "Today we are going to start a new history, the past has gone away", I added. "Send my greetings to the Minister of Interior, thank him for his concern and tell him that we will go out in our protests", I continued. You know what happened in Bahrain after that.

Bahrain Mirror: Do you think that Bahrain faces a real official pressure to find out a solution for its crisis?

Rajab: the first thing to be taken into consideration is that the Bahraini government has a public relation campaign which costs it millions of dollars. It is worth mentioning that Bahrain is the second country in the world, after Israel, to spend its money on public relation campaigns. Moreover, Bahrain tries to get the Congress members to its side by sending them gifts and it does the same with parliamentary members, institutions, and religious leaders.

The second thing is that the governments have their interests that are manifested in loss and profit calculations. These countries have political and economic relations with the Gulf countries and also have a lot of budgets. The Bahraini regime is unlike the Syrian one which has many enemies. Bahrain is among the Gulf States framework which has interest relations with western countries; oil and arm deals of millions of dollars. When Britain exerted a slight pressure on the Bahraini regime for a limited period of time, the Gulf countries stopped all the arm deals from Britain; which cost it millions of dollars. However, when the Gulf countries returned to signing a deal of British fighter "Typhoon", they ordered that this deal to pass through Bahrain and be done via the Bahraini king, in particular. This message was clearly understood by the British. They intentionally sent the Bahraini king to make this deal, as he couldn't meet the British prime minister normally, thus they entitled him to arrange this deal.

Britain has never taken an honorable stance regarding the Bahraini struggle in general and during the historical era, and during the hardest crisis the Bahrainis witnessed.

Despite its long history, the British interests are above the values and principles. Britain has not stood by the Bahrainis during any stage of the struggle in Bahrain. Britain not only always supports the regime, but it economically makes use of every crisis Bahrain faces. 2011 security crisis left a gap and led to a decrease in the balance of trade

29 among Bahrain and the European countries, and instead of taking the same position as the European countries; Britain came to fill this gap and made use of it. Thus, the British ambassador announced few weeks previously that the trade balance mounted to 30% between British and Bahrain in 2012, whereas this rate decreased with countries other than Britain. Today, on 29 May, a statement was issued by Human Rights Watch denouncing the official British stance towards the Bahrainis crisis. The statement literally said, "Stability and reform will stay beyond reach in Bahrain as long as the country's ally, specially the UK, provide its support without any criticism despite the existence of increasing evidence that prove the violations".

Bahrain Mirror: Do you think that the increased dose of sectarianism applied by the regime has a limited or continuous aim?

Rajab: It is not a current or limited thing; however, it works through consolidatingsectarianism project. There is a project of re-engineering everything: re-engineering of population represented by changing the indigenous people, weakening their existence and changing them to be the minority. There is also a project of re-engineering of history represented by rewriting the history and deleting part of its origin. There is also a project of re-engineering the cultural and social side; all of this is for undermining the indigenous population in order that this group does not form a future burden on the regime, economic, or social burden.

The regime works according to a strategy set since 2004; a strategy which was specifically set after the religious leaders went out in a protest against the personal status law. This is definite information and not only an analysis.

Before this incident, there were two trends in the authority; one of them calls for marginalizing the Shiite based on what was laid down in Al Bandar report. This trend could strengthen its position after going out in that protest for it showed the enormous capability of the religious leaders to gather people. Since that day, the regime decided to weaken the existence of the indigenous population in a way that they do not form a burden on the regime anymore and curb the Shiite religious leaders, their charity institutions and their religious buildings. Despite disclosing this scheme found in Al Bandar report in 2005, nothing was changed; however, the scheme worked according to what was planned for. Unfortunately, when Al Bandar gait came to public at that time, the political societies were busy preparing for the elections, the thing that halted every kind of strong reaction; thus the reaction concerning that crime remained very limited

30 at that time. Now and after long years, it is clear that everyone is aware of this scheme, but it is too late.

Now there are various political settlements of new ethnics groups that are being introduced to the country, there are entire cities that are being built for those who are brought and naturalized from different countries- with my respect to all the ethnic groups they come from. There are entire cities that are built for those people next to Jau prison; those people are isolated from the native people, as if they live in settlements. The regime is following a very dangerous schema and is moving quickly and in full swing to achieve it. On the other hand, the regime succeeded in accomplishing the freedom restricting legal system, putting the political and civil societies under the authority's control and banding the movement of Shiite religious readers, their institutions and their religious buildings.

Bahrain Mirror: How can the Bahrainis defeat this project and stop it?

Rajab: there should be a strong resistance form the Bahraini side and from the natives to face this project and defeat it. It is the duty of this people to fail this project with all the available peaceful ways of resistance. This is considered a great crime and conspiracy against the Bahrainis. This conspiracy has to be opposed.

Bahrain Mirror: Is there a specific mechanism to force the authority to respond to a serious dialogue?

Rajab: I think there is no specific way now. The solution has become harder now and we are beyond any political solution. I guess that we have reached a stage where we depend on the pressure of the popular work. The other countries can help, but the movement has to be from the inside.

Bahrain Mirror: In the press conference you held a day after your release, it was believed that you said: if I will not be given my rights, I will call to the downfall of the regime, how accurate is this expression?

Rajab: this expression was said to prove a question that I was asked about the divisions in the street between an opposition that wants to reform the regime and another opposition that wants to bring down the regime. I said the above statement as a kind of example, i.e. when the authority does not respond to my demand; it forces me to oust it.

My job is neither changing the regime nor ousting it. We are human rights activists who are committed to specific human rights measures. Our problem is not with the

31 ruling regime, this issue is to be solved between the political parties and the regime.

My job is to ensure that the judiciary of this regime is independent, stop torture , stop the arbitrary arrests, stop the discrimination against the natives, have an independent judiciary institution, have free civil institutions and have a legislative institution that has the capability and power to legislate and supervise; these are the criteria of my job. If the opposition wants to oust the regime or reform it; this is beyond my criteria, however, this comes within the rights of the citizens of self-determination. There is no problem when demanding to change the regime.

33 Inside Nabeel Rajab's mind..."Bahrain Mirror" presents a defense and evidences concerning the involvement of the Bahraini security bodies in embracing "ISIS" The re-arresting of Nabeel Rajab, Director of Bahrain Center for Human Rights, for his tweet, in which he described the Bahrain security institutions as an "ideological incubator" of ISIS, brought to light the dominant combat doctrine in this institution that forms "a passage" for several Bahraini fighters found within "ISIS" in the conflict areas in Syria and Iraq.

The Bahraini Ministry of Interior had already confessed on 5th September that one of its officers, Mohamed Isa Al-Binali, known as Abu Issa Al Salami, had joined ISIS. The Ministry of Interior declared "it had already dismissed him for failing to attend work". Meanwhile, this was considered the first official confession about the affiliation of foreign fighters in Iraq and Syria to the security institutions.

Question marks raised about Bahrain's participation in the international coalition against terrorism, led by the United States to fight ISIS, led to the acknowledgment of the Bahrain's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa, on 29th September, that there is at least 100 Bahraini fighters fighting alongside ISIS. However, the government spokeswoman, Samira Rajab, stated on 30th September "this is all the information we have until now. There is no more precise information."

In this context, the video, of the lieutenant "Al Binali" with 3 of his friends, posted last week came to disclose a new era of the Bahraini Jihadi phenomena. Al Binali called his fellows in the Bahraini Ministry of Interior to follow him, join ISIS and leave their jobs in the Ministry. The officers in the Ministry know that "they are wrong" and they are still in their jobs for financial motives, added the defected lieutenant.

It is worth mentioning that the "Al Binali" tribe, which Issa Al Binali belongs to, is of the few Arab tribes which is allied to the Bahraini ruling family and whose members are allowed to take leading position in the Bahraini security bodies. The Al Binali tribe

34 occupies the first place among the tribes and the Bahraini families in terms of providing the Jihadi organizations with a number of Bahraini fighters.

There are at least 6 fighters from this tribe who are actually involved in the battles in Syria and Iraqi alongside "ISIS". The tweets of these 6 fighters reveal that they are publically involved in the battles. However, until 2013, Turki Al Binali, who studied the Islamic law, had been visiting Bahrain as one of the prominent leaders in ISIS. Turki is responsible for mobilizing a number of Sunni youth from Busaiteen region and encouraging them to fight in Iraq and Syria.

At least two Bahrainis from the Bahrain Defence Force, Abdul Aziz Al Othman and his brother Abdul Rahman Al Othman, were killed in 2013 while fighting for Al Nusra front in Syria. Social media published their photos in (May 2013) in different regions in Syria wearing the Bahraini army uniform.

The Extremist "indoctrination" in the army institution These evidences opened the door to a debate about the doctrine of the army institutions and the indoctrination of those working in it. In an attempt to answer this question, a group of books issued from the Religious Guidance directorate in the Bahraini Defence Force was unveiled in June this year. In the context of sectarianism practiced by the Bahraini army, these books degrade Shiites, who represent the majority of the Bahrainis, ideology and present it as Takfiri.

"The light of Sunnah and darkness of heresy in the book and Sunnah" book by the author Saeed Al Qahtani presented Shiites as Takfiris with reference to their religious beliefs in visiting the tombs and shrines of the Prophet Mohammad and the Imams in Medina in Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Iran. In his book, Al Qahtani discusses that "going around the tombs to devour those buried inside" is among the acts of infidelity.

In his book, Al Qahtani describes the "Raafidis"; a degradation name used by the extremists to refer to the "Shiites", as heresiarchs and classifies them among the "misguided groups" with respect to their beliefs; including "Druzes, Ismaili, Alawites and others."

The book, which is being distributed to the officers in the Bahrain Defence Force, describes the Raafidi and other religious groups' celebrations of the Birth of the Prophet as "considering it a festival in imitation of Jews and Christians", noting that Muslims

35 should be forbidden from imitating them." The writer also referred to the celebration of Isra and Mi'raj and that of 15th Shaaban.

The Religious Guidance directorate in the Ministry of Defence also printed another book on its own account for the same author, Al Qahtani, under the title of "The light of monotheism and the darkness of polytheism in the light of the book and the Sunnah".

This book includes the same Takfiri implications and is one of the books being distributed to the officers in the Bahrain Defence Force.

Applied Models of the "Takfiri" indoctrination The opinions of the Bahraini military spokesman, Khalid Al Buainain, on his twitter account @Al_Bu3inain provide "a clear sample for the military doctrine that is full of extremism acquired from this kind of indoctrination." These opinions also reveal the usage of the Salafist "Takfiri" lexicon in its stance towards the West, USA, Shiites, Christians, Jews and Alawites.

Al Buainain (who has been recently banned from tweeting and asked to delete all his tweets pursuant to an internal investigation) objected to the granting of a government license (in August 2012) to establish a Catholic Church. He said, "How will God grant us victory when we build temples for Shirk and pagans. How will God grant us victory when polytheism is being supported by the government fearing from saying that we are against the human rights?"

"We did not realize what America was planning for until the departure of Saddam, thus, we handed Iraq over to the Magi and America, in its turn, wanted to hand us over to the Magi," expressed Al Buainain.

However, the comments of the Minister of the royal court, Nasser bin Khalid Bin Ahmed Al Khalifa, who is an officer in the Bahraini Army and the chairman of East Riffa club, give another sample that shows the Salafi incursion inside the ruling family. His twitter account @nasser_khalid is full of clear indications that reveal a fundamentalist configuration of the same national ideology adopted by "the Salafia Jihadia".

Nasser bin Khalid Bin Ahmed Al Khalifa says in one of the comments, "Bahrain is not for all, it is an Arab Muslim country pursuant to the Constitution" adding that, "We don't force the Magi (the Shiites) to monotheism, yet refusing their shirk is a duty and helping them to shirk in Allah is a great injustice". He continues in this context, "Not calling

36 Sunnis and Shiites, but only Bahrainis is a Jahiliyyah naming set by those calling for shirk."

His twitter account has regularly been an announcing port in 2011, 2012 and 2013 to the "Equipping Ghazi (militant)" campaign that aims at preparing fighters to fight in Syria.

Nasser also stated that "the door of equipping the fighters in Syria is still opened. Don't withhold yourselves." He also considered that "There is no good in Muslims' wealth and fortunes unless they assist their brothers in religion in the eastern and western wings of earth."

Until the middle of 2012, "Equipping Ghazi (militant)" campaigns, designed to finance and prepare the fighters, were done in public in the Bahraini mosques such as "Shikhan Al-Farsi Mosque" in Riffa, "Abu Hanifa Mosque " in Busaiteen, "Nadi Al-Sahel Mosque" in Al Hidd, "Sheikh Isa bin Ali Mosque" in Muharraq, "Al Esmah mosque" in Hamad town, "Galali Al Garbi Mosque", in Galali, in addition to other mosques in Isa town and Manama. These campaigns were launched under the supervision of Salafist leaders known for their deep relations with the leader of the Bahrain Defence Force, the field Marshal Khalifa bin Hamad, who announced in a talk on 16th June 2013 that "The Syrian revolution is the only one that can be referred to as people's revolution." Adding, "What happened in other Arab countries such as; Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen and Bahraini is not but a western conspiracy."

According to this information, the human rights defender, Nabeel Rajab's tweets came to shed light on what he called "the ideological incubator" for the Bahraini fighters. He, nonetheless, stated that "many of the Bahrainis who joined the ISIS militia came from the country's security institutions; these institutions were the first ideological incubator."

Perhaps this information opened the door for an official investigation that might have ended up with a big scandal regarding the involvement of the military institutions in broadcasting the extremist ideology and forming a starting ground to the extremist jihadists. However, because all of these happened in Bahrain, the government will only arrest Nabeel Rajab!

37 Was the official newspaper's insult against Shiite exceptional or part of an ongoing campaign?

Finally Al Bilad newspaper apologized on Friday 25 June 2014 in a brief note, mentioning what it called "the unintended words" used in a report by one of its journalists that were said to "insult" the Shiite sect. The apology came following 3 days of angry reactions from the people towards the newspaper and the writer. However, on July 23, and instead of a direct and clear apology, the newspaper sarcastically responded to the anger wave in its editorial through which it talked about its principles that refuse to molest sects and religions. In addition, instead of admitting its mistake which irritated the whole sect, the newspaper called for what it described as "keeping everyone and on top opinion makers away from mongering!"

How could a writer in an official newspaper openly insult the Shiites belief? Was this insult exceptional, or was it part of a continuous drive to insult one sect, which with time has gone too far. The insult is like the fire abyss, if you don't extinguish with sand, the flames will devour more and more.

Since the beginning of March 2011, the authority has launched its humiliating campaign towards the Shiite. It translated it with what was known as "rooting up" and which is still continuous to this day. It has also encouraged the wicked sectarian writers, mouthpieces and speakers to show their evilness. Although the government did not dare to directly to insult the Shiite "belief" in its official press, it devoted its newspaper to exercise all downgrading ways to target "the Shiite component". The officially followed code since 2011 and until now was: I do not target your belief, but I target you because you belong to this belief.

The authority assigned the disclosed humiliation for the Shiite sect and its beliefs for other unofficial platforms in order not to be charged with it themselves. It also mobilized takfirist troops among people.

Known criminals, such as the former Salafist Colonel Adel Flaifel, who is well known for his torturing record and abusing his official post to steal people's money and threaten them, were used. The authority also assigned religious men such as Abdullatif Al

38 Mahmood, the MP Jassim Al Saeedi who delivers sermons on Friday (Salaf), the former 2 MPs Mohammed Khalid (Muslim Brotherhood) and Nasser Al Fadhala (Muslim Brotherhood) to deliver sectarian speeches and spread hatred among the Bahraini society. "Al Mut'ah Sons" speeches became familiar and Takfir also became the belief of every one and every pro-power group who insists upon the infidelity of the Bahraini Shiites and who accused them for nationally betraying their country. Covered with these speeches, a campaign of excluding the Shiites from the government and all aspects of making use of the government's good, wealth, and services is being made.

After 16 March 2011 and after clearing the Lulu Roundabout by extreme force, "Al Mut'ah Sons" speech became more prominent, which is a degrading nickname, used by the extremists in power and some of its advocates to offend the Shiite opposers.

Al Mut'ah is a terms used in the Shiite jurisprudence which is known as a temporary marriage or Mut'ah. This nickname is often used by Salafists and Muslim brotherhood Sheikhs, in order to harras and defame Shiites, claiming they are children of what they believe to be unholy marriages.

Other inciting issues were raised after that, in particular the case of "cutting the tongue of A'rfan, the muezzin" which was acknowledged later on to be a lie. The authority said the Shiite youths cut the muezzin's tongue for sectarian purposes.

In the same context of inciting and triggering the sectarian sedition, "the Child Omar's" case was raised. In this case, the teacher Fawziya Hassan Kazem was accused of regularly insulting a Sunni child for his name, something that she totally denied. As a result, the teacher was fired from her job although she reiterated her innocence.

The platforms that target Shiites started attracting such voices that are full of hatred and sectarian sickness. These voices could finally find a way for their hatred and sectarian malice; thus, they immediately took advantage of these platforms. As a result, the abyss became larger and its flames started to devour more.

Some official employees posted their hatred openly on social media networks pages.

The Bahraini army spokesman, Khalid Al-Buainain, who recently appeared with the king's son Nasser bin Hamad, tweeted on his account describing the Shiites as: "Their God is of human. Their sinless are gods. Their sheikhs commit adultery. Their children are of no ancestry. Their rituals are shirk. http://bmirror.ddns.net/news/14393.html. The public insults did not stop for they were never addressed by the authority. The author

39 Hafiz Al Shaikh also tweeted and described the Shiites as: "the Shiite community in Bahrain", their Azan is a "fashion" and their Mahdi is a "myth".

Jassim Al Saeedi, the salafist MP called the Shiites in one of his sermons "bastards" and that they were all born as a result of unholy sexual relationships. Al Saeedi is one of the religious men run by the deputy prime minister, and cabinet ministers Khalid bin Ahmad. Al saeedi, who enjoys state protection, did not receive any punishment for his inciting of hatred and crimes against the society.

These are just more samples presented by Bahrain Mirror. It was but the official authorities that incited directed and planted the sedition bombs to blow the society up and divide it. This discourse continued until that of the former colonel, executioner and the known criminal Adel Flaifel who said that Sheikh Isa Qassim and the Shiites are unbelievers and described them as polytheists. It is to mention that in his speech, Adel Flaifel openly threatened to arrest Sheikh Isa Qassim and kill him.

Tarek Al Amer who writes in Al Bilad newspaper, owned by the PM's son, continued this series when he provocatively mocked Shiite rituals. Despite the objections, Al Bilad newspaper mentioned the incident without properly apologizing or bearing responsibility for what it had committed. The mention was almost an insistence and stubbornness, however, under the great popular pressure and the official fear from dangerous outcomes as a result of Tarek Al Amer words, the newspaper was obliged to fire him. Indeed, everyone knows that Al Amer's original place is in the office of Hussam bin Isa Al Khalifa, the Prime Minister court head. In addition, the public prosecution has not effectively reacted yet; the political and human right associations say that ways to start legal proceedings are protected by the authority and on top the royal court.

Who lights a fire, gets burnt. This was what the official authorities tried in Bahrain when their measures were turned to be a burden on the authority itself. The international reports and organizations started charging it in public for marginalizing and oppressing the Shiite sect on the grounds of religious and sectarian basis.

40

41 A Parliamentary Reference: excluding a big bloc of boycotters from the voters list and replacing them with naturalized citizens How will the government increase the participation in the elections scheduled on November 22nd given that it is widely expected to be boycott? How will the government hide the huge increase of the electoral bloc based on random naturalization exercised by the authority during the past four years?

We raised this question to a parliamentary reference, an expert in voters' statistics and who has already participated in monitoring previous election sessions. This expert says, "By issuing in law the decree 14 for 2014 related to amending the decree of exercising the political rights, the King aimed to exclude a big bloc of the opposition whom the authority knows will boycott. The authority replaced these opposers by recently naturalized individuals.

But How? The authority waited on the opposition's decision in boycotting the coming elections and accordingly the king issued on 22nd September 2014 decree number 57 for 2014 concerning the amending of law by decree 14 about exercising the political rights. The amended stipulated dangerous thing; it tackled amending the voters' list in Article 8, part 2: "The list of voters must include all those eligible to vote according to article 2 of this Law so as not to be deprived of his political rights during the preparation of the list of voters or during the correction stage. The list will include the voters name and address," illustrates the expert.

This is the "secret of the game", according to him, stressing that the expression "taking into account the previous participation in the elections" has allowed "The Elections and referendums Supervisory committee" to exclude huge numbers of the bloc who did not participate in the previous elections and who are expected not to participate even this year.

However, the bloc was replaced by great numbers of naturalized citizens who served as voters instead of the excluded from the lists names.

42 The parliamentary reference added, "The authority will show through this replacing that the increased number of voters from 2010 to 2014 is normal. If the electoral bloc in 2010 was about 320 thousands voters compared to 350 thousands voters in 2014; i.e. an increase of 30 thousands voters. This is a normal rise in the ordinary cases;however, it is not in Bahrain."

He continues, "Those who were naturalized during the past three years and until now are two times more than this number. Yet, through replacing, the authority will hide this increase in the population which was going to reveal the huge numbers of the randomly naturalized during this period."

"We examined the existence of a group of names in 2014 electoral bloc through Bahrain Vote website by entering the personal number and date of birth of the voters who did not update their data and we discovered that a number of people's names were not found, whereas, other people's names appeared instead. This means excluding an unknown number of voters," he expressed.

43 Children of Bahrain: Those who oppose the regime are in prisons #Eid_without_childhood Why are more than 190 Bahraini children spending Eid inside the prison cells of the “Prison Island” as, the US Assistant Secretary of State, Tom Malinowski described it?

The very first Eid to occur during the period of the 14th February uprising, saw on 31st August 2011 an event that turned Eid celebrations into mourning and sadness. This was the killing of 14-year-old Ali Jawad Al Shaikh, who was shot and killed at the hands of the regimes security forces in Sitra.

Since this time, Eid in Bahrain has changed into protests. However, Eids has been an opportunity for the regime to continue to harvest the lives of a children; a martyr, a detainee and a tortured. Eid is sometimes considered an occasion to remember these children behind the bars whose number has exceeded the hundreds. Other times and for others, Eid is but a time for tragic events.

According to Al Wefaq statistics, the children in the Bahraini prisons have exceeded 450 since the beginning of the revolution on 14 February 2011 until September 2013.

Between 14 February 2011 and until November 2013, the extrajudicial killing cases have resulted in 16 deaths of children. And now the number has surpassed to 20.

Between Alnham’s eye and Hisham Hassan’s School On 13 June 2012, the 5-year-old child, Ahmed Alnham, was next to his father who works as a fish seller in one of Al Dair’s neighborhoods when the regime’s forces directly shot Ahmed in his face. Ahmed Alnham lost one of his eyes in front of his parents with blood covereing his face.

Some schools’ administrations called some students’ parents for investigation sessions because of drawings on the students’ desks like Lulu Roundabout. The 8-year-oldHisham Hassan was suspended from the school on 8 January 2013 and got beaten by the school’s administration members in front of his peers for repeating political slogans.

Hisham was entered into a school commission inquiry without his parents knowledge.

44 Although he was imprisoned, Al Wefaq honored, on 24 July 2014, the outstanding youth, Mohammed Abdulrida Al Jalabi, who graduated from high school with an average of 95%. An empty seat on the platform was specialized for Al Jalabi, where his photo was placed.

Children in the Emergency Courts The emergency military court (national safety period: from March until October 2011) tried two young boys who were unable to even answer the judge’s questions. Some judges hesitated and asked the 2 boys about their ages. One of the judges asked a boy who had no lawyer to plead for him: What do you want? Do you ask for sentence commutation? The boy then nodded his head and the judges inscribed.

Since 2010, i.e. during the security crisis which preceded 14 of February revolution, the regime has imprisoned tens of children and youths (less than 15 years old, or between 16 and 18 years old).

The trying children of 10 year old like Issa al-Maamari or 11 year olds like Jihad Al Samie and Ali Hassan or 12 year olds like Mirza Abdulshaheed or 13 year olds like Salman Mahdi and Mohammed Sadek Al Arab, has become familiar.

The Youngest Terrorist in the World Jihad Al Habashi (18 years old) was detained at the age of 15 (July 2011). He was tried pursuant to the “terrorism” act. He was said to be the youngest terrorist in the world. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Ibrahim Al Mekdad who was also sentenced to 10 years in prison for “terrorism” charges found himself obliged to address the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon from his prison cell: “I am the arrested human Ibrahim Al Mekdad from Bahrain, I address you from my prison cell disregarding that I am a child who is tried for terrorism cases which I do not know. There are children who got detained and I am the youngest among them. I was imprisoned on 27 July 2012 while I was returning home from a nearby amusement park. On 4 April 2013, the court sentenced me to 10 years in prison for several cases related to demonstrating. I want to ask you if the punishment for peaceful demonstrations’ is 10 years in prison?”

Amnesty International sarcastically said that when the Bahraini authorities imprisoned the two young boys Jihad Al Habashi and Ibrahim Al Mekdad, it had to sew new prison

45 uniforms for them because there was no suitable uniforms for their sizes. It emphasized that Jihad and Ibrahim’s issue exemplifies the suffering of tens of detained Bahrainis.

The authority has chased the 11-year-old Hussein Hashin Al Fardan since August 2011.

Searching for him, the authority has raided Hussein’s home more than 50 times before it arrested him last year. Whereas, the 17-year-old Sadek Al A’sfour had been shot before getting arrested during a chase that led to the death of the martyr Fadel Abbass earlier this year.

Arresting children shows that the regime in Bahrain deliberately and intentionally targets the children themselves. The regime does not rely on evidence but on fabricated charges only. For instance, Jassim Al Banaa (17 years) who suffers from a rare heart disease was arrested. In addition, the authority accused the children with imaginary charges like burning armored vehicle or assaulting security men...etc, despite the fact that the children’s physiques do not even allow them to run away!

Unbelievable Children Torturing Torturing children did not stop at this limit, however it has exceeded in an shocking way after the confirmation of news of the torture of children who are less than 15 years old in the youth detention center. Al Wefaq unveiled the suffering of a 14-year-old boy who was severely beaten and stripped, while his head was covered. A sharp instrument was put next to his private parts where he was threatened to be electrocuted. Al Wefaq also said that the public prosecution scolded the boy and accused him of lying when he spoke about what he suffered from. In addition, the juveniles judge did not protect him when he repeated his testimony in front of him, yet the boy was resent to the prison despite all the panic he is forced to endure.

The prominent human right defender, Nabeel Rajab, witnessed the suffering of a number of children and youth on the hands of prison guards. Jihad Al Habashi and Mostafa Al Mekdad were among the tortured and put in solitary confinement for more than a week without letting their parents know.

Amnesty International accused the Bahraini authorities in December 2013 of torturing children who were arrested during the uprising and said that “tens of children were beaten and tortured while in prison during the past two years”. “Some children were threatened by rape in order to extract their confessions,” added the organization. It also ensured that, “putting children in prison, abusing them and torturing them are familiar things in Bahrain”. According to the organization, Bahrain “disregards the international laws

46 through resorting to extreme measures like forcing harsh punishments in imprisoning children”.

The case of the Bahraini children…from Bassiouni’s report to the US department of state Although the case of Bahraini children has reached international organizations such as the Amnesty International organization and Human Rights Watch, the US State Departments report about human rights in Bahrain in 2013 included a whole paragraph about the file: “Children were also subjected to torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment. Human rights groups reported that authorities detained children, sometimes under the age of 15and subjected them to various forms of mistreatment, including beating, slapping, kicking, lashing with rubber hoses, threats of sexual assault, burning with cigarettes, and verbal abuse. Local human rights group Bahrain Human Rights Observatory reported in September that authorities had detained 101 children since January. Human rights activists reported that at least one child was under the age of 13”.

However, if the martyr Ali Al Shaikh was killed in the presence of Bassiouni, it is not surprising to see the martyr Said Mahmoud Mohsen (14 years) getting killed in the same place in Sitra three years later where he was left bleeding on the ground after being shot by a mercenary.

International organizations and great powers are aware of everything happening around the world. The international community, who does not get shaken by the great war crimes against humanity in Gaza, refuses to lift a finger regarding the systematic sectarian and political rooting up in Bahrain, even if when it has included Children!

More than 190 Bahraini Children are in prisons As the regime wants to close our mosques, insult our holy places and cut off our livelihoods, it wants to get out children lost in prisons. It wants to increase the pain of the mothers and fathers while spending Eid without their children as other normal families.

More than 190 Bahraini children are spending Eid in jail, although we all know that the Bahraini issue is not that of arrests, children and victims. It is rather a political

47 change that wants to end dictatorship and authoritarian ruling in the country. However, reviewing these sufferings and sacrifices, particularly the children, means that the revolution is still ongoing.

The main opposition party, Al Wefaq, organized a campaign last year under the title of “assassinating the childhood”. In addition, the Bahraini human rights organizations, with Bahrain Center for Human Rights, Bahrain Human Rights Society and Bahrain Observatory, considered this file, documented a lot of cases and unveiled them to the public. The aforementioned organizations also reported these cases to the Special Rapporteurs of the UN and other mechanisms.

The villages’ networks were also active on social media networking; Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and others. They also worked to document all of the detainee cases, in particular, the cases of children and youths through repeated and organized campaigns to never forget their arrest.

Moreover, Bahrain Mirror specialized a whole chapter in “the Field’s Outcomes 3”, which documented the revolution in 2013, about targeting the children. It has also been working hard since it’s establishment to cover every violation against a child.

The Eid Photos Prominent in most photographs of children this Eid is the victory sign made with their hands, a symbol of the uprising that has been used for over three and a half years.

Nonetheless, we always have to bear in minds that our children are not safe even in our homes.

Every child’s photo tells a sad story. In the campaign organized by Bahrain Mirror, we present a different type of Eid photo; the photo of the detained child with its simple details and great impact. It is not a weeping and lamenting campaign; it is only to remind people that there are still some, even children, who are paying dearly for this political battle.

The campaign will start today to post the arrested cards in groups on its twitter account.

Please write your comments under the photos, print and publish them. Let these photos decorate the streets. Let us feel that those who sacrificed and the victims are alive among us in this Eid. Let the arrested children’s photos be with our children’s photos in their Eid.

48 Thanks and Acknowledgment Bahrain Mirror would like to thank the organizations that participated in its campaign and supported it. Special thanks to Bahrain Observatory for Human Rights, Bahrain Center for Human Rights and the National and International Campaign to free prisoners of conscience in Bahrain “I am Free”.

Bahrain Mirror expresses its gratitude for the Bahraini designer who designed “the arrested child card” and the posters related to the campaign.

Despite the exhausting and wide research conducted by Bahrain Mirror in cooperation with the said organizations, the information mentioned in the arrested children cards might need some updates or addition. It is to note that the campaign included the cases that Bahrain Mirror could reach. We are ready to correct any information or receive any addition from concerned people.

49 The arrested children on the School's Eve: "Back to Jail"!

Robert Fisk, the most famous British journalist worldwide, himself led the process of transporting the medical aid that the Independent readers bought for the Iraqi children in 1998. This process not only faced logistic difficulties, but also political obstacles due to the sanctions imposed on Iraq by the UN from one hand and the banning of Saddam's tyrannical regime of importing medicines on the another hand.

"The arrival of our truck to the Iraq desert was a miracle," says Fisk.

Since 1990 and until the invasion of Iraq, more than one million Iraqi children died due to the oppressive blockade on the Iraqi people. In addition to the victims who died due to shelter bombing, tens of thousands died as a result of cholera, polluted water, malnutrition and a form of cancer caused by the uranium-head missiles shot in Iraq.

Fisk, who conducted investigative reports about this disease, found himself obliged to do another mission beyond his journalistic career: Relief Work.

Our children in Bahrain need some relief work; these children are under the executioner's hands. They need to be protected from arrest, torturing inside prisons, beatings and abuse whilst in their neighborhoods. They also need to be protected from discrimination and childhood arrests whilst even at school.

Our children and youth need to feel protected while at home and safe from the gas canisters, shotguns and the abusing mercenaries. They need to see their detained fathers, mothers and siblings with them at home.

Children are not safe in Bahrain. Worse is that dissenting Bahraini children, which most of them are Shiites, in particular, are not safe. The Bahraini regime is oppressive and sectarian even in its systemic and senseless targeting of children.

No Safety In March 2011 before announcing the state of emergency, the infant (Zeinab Haram) became blind as a result of the tear gas canisters. Moreover, in 2013, Kassim Habeeb, an

50 eight-year-old boy suffocated from the toxic gases and died. While a number of mothers miscarried due to inhaling the deadly gases, tens of children and infants suffered from severe complications as a result of inhaling these gases and were transferred to hospitals.

Some of these suffering children and infants entered into a state of coma.

The imprisoned children were prevented from treatment and medicine, while abnormal boys were arrested. In addition, Abrar Omran, an eight-year-old Bahraini girl was called for investigation with being charged with participating in a protest in Manama.

Meanwhile, teenagers, such as Hassan Aoun, were threatened with rape and tortured.

A youth from Karbabad was detained after being chased. He was subjected to torturing and electric shocks and was obliged to work as a spy for the security bodies. Another citizen was slapped, while carrying his son, by an officer in A'ali country. It is worth mentioning that the child saw his father being slapped.

The 15-year-old Fatima Al Khawaja was shot in her stomach and chest while protesting with her family next to their home in Al Kawarah. However, a child was detained from his bedroom and moved over the fence of one of the houses.

A number of videos showed the brutality of the security forces' dealing with children; those who walk in their neighborhoods next to their homes or those challenging the authorities and walking in anti-regime protests. Another video screened a security man slapping a child while passing in one of the country's street, whereas another one showed a security man holding a camera and hitting a child, knocking him down and kicking him, with another child being severely beaten on the head by the rifle butt.

Sand Barriers next to schools Ali Al Singace, a child, was kidnapped and subjected to sexual harassment at the hands of the security forces. Other children were badly injured while being present at repressed assemblies. Furthermore, school buses were prevented from entering Al Eker country during the arbitrary blockade on it in 2012. The security forces also placed sand barriers in a number of areas where students had to jump over to arrive at their schools, as what happened in Al Daih.

Some schools' administrations called some students' parents for investigation sessions because of drawings on the students' desks like Lulu Roundabout. The 8-year-oldHisham Hassan was suspended from school on 8 January 2013 and got beaten by the school's administration members in front of his peers for repeating political slogans.

Hisham was entered into a school commission inquiry without his parents' knowledge.

51 Although he was imprisoned, Al Wefaq honored, on 24 July 2014, the outstanding youth, Mohammed Abdulrida Al Jalabi, who graduated from the high school with an average of 95%. An empty seat on the platform was specialized for Al Jalabi, where his photo was placed.

Between 1518- years: the teenager youths in the Bahraini legal system The regime is no longer shy about targeting children despite the widespread international condemnation. On the contrary, it increased oppression against them and started bragging that these are not "children" and one should feel no pity for them, for they are "criminals"!

According to the Bahraini regime, a child's age does not have to exceed 15 to be considered one (contrary to the 18 age specified by the international agreements which Bahrain did not commit to). The regime, moreover, specializes a specific legal definition of those between 15 and 18; "Minor Age".

Article 68 of the Bahraini Penal Code, Chapter four, Extenuating Justifications and Circumstances, stipulates that, "Justifications shall either be exempted from punishment or extenuating thereto" and article 70 stipulates that, "Subject to the cases set forth in the Law, extenuating justifications shall be deemed to include the minor age of the accused, who shall be more than fifteen but less the eighteen years of age, and committing the offence for honorable motives or objectives or as a consequence of serious provocation by the victim who has no legal right so to do."

Based on the law, the judge has to commute the sentence "if a mitigated excuse was found" through which the sentence may comprise of a fine instead of imprisonment in some cases.

Contrary to the aforementioned, the sentence issued against the teenagers in political issues since 2011 have been strict and not reduced! Detained at the age of 17, a youth's total provisions reached 64 years in jail, meanwhile, 15-year-old youths were sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Surprisingly, the court of appeal reduced, on 23 August, the sentence of a youth based on the above articles, despite him being charged with assaulting police with Molotov bombs and burning tires "under terrorism purpose". The operative part of the judgment said, "Pursuant to the complaint's age and the articles 71 and 72 of the Penal Code, and based on the excuse that the convict's age did not exceed the 18, the court decided to formally

52 accept the appeal and commute the sentence to 3 years in prison". This case calls for repealing the other provisions or at least dubitante them for the intentionally ignorance of the legal text, even if it "allows" and does not "oblige" the judge to commute the punishment.

Those arrested under the age of 15 are of third graders or high school age. Will hundreds of children and teenagers spend their lives in prison to produce at the end a destroyed and ignorant generation incapable of facing tyranny?

More than writing angry articles When we, in Bahrain Mirror, started our campaign "Children of Bahrain: Those who oppose the regime are in prisons" on 28 July 2014, on Eid Al Fitr, we were sure that "we can do something more than just writing angry articles about the problem of the abandoned children", as Fisk says.

We knew that there are many in Bahrain who do this role, and who had their role in this campaign too. However, this work which started 3 and half years ago and which is promoted by the interference of international organizations does not seem to have any effect on the Bahraini government.

Some fathers of the detained children went themselves to Geneva at the time of the United Nations Human Rights Council's session. There is also a message from the detained children delivered by one of them urging all the countries to interfere to protect them from "tyranny".

The international charters ratified by Bahrain and the "Rights of the child" convention, in particular, did not put an end to children being killed, arrested, tortured and abused at the hands of the police by the riffles butts in Bahrain. However, what is really shocking is transferring these children at the end to the courts being charged with assaulting "security men"!

Amid this revolution that left no way to compromise with the ruling regime, we have to look thoroughly in this file more than the other files of the victims and abused.

Targeting the Children is a part of the organized "Purging" process How can the child (Salman Mahdi) threaten the regime with all its intelligence, security and military bodies? How can he be dangerous to the regime and be punished in prison?

53 When a child (Jihad Al Samie) is charged because of his political culture or when a teenager is charged with insulting the king on the social media, Twitter, while others' charges are blocking the streets or assaulting a security patrol for terrorism purposes, this means that the ruling regime follows an inclusive and organized targeting campaign for the Bahraini children. This targeting is a part of the wider campaign against the natives and the supporters of opposition.

The regime admits that children and teenagers are the most effective group participating in the protests against it. They are raised up, a generation after another, on hatred and opposing the regime's tyranny. Targeting this group is a part of the "purging" and "rooting up" conducted by the ruling regime against the Shiites in an open way since March 2011.

Since that date, these youth were neither needed to be agitated nor encouraged to demonstrate or face the mercenaries that occupy their neighborhood and fiercely implement the regime's authority on them. These children know that they have no future in the light of a system of sectarian privileges which allows the malicious persons to publicly publish their irritation from the Bahraini Shiites academic excellence in the newspapers. The government knows that exerting pressure and bearing down heavily upon the scholars will reach the university missions and being accepted in the specialty desired in the Bahraini University. Nonetheless, this narrowing will also affect receiving financial aids to study abroad!

Some of our children are raised up on cameras and the Internet. They document and read everything. They are aware of what is going on around them, thus they know that the regime won't ever control them or their fathers. We have to prepare our children to what they might be in the future!

Back to Jail!

At the beginning of our campaign, we wanted to reveal a different image of the Eid. This campaign affected the parents' children; some felt happy when we visited them to publish their son's story and others felt sad and could not but cry. We visited our leader's parents and other parents. We documented the arrest of their children. Work teams sent organized lists of the detained children's names. The mothers opened their hearts and painfully talked about what happened to their children. Everyone interacted; however, we know that our work won't exceed documentation and spreading the regime's injustice.

Perhaps the most dramatic scene to the parents of the detained children is tomorrow's

54 morning; the "Back to School" morning, without being able to prepare their children as the others free children to be on their desks at schools.

Few days earlier, the case of the 11-year-old Jihad Al Samie was postponed to November 9, the coming, for not bringing him to the court. Hence, Jihad went "Back to Jail" instead of going "Back to School".

Before writing the Children's uprising outcomes in 2014 Today, before Bahrain Mirror harvests the violations at the end of the year in a book as it annually does, it wants along with the local and international organizations to keep this case always opened. Bahrain Mirror may not do anything more than solidarity and documenting campaigns that deliver the demands and opinions to all concerned people who can make a change. However, we tried to present this file in its real political aspects that sum up the long conflict between the ruling regime and the natives.

Bahrain Mirror not only aims at creating a central data base for the detainees, documenting the violation cases and creating an association that gather the parents of the arrested children and unifies their efforts. It aims at creating a studied and clear plan to face this danger that threatens a whole generation and a whole group of people.

With the beginning of the scholastic year, we continue our campaign for the sake of all the Bahraini children especially those lying behind the dictator prison's bars!

55 REDRESS human rights’ lawyer Lutz Oette: yes, we found evidences on torture and ill-treatment in Bahrain On the sidelines of the Third International Conference: "Bahrain: Ongoing Violations and Impunity" which was organized by The Bahrain Forum for Human Rights in collaboration with The Bahrain Human Rights Observatory, Bahrain Mirror held an interview with Lutz Oette, the lawyer in human rights who also works, since 2001, as a consultant in REDRESS International Organization which seeks justice and reparation for torture victims. Oette emphasized the severity of human rights violations in Bahrain and called for an action to accelerate the allegations and prosecutions, in order to preserve the victims’ rights.

Bahrain Mirror :What was REDRESS job’s for Bahrain? What are the reports made about this country?

Lutz Oette: REDRESS has a longstanding interest in the issue of torture in Bahrain, we’ve covered it from early on in the work of our organization, and in 2012 we went on a mission to Bahrain where we interviewed and examined together with IRCT (International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims). a number of torture survivals. We found evidences of torture and ill-treatment and also spoke to a number of lawyers, human rights defenders and officers. We have issued several reports about this as well as we focused on the importance of implementation of the Independent Bassioni recommendations.

Bahrain Mirror: On the international level, what can we do with the evidences gathered by the human rights activists who went to Bahrain? Can we bring the officials in superior positions to justice?

Lutz Oette: I think there are concerns with a large number of cases of torture and illtreatments which are documented and there have been hardly any accountability. So, no need for those in superior positions, I think it is really a very legitimate question to ask what is being done about that. It was a part of the Bassioni recommendations that there should be accountability, and that also applies to cases after Bassioni published the report. What should be done, at the international level, is to really demand from Bahrain to implement the Bassioni recommendations. It is also very important that the

56 UN special report on torture and the other special reports are given the access to seek for themselves on the ground which extends the recommendations which it implemented, and what are the other steps Bahrain is taking to conform to its international human rights obligations because Bahrain has become a party to a great number of treaties but as long as impunity, at least, in that respect they remain in that letter.

Bahrain Mirror: What do you want to say to the world through your participation in this conference?

Lutz Oette: I think the deliberations of the last 2 days really showed that it is a problem; that accountability has still not been achieved in Bahrain. I think it is very important that we are gathering Bahraini international participants who showed common concern about what is happening, and there were also justified calls for members of the international community to become more engaged and to remind Bahrain strongly of the obligations it has. Also, it is not only something in terms of Bahrain’s obligations; it is the actual right of the victims of the torture actions waiting for justice.

Bahrain Mirror: With time passing over the evidences, would they stay beneficial?

Lutz Oette: It depends on the type of violation of course, but if we talk about torture some of the physical evidence may appear but necessarily all of it. Beating on the feet can be shown it after the event, and also the psychological symptoms or trauma, by way of medical legal reports. But, of course, it is going to be more difficult with the passage of time to prove, so, it is an important point that investigations and prosecutions should be done as promptly as possible and this is against a part of the obligations that Bahrain has on the international law, and of course against something that Bassioni report called for in its recommendations.

Bahrain Mirror: What would you like to say to the people of Bahrain?

Lutz Oette: As a human rights lawyer concerned about the issue of torture, I think it’s very important that justice done for victims for what has happened. But also, that the mechanisms are put in place: the legislations and institutions; the actual practice that prevents recurrence from that. That calls for a broader solution to establish the role of law and respect for the rights of individuals and members of communities. Certainly this is what one needs to happen eventually, because no one wants to see this cycle of violations continuing in Bahrain.

57 Hussain Hubail’s Camera and heart revealed the deadly toxic gases: Now the authority is trying to slowly kill him in prison The security authorities arrested Hussain Hubail, the photographer, because his work was revealing the crime of the deadly toxic gases inhaled by Bahraini citizens every night. The mercenary forces of the Ministry of Interior spread these gases that immerse whole areas under a cloud of poison.

The 21-year-old Hussain Hubail deserves to be freed because freedom is his right. He also deserves to hold his camera again and let its "Flash" penetrate the gas clouds to dispel them. Hubail is a freelance photographer who was awarded a photography prize by the independent newspaper Al-Wasat and whose works have been published by several news agencies and world newspapers through which he covered the tear gas used by the mercenary against protestors.

His work has provoked the oppressive forces and their commanders, thus they tracked him and intelligence was sent after him. Hussain was arrested and charged for being a member of the "February 14 Media Network" and "Tamarod" that calls for participation in peaceful protests. He was also charged for "inciting hatred against the regime" and "communicating with Bahraini opposition in exile".

The Ministry of Interior tried to deny his journalist character, however, "the International Federation of Journalists" consider him to be a journalist, rejecting the claims of the Ministry of Interior. Furthermore, Hussain said that Major Bassam Al Maraj, the Directorate for Combatting Corruption and for Electronic and Economic Security, and the Lieutenant Fawaz Al-Sameem supervised his torturing, threats of rape, beatings across his body and spitting on for four days long.

Following this ordeal, Hubail was then sent to the public prosecution and to the Dry Dock prison. He was resent, a few days later, to the investigation criminal department and to Al Sameem's office for interrogation. At Al Sameem's office, Hussain was subjected to beatings and was threatened with rape once more. At mid night, he was moved to the public prosecution where he was interrogated in the presence of his lawyer. Hussain was transferred to the public prosecution on 14 August 2013 to confirm his testimony

58 without his lawyer being present. The public prosecutor visited Hussain on the same day at the Dry Dock prison and prolonged his detention for 45 days, charging him with "participation in unlicensed protests".

Hubail suffers from heart pain and shortness of breath, however, Jaw administration does not provide him with the adequate health care. Neither has he been transferred to the hospital to follow up his medical appointments, nor has he been allowed to take the medicines prescribed by the doctor. Despite being the torturer, the interrogator and the individual responsible for Hussain's torturing, Al Sameem was called for the court as a witness in the previous court's session. As a result, Hussain was sentenced to 5 years in prison on 28 April 2014 and he is currently serving his punishment in Jaw prison amid an inadequate environment for his health condition.

Bahraini activists, along with "Paragraph 19", a group of independent Bahraini journalists have called on today, Monday 11th August, to tweet about the case of the detained Bahraini photographer Hussain Hubail and to call on the authorities to release him.

59 Nabeel Rajab reveals: Ali Haroun was tortured by three police officers and left with a bloody face in front of Thailand police.

The president of the Bahrain Centre for Human Right, Nabeel Rajab, has unveiled distressing information regarding the treatment of arrested youth Ali Haroun. Ali was hunted down and handed over to Bahrain by the Thailand authorities.

Rajab tweeted, "Based on the information we received, the three wanted for justice criminals; Russell Joseph, Khamis Abdulrassoul, and Mohammad Mounir Abdulmuttaleb traveled to Thailand and helped with the arrest of Ali Haroun."

Rajab clarified what Haroun was subjected to, "Ali Haroun was beaten by three police officers sent by the Bahraini government. He was handcuffed and blindfolded before being forcibly deported to Bahrain on flight number 151. Ali was hit and kicked on his face, head and across his body by these three police officers that committed the crime in front of the Thailand police. It is to note that Haroun memorized the names of these three officers."

"According to the information we received from Thailand airport, Ali Haroun resisted boarding the plane and rolled the plane stairs several times while being hit by the three police officers. At the end, he was anesthetized by the three officers sent by the Bahraini government. Ali's face was bleeding, at that time, the Thailand police were only monitoring and recording the situation but did not interfere," added Rajab.

Rajab continued, "Haroun was entered to the plane from the back door while being anesthetized and was isolated from the travelers. Thailand refused to offer a doctor for this illegal anesthetization. Eyewitnesses in Bahrain Airport and flight number 151 say that Ali Haroun walked the stairs of the plane after its arrival and he looked exhausted."

Rajab pointed that, "the information about putting him in the intensive care while being unconscious means that he was beaten again in Bahrain, for the Bahraini authority arrested Ali from the airport while he was standing on his feet."

"We will tackle later the serious legal and ethical violations that took place on the hands of the Bahraini authorities, Gulf Air and Thailand police during the process that targeted Ali Haroun," Rajab stressed.