Bahrain Court Hands Down Harsh Sentences to Doctors and Protesters

by admin on Thursday, September 29th, 2011 | No Comments

More than a dozen doctors who worked at a central hospital in the capital, Manama, received 15-year sentences, the news agency said. Other medical personnel at the Salmaniya Medical Complex, Bahrain’s largest public hospital, were given terms of up to 10 years.

The sentences were the latest sign that the country’s Sunni monarchy would continue to deal severely with those involved in widespread protests earlier this year, mostly by members of its repressed Shiite majority. Much of that effort has been focused on the doctors and nurses who treated demonstrators.

At the height of the protests, security forces commandeered the Salmaniya hospital and arrested dozens of doctors and nurses. Human rights activists have since accused the government of a systematic effort to deny medical services to wounded protesters. The international relief organization Doctors Without Borders stopped working in Bahrain last month after its offices were raided.

The government, in describing its sentences on Thursday, said the medical workers had taken over the hospital and used it as a base for antigovernment activity. They were convicted of possessing fuel bombs and light weapons, confiscating medical equipment and “fabricating stories and lies.”

The medical professionals have said it was their duty to treat everyone and have rejected accusations that treating protesters was akin to supporting their cause.

In the case of the police officer’s death, the court said the man, identified as Ali Yusuf Abdulwahab Al Taweel, had run down the officer with his car during antigovernment protests in Sitra, an oil hub just south of the capital, and was guilty of an act of terror. Another man, driving a second car, was sentenced to life in prison for his involvement.

Sitra, known for its activist Shiite population, was a stronghold of antigovernment activists at the height of demonstrations this year. The government of Bahrain, with help from Saudi Arabia, violently put down the country’s peaceful protest movement in March. Demonstrations still occur regularly in Bahrain, though they remain small.

“The government has turned to using the law for repression,” said Mohammed Al-Maskati, head of the Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights.

On Wednesday, the security court upheld life sentences for eight prominent political leaders, The Associated Press reported. Earlier in the week, the court sentenced 32 people who took part in demonstrations — including at least two members of the Bahrain national handball team — to 15 years in prison for protesting illegally.

“They are sending a very negative message to the international community that Bahrain is not moving in the right direction in terms of respecting human rights,” Mr. Maskati said.

Human rights groups say 34 people were killed, more than 1,400 arrested, as many as 3,600 people fired from their jobs and four people died in custody after torture since the unrest began in the tiny Gulf kingdom of about 525,000 citizens.