Bahrain: Eye-witnesses tell BCHR the details of an assault at Jaw Central Prison
At least 500 detainees injured after torture, and 10 transferred to solitary confinement
Bahrain Centre for Human Rights expresses its concern at reports coming from inside Jaw Central Prison that detail the torture of detainees, injuries among their ranks and their transfer to the solitary confinement block after a riot that occurred on Tuesday 10 March 2015. The incident began when a family protested after being prevented from visiting their relative. The Ministry of Interior claim that the family’s protest led to damage and vandalism in the visiting room- they say that this led to the arrest of one female Bahraini. On the same day, an uprising began in Buildings 1, 3, 4 and 6 of Jaw Central Prison. In the wake of this, police forces began to attack detainees. Photographs leaked from inside the prison, which BCHR has seen a copy of, show detainees were subjected to suffocation by tear gas during a huge security deployment in the prison.
An eyewitness informed BCHR that the incident began in Building 1 of the prison, when police forces locked the main door to the building and then began shooting tear gas canisters and shotgun pellets into the prison. The detainees responded by throwing empty plastic water bottles. The police then headed to Building 3, where they again fired tear gas. As a result, clashes broke out in which a police officer received light injuries. There were a large number of cases of suffocation among the detainees. Minutes later, special forces entered Building 4 and began randomly beating detainees, only stopping when one of the convicted detainees, Mohammed Sarhan, succumbed to suffocation. Only moments later, special forces attacked the building a second time, leading to further cases of suffocation among the detainees. They also received injuries from rubber bullets and shotgun pellets. The eyewitness added that the first wing that the forces took control of was one housing detainees sentenced to life and substantial terms in prison. The majority of state forces were from the Jordanian Gendarmerie forces.
The eyewitness told BCHR that large numbers of Jordanian Gendarmerie troops entered Building 4 of the prison and ordered detainees to stand in a line. They began beating the detainees with batons – the beatings were focused on sensitive areas of the body. The eyewitness added that the forces subsequently brought the detainees out of the courtyard behind the prison building and led them with their hands in plastic restraints, finally keeping some of the group on the ground before transferring others to the courtyard. There they were tortured and beaten. A group of them were taken to an unknown location which the witness was only later able to identify as Wing 10, which seems to constitute a number of private rooms – havens for the torture of detainees.
A second eyewitness told BCHR that at around 20:00 on Tuesday 10 March 2015, a group of police officers attacked Building 3 of the prison, which is allocated to detainees from 18 to 21 years old. They began beating the detainees, who numbered over 500, with batons. The detainees were taken out to the building’s corridor and thrown to the floor, and the police officers jumped over their bodies. “The detainees were laid out like a bridge, and all the officers took part in stomping on their bodies. Many had broken bones and bruising to the ribs and the limbs”. The eyewitness adds, clearly describing the state of the detainees, that the detainees “were taken in a line out to the outer courtyard – they were surrounded by people beating them. It’s a distance of about 300 meters, for which they were surrounded by two lines of police who beat them one by one. After that they gathered in the outer courtyard and began calling out their names and asking them irrelevant questions – the aim of this was to incite the detainees in order to justify beating and photographing them. The detainees were organized into a line, and each member of the Gendarmerie and the riot police forces beat them with batons. This continued until noon the next day, and all occurred under the watch of Nasser Bukhait, who witnessed police forces beating detainees and confiscating the mobile telephones smuggled into the wing”.
The eyewitness continues: “The detainees were told to stand in a line along the wall with their hands on their heads, and forced to chant slogans supportive of the regime. Others were forced to insult themselves and their relatives. Some were made to lick the shoes of police officers and to smear faeces on the wall. They were humiliated and made to dance and sing. This treatment went on until the evening – the detainees remained in the outer courtyard overnight before police woke them the following morning with a beating and further cursing. They were forbidden from visiting the toilet, and were forced to carry out their bodily functions in the courtyard. Some were forced to cut their hair and beards in a shabby fashion that caused a great deal of humiliation for them. At dawn on 12 March 2015 all the detainees were taken to the playground of Building 3, where security gards erected a big, dilapidated tent where the detainees were made to sleep while the building continued to be searched for smuggled mobile telephones. After that another group of detainees were brought. It was discovered later that they were from Building 6, which is allocated to detainees between 15 and 18”.
“Movement was forbidden, and anyone who moved was beaten straight away. After a while they brought mobile cabins, a kind of mobile toilet. The detainees were finding it very difficult to carry out their bodily functions there. Due to the miserable situation they were experiencing, the detainees indicated that they would begin a hunger strike. However, the prison administration hired forces known within the prison as the “Safrah” forces – they consist of many different nationalities. The forces began beating the detainees with batons to force them to eat. When some of them refused they were taken to a corner and made to kneel. Their hands were tied behind their necks and they were threatened with death or being transferred to Wing 10. The detainees were subjected to many different forms of torture – when the shift of the police ended, the shift of the Jordanian Gendarmerie, who took even greater revenge against the detainees, would begin”.
A leaked photograph shows the torture a detainee was subjected to inside the prison
Instead of allowing local human rights groups to visit the prison and confirm the safety of conditions inside, the Interior Ministry ordered detainees to be deprived of visits and phone-calls with relatives. This is considered a contravention of international law governing the treatment of prisoners. BCHR has learned that some of the detainees were transferred to the General Prosecutor accused of inciting riot within the prison. BCHR can confirm that the names of detainees given in this report (find list below) are only those that witnesses were able to recall – news of others remains cut off at the time of publication.
Based on the above, BCHR calls on the United States, the United Kingdom and the United Nations, as well as all close allies of Bahrain and relevant international organisations to put pressure on the government to do the following:
- Clarify the fate of the detainees and allow their relatives and lawyers to meet them and confirm that they are safe
- Allow the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture to enter the prison and investigate the state of the detainees
- Halt the policy of collective punishment practiced inside the prison
- Begin a fair and transparent investigation into the testimonies of torture as reported by witnesses and detainees
- Bring to account those who have committed violations, whether by ordering it, supervising it or carrying it out – bring them to justice no matter how high their positions
The following table lists the names of Building 3 detainees and the injuries they suffered, according to witness testimony:
Name |
Region |
Injury |
Mohammed Majid Bahman |
al-Manama |
Beating with batons and kicking |
Akbar Ali Ali |
al-Bilad al-Qadim |
Beating with batons and kicking |
Yousef Hilal |
al-Musali |
Beating with batons and kicking |
Abdallah Mahmoud |
al-Naim |
Beating with batons and kicking |
Mohammed Fuad al-Eskafi |
al-Diraz |
Beating with batons and kicking |
Abdallah Mohammed |
Sar |
Beating with batons and kicking |
Mohammed Abdel Amir |
al-Dih |
Beating with batons and kicking |
Ali Akbar |
al-Moamir |
Beating with batons and kicking |
Basil Ibrahim |
al-Sehla |
Beating with batons and kicking |
Hussein Nouh al-Hayaki |
Hamad town – district 17 |
Beating with batons and kicking |
Amjad al-Sheikh |
Hamad town – district 17 |
Injury to the face and broken nose |
Sayyid Dhiyaa al-Musawi |
Hamad town – district 17 |
Beating with batons and kicking |
Ahmed al-Sharqi |
Hamad town – district 4 |
Beating with batons and kicking |
Alaa Mansour Nasif |
Bani Jamra |
Transferred to Wing 10 |
Ali Maki |
Dar Kalib |
Beating with batons and kicking |
Hassan Abdallah al-Ghasra |
Bani Jamra |
Beating with batons and kicking |
Ali Abdel Amir |
Bani Jamra |
Beating with batons and kicking |
Mohammed Jaafar |
Bani Jamra |
Beating with batons and kicking |
Ahmed Abdel Ruuf |
Bani Jamra |
Beating with batons and kicking |
Ali Amran |
Bani Jamra |
Beating with batons and kicking |
Ali Abdallah Yousef |
al-Akr |
Beating with batons and kicking |
Mohammed Abdel Hadi |
al-Manama |
Beating with batons and kicking |
Ali Abdel Jalil |
Ras Raman |
Beating with batons and kicking |
Ahmed Abdel Sadiq |
al-Akr |
Beating with batons and kicking |
Mohammed Ibrahim |
Dar Kalib |
Beating with batons and kicking |
Murtada Abdel Hadi |
Hamad town – district 17 |
Beating with batons and kicking |
Sayyid Majid al-Musawi |
Buri |
Beating with batons and kicking |
Hussein Jaafar Fatil |
Bani Jamra |
Beating with batons and kicking |
Sayyid Shabar Alawi |
Salmabad |
Beating with batons and kicking |
Baqir Abdallah Amir |
al-Sahla |
Beating with batons and kicking |
Mohammed Abu Aboud |
Salmabad |
Beating with batons and kicking and transfer to Wing 10 |
Hussein Hassan Jaafar |
al-Nuwidrat |
Beating with batons and kicking |
Kadhem Abbas |
Salmabad |
Beating with batons and kicking |
Mohammed Rida Hassan |
al-Dir |
Beating with batons and kicking |
Sayyid Hussein al-Musawi |
al-Bilad al-Qadim |
Beating with batons and kicking |
Ahmed al-Basri |
al-Bilad al-Qadim |
Beating with batons and kicking |
Hussein Ibrahim al-Miqdad |
al-Bilad al-Qadim |
Beating with batons and kicking |
Sadiq Jaafar |
Dar Kalib |
Beating with batons and kicking |
Ali Abdel Rida al-Halibi |
Hamad town – district 17 |
Beating with batons and kicking |
Hani al-Manami |
Sitra |
Beating with batons and kicking |
Ahmed Abdel Aziz |
Salmabad |
Unable to move due to the intensity of the beating he received |
Hussein Mohammed al-Fardan |
Bani Jamra |
Beating with batons and kicking |
Salman Ibrahim |
al-Manama |
Beating with batons and kicking |
Ridha Imran |
Sitra |
|
Ali Jaafar |
Sitra |
Unable to move due to the intensity of the beating he received |
Ali Abbas al-Asfour |
al-Diraz |
Unable to move due to the intensity of the beating he received – gash to the face |
Jihad Sadeq al-Habashi |
Jablat Habashi |
Beating with batons and kicking |
Sayyid Haydar al-Musawi |
al-Bilad al-Qadim |
Beating with batons and kicking |
Sayyid Ali al-Musawi |
Ras Raman |
Gash to the face |
Qassim al-Batan |
al-Diraz |
Unable to move due to the intensity of the beating he received – gash to the face |
Mohammed Naama |
al-Diraz |
Unable to move due to the intensity of the beating he received |
Ammar Mansour al-Suwad |
Sitra |
Injury to the hand caused by sound bomb, gash to the face and bruising on the body |
Sayyid Sandid al-Musawi |
Sitra |
Unable to move due to the intensity of the beating he received – gash to the face |
Ahmed Hassan |
al-Nuwidrat |
Unable to move due to the intensity of the beating he received |
Hussein Mohammed Ali |
Dar Kalib |
Beating with batons and kicking |
Ammar al-Sitri |
al-Nuwidrat |
Beating with batons and kicking |
Ahmed Yousef Malallah |
al-Nuwidrat |
Unable to move due to the intensity of the beating he received |
Mohammed Khaims Madan |
Abu Qiwa |
Injury to the hand caused by sound bomb, gash to the face and bruising on the entire body |
Ahmed Hassan Yousef |
al-Nuwidrat |
Beating with batons and kicking |
Hussein Hassan Yousef |
al-Nuwidrat |
Beating with batons and kicking |
Hussein Mohammed Yousef |
al-Nuwidrat |
Beating with batons and kicking |
Rida Abdel Amir |
Aali |
Gash to the face and bruising to the entire body – diabetes sufferer who has fallen into |