Sham Trial in Bahrain

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Since the first peaceful protest on February 14, 2011 – Bahrain’s Day of Rage – was mercilessly crushed by Bahraini authorities, the demonstration descended into violence and bloodshed. Bahrainis then marched to “Pearl Square” in Manama to turn it into the revolution’s hotbed. Within hours, their numbers swelled to more than 50,000. On Thursday, the l Khalifa regime ordered riot police to move in. They fired on the demonstrators in cold blood while they were asleep – killing and maiming hundreds of people, many of them women and children.

Those wounded were taken to Salmaniyah Hospital. The ruling family even issued orders to the hospital staff not to treat the injured – instead of heeding these inhumane orders, Bahraini doctors and nurses went on protest against the Health Minister, Faisal Al Hamar for his continued refusal to treat the victims.

Fast forward to June 06. The Bahraini authorities put on trial 47 doctors and nurses – some of them with twenty years service with the Bahraini Health Ministry – before a security tribunal, accusing them of trying to overthrow the government, though they say all they did was treat injured pro-democracy protesters. Relatives of the health workers, who were allowed to speak to them for 10 minutes after the hearing, said the accused alleged that they had been psychologically and physically abused during their confinement. They were beaten with hoses and wooden boards embedded with nails and made to eat feces. They also had to stand without moving for hours, or even days, and were deprived of sleep in order to force them to sign false confessions.

The barbaric brutality of a desperate despot knows no bounds. Sheikh Hamad ibn Isa Al Khalifa has blood on his hands but does he care? A ruler who unleashes live bullets against his own people must know that his time will come when he will be held accountable. Coming back to this sham trial, it was adjourned until June 13, 2011. The Bahrainis need our prayers to stay strong in this do-or-die battle to be free from antiquated authoritarianism.