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Amnesty: Bahrain must investigate torture claims

June 1, 2017 at 6:53 pm

Mohammed Zein Al-Deen was killed after Bahraini security officials stormed the Shia village of Diraz on 23 May 2017 [Jehan Matooq/Twitter]

Bahrain should investigate claims by a human rights activist who says she was tortured and sexually assaulted while in detention last week, Amnesty International said today.

Bahraini human rights activist Ebtisam Al-Saegh

Bahraini human rights activist Ebtisam Al-Saegh

Bahraini authorities did not immediately comment on the case of Ebtisam Al-Saegh who told Amnesty she was held for seven hours at the National Security Agency (NSA) in Muharraq, northeast of the capital, Manama.

Amnesty said Saegh reported being blindfolded immediately after she reported to the NSA compound and described “the torture including the sexual assault she was subjected to for around seven hours” last Friday at the NSA building.

They beat me on my nose and they kicked me in the stomach, knowing that I had undergone surgery on my nose and that I was suffering from my colon… I could hear an electric device next to me, which was to scare me. I was made to stand up for most of the time.

she told Amnesty.

Bahrain denies abusing detainees and has installed cameras at interrogation centres as added measures against potential abuse.

Saegh told Amnesty she was questioned about events in Diraz village on 23 May when security forces raided the home of a Shia spiritual leader and opened fire on demonstrators.

They asked her about other human rights campaigners she knew, and about her participation at the UN Human rights Council in Geneva last March, where she spoke about human rights violations, Amnesty said.

“The state must end all forms of reprisals it is currently using against human rights defenders and government critics, targeted solely for the peaceful exercise of their freedom of expression,” Amnesty said.