The committee set by the Supreme Judicial Council revealed that 502 persons
were convicted by the Military court up until Oct 2011 in 165 different cases,
and another 437 cases which were referred from the Military Prosecution to the
Public Prosecution in Oct 2011 are still open. Out of nearly a thousand cases,
the committee reviewed only 30 cases and issued recommendation in only 11
cases:
Dropping the charges and excluding them from the daily precedents record
for 5 defendants, taking into consideration only the penalty executed in
relation to the four defendants, the exclusion of the charge in relation to one
defendant, and dropping the charge for of the precedents record for one
defendant.
Al-Wefaq issued a statement
in which it said the government is trying to to get around the recommendations
of Bassiouni regarding the trials.
Mohsen Al Alawi, a lawyer who represents one defendant involved in the 30
cases, said
it was not clear how many of the 11 defendants were still in jail or had been
freed.
He said the fate of charges in the rest of the 30 cases was not clear.
"It’s very opaque," he said, adding that in his view all military court
verdicts should have been shelved in line with the commission’s recommendations,
rather than allowing the cases to continue in civilian courts.
Cases still pending after transfer to civilian courts include controversial
trials of medics, teachers and 14 men jailed for leading the protests last year.
One of those 14, rights activist Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, who also has Danish
nationality, has been on hunger strike for more than two weeks.
A 24 year old man from Malikeya gets arrested from his house then taken to a
nearby checkpoint where he was brutally beaten by security forces using their
batons, weapons and wooden sticks, leading to several bones fracture and bruises
all over his body. He was then taken back to his area.
5. Al Wefaq called for a sit in
protest in solidarity with the Activist Abdulhadi Al Khawaja who is entering his
18th day of hunger strike. This event will be taking place in Al Wefaq Head
Quarter.
Worth mentioning that Al Khawaja’s health is deteriorating as
he was transferred to hospital today and he was diagnosed with severe
dehydration.
Al Wefaq also announced it’s upcoming even which will be
taking place next Wednesday, 16:00 pm, near the Marina Club in the Capital
Manama.
