In a Tuesday interview, Saeed Shahabi, a senior member of the Bahrain Freedom Movement, described the revolution in his country as a “political revolution” that is turning into an international case.
… “I believe that the case of Bahrain is gradually imposing itself on the international arena and that those reports that we see by Amnesty International or by Human Rights Watch or by the European Union…are all signs of exposure [at] the international level.”
His comments come after Amnesty International condemned the imprisonment of Shia activists in Bahrain on Monday.
"It’s appalling what passes for ‘justice’ today in Bahrain," said Amnesty International’s director for the Middle East and North Africa, Philip Luther, on Monday, adding, "The authorities simply slap the label ‘terrorist’ on defendants, and then subject them to all manner of violations to end up with a ‘confession’."
A Bahraini court, on Sunday, handed 50 Shias, including a prominent Iraqi cleric, prison terms of up to 15 years for allegedly forming an opposition group known as the "February 14 Revolution Youth Coalition" in the Persian Gulf kingdom.
“There is no point of imprisoning half the population and putting them behind bars and torturing them. There is simply no point and that is not going to solve the problem,” said Shahabi, condemning the move by the Manama regime.
On September 9, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay told the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) that she was frustrated with reports of human rights violations in Bahrain.
She called on Manama “to fully comply with its international human rights commitments, including respect for the rights to freedoms of expression, peaceful assembly, and association.”
Bahrainis have been staging demonstrations since mid-February 2011, demanding political reforms and a constitutional monarchy, a demand that later changed to an outright call for the ouster of the ruling Al Khalifa family following its brutal crackdown on popular protests.
Scores have been killed, many of them under torture while in custody, and thousands more detained since the popular uprising in Bahrain began.
Protesters say they will continue holding anti-regime demonstrations until their demand for the establishment of a democratically-elected government and an end to rights violations are met.
