Prince Nasser’s involvement would breach code of ethics, groups claim
Bahrain Cycling Team expected next season, including Vincenzo Nibali
Human rights groups have written to world cycling’s governing body, urging it to reject an attempt by a member of Bahrain’s ruling royal family to bankroll the Middle East’s first professional WorldTour cycling team.
Organisations including the Bahrain Institute for Human Rights and Democracy (Bird), and the European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights, claim that Prince Nasser bin Hamad al-Khalifa’s involvement in the sport would be in breach of the UCI’s code of ethics and have accused him of using cycling to “whitewash” his past.
Prince Nasser took to Instagram last month to announce the launch of the Kingdom of Bahrain Cycling Team, which is expected to debut next season with signings including the Italian rider Vincenzo Nibali. He is expected to publicly unveil the team during the Tour de France in July.
Cycling Weekly reported last month that the team would have a budget of between £11.5m and £13.7m and said that Nibali had also approached Sky’s Nicolas Roche about joining the new team. However, campaigners claim the regime is using the sport to attempt to deflect from human rights abuses.
Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei, director of advocacy at Bird, said: “Prince Nasser is throwing money at international cycling to use it as PR to whitewash his past in Bahrain. It’s the duty of the UCI to reject the Bahrain Cycling Team WorldTour license.”
Andreas Schüller, the coordinator of the International Crimes and Accountability program at the European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights, added: “As long as there is no accountability for serious human rights violations in Bahrain, international bodies should refrain from promoting the regime.”
Amid a crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in April 2011, Prince Nasser, son of Bahrain’s King Hamad and head of the Royal Guard, formed an investigative committee to identify and sanction athletes who took part in the demonstrations, according to articles on the official state-run news website.
Appearing on state-run TV, he said: “Whoever calls for the fall of the regime, may a wall fall on his head … whether he is an athlete, socialite or politician, whatever he is, he will be held accountable at this time. Today is the judgment day.”
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A Bahraini granted asylum in the UK subsequently made allegations that they were personally tortured by Prince Nasser in 2011. In October 2014, the UK’s high court ruled that Prince Nasser had no diplomatic immunity in Britain, although no charges were subsequently brought.Following the decision to revoke his diplomatic immunity in 2014, a spokeswoman for the government of Bahrain said: “As the British DPP has today affirmed, an arrest would have been improper given the absence of evidence of the conduct alleged. As Bahrain has never sought anonymity or sovereign immunity from the English courts for anyone in respect of this case, it expresses no view on the DPP’s statement that immunity was inappropriate. This has been an ill-targeted, politically-motivated and opportunistic attempt to misuse the British legal system. The government of Bahrain again categorically denies the allegations against Sheikh Nasser.”
Lawyers for Prince Nasser, who is also head of Bahrain’s National Olympic Committee, said last year: “The allegations are entirely false and categorically denied by Prince Nasser.”
However the human rights groups claim that, in addition to Prince Nasser’s involvement in the 2011 crackdown, the fact the new team is likely to be called Team Bahrain further associates it with a regime that has been heavily criticised by respected NGOs including Amnesty and Human Rights Watch.
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Nicholas McGeehan, Middle East researcher for Human Rights Watch, said: “Prince Nasser publicly menaced Bahraini athletes at the same time as his father’s security forces were torturing people to death. The UCI should look very seriously at his record before considering whether the benefits to Bahrain’s involvement in the sport outweigh the reputational costs.”
In their letter to the UCI, the human rights groups claim that Prince Nasser’s actions during the 2011 crackdown put him and his WorldTour team in breach of article 2 of the UCI code of ethics, which protects against breaches of principles that include human dignity, non-discrimination against political opinions, non-violence and harassment, integrity and political neutrality.
In February Bird led protests against Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim al-Khalifa, the Asian Football Confederation president who chaired the commmittee set up by Prince Nasser to identify athletes who had taken part in the demonstrations, as he attempted to replace Sepp Blatter as Fifa president. Despite starting the campaign as favourite, he eventually lost out to Uefa general secretary Gianni Infantino.
Sheikh Salman admitted chairing the committee that was charged with identifying those involved but has said it was never formally constituted and never conducted any official business. He also alleged “dirty tricks” and insisted “one million percent” that he was not involved in identifying footballers, while his lawyers blamed a campaign of misinformation against him.
In his press release announcing the formation of the WorldTour team Prince Nasser, a keen cyclist himself, said: “The Kingdom of Bahrain has become the home of the triathlon and the motorsport in the Middle East. The formation of the team will definitely further enable the Kingdom to become the home of cycling sport in the region as well as represent a great leap towards promoting the Kingdom of Bahrain in line with its 2030 vision.”
The statement said the new team was further evidence of Bahrain’s “keenness to take part in different sporting events in order to promote the modern and bright-full sporting portrait of the Kingdom as per the directives of His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa”.
A spokesman for Prince Nasser did not respond to requests for comment on the contents of the letter prior to publication.
