Court sources said a brief session was held before the adjournment to allow a medical commission to examine the charges that suspects had been physically abused during
interrogation. The US-based Human Rights Watch has urged the Bahraini government to investigate claims that security personnel repeatedly abused detained opposition political activists. Relatives of the prisoners – and also men who had been detained in connection with the December unrest and then released – said interrogators had tortured several detainees and sexually assaulted at least one, HRW said.
Bahraini officials have denied the claims. The 15 were charged after staging a demonstration following the death of another protester in an opposition rally on December 17 to demand compensation for victims of alleged human rights violations in the 1980s and 1990s.
They are charged with unlawful assembly, stealing weapons, burning a police vehicle and committing acts of violence against police officers.
The Shia majority in Sunni-ruled Bahrain has been campaigning for compensation for alleged human rights violations during unrest across the Gulf state in the 1980s and 1990s.
