Bahrain: Student Sentenced to 25 Years Imprisonment on the Basis of Confessions Under Torture

On 20 November 2015, Alkarama sent a communication to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment (SRT) regarding the case of 21-year-old student Ahmed Sayed Hussain Sharaf Ali Mohamed, who was arrested by members of the Riot Police in October 2014. In September 2015, Ahmed was sentenced to 25 years imprisonment and revocation of nationality on the sole basis of confessions obtained under torture during his pre-trial detention.

On 29 October 2014, members of the Riot Police − which is under the control of the Ministry of Interior − dressed in civilian clothes and military uniforms stormed into Ahmed's house and arrested him without presenting an arrest warrant. The men took Ahmed to the Criminal Investigation Centre, where he was detained incommunicado for nine days, during which he was subjected to severe torture, such as electrocution, beatings and exposure to extreme temperatures. It is only after that Ahmed was presented to a public prosecutor who, according to the victim, threatened to have him killed if he did not confess.

Ahmed was then transferred to the Dry Dock prison in the town of Al Hidd northeast of Bahrain on 7 November 2014. In September 2015, he was sentenced to 25 years imprisonment and deprivation of nationality for "cooperating with foreign States," "training in the Iranian Revolutionary Guards" and "plotting terrorist attacks on public and financial institutions," a conviction based on the confessions he made under torture. On 6 November 2015, Ahmed was transferred to the Al Jaw prison, known for its "severe abuses", where he currently serves his sentence.

"The entire case was fabricated by the Ministry of Interior," says Ahmed's family, "the confessions Ahmed was forced to sign under torture were the only evidence used to sentence him to 25 years in prison."

Ahmed's family filed complaints about the acts of torture committed against him with the Special Investigation Unit and the General Secretariat of the Ministry of Interior, but no investigation was opened regarding these facts. Left without any resort at the national level, Ahmed's family turned to Alkarama in the hope that this human rights organisation could help guarantee his physical and psychological health. In view of these facts, Alkarama seized the United Nations Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment (SRT), requesting him to call upon the Bahraini authorities to render Ahmed's sentence null and void, to retry him before a fair and independent court, and to open a prompt and independent investigation on the acts of torture committed against him.

Concerned over the large number of heavy sentences handed out by the Bahraini judiciary on the basis of confessions obtained under torture − such as in the recent cases of telecom employee Radhi Ali Radhi Abdsulrasool and school bus driver Mohamed Hassan Ali Ibrahim Ali − and over the lack of accountability for perpetrators of torture, Alkarama calls on the Bahraini authorities to:

• Put an end to the practice of torture; and
• Ensure that allegations of torture are the object of impartial and independent investigations.

For more information or an interview, please contact the media team at media@alkarama.org (Dir: +41 22 734 1008)