Bahrain Live Coverage: Activist Zainab Alkhawaja Gets 1-Month Sentence

See also Egypt, Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Day 2 of a Presidential Election
Wednesday's Bahrain Live Coverage: A March in Sitra

---

1640 GMT: A policewoman charged with torturing journalist Naziha Saeed during last year's crackdown on protests will go on trial next month, prosecutors said today.

The unnamed officer is accused of "us[ing] force against the victim to make her confess to a crime". Saeed, the Bahraini correspondent of France 24 and Radio Monte Carlo Doualiya, was arrested on 22 May 2011.

The statement continued, "[The policewoman] beat her and caused her...harm...[by] slapping her, beating her with a plastic tubing, kicking her in all parts of her body, in addition to insulting her."

The first court hearing is set for 6 June.

Saeed recounted her experience earlier this week:

a policewoman asked me 2 imitate donkey's walk&voice, &she sat on me but I fell on the ground cause she s huge &I'm skinny #Bahrain #torture

— nazihasaeed (@nazihasaeed) May 22, 2012

beatings and insults Continued for hours in which they rotate beating by officer &policewomen between me & the nurses #Bahrain #torture

— nazihasaeed (@nazihasaeed) May 22, 2012

Click to read more ...

Bahrain Opinion: Letting Torturers Go Free? (Owen Jones)

Ali Mushaimaa, killed 14 Feb 2011Some hoped that after the release of the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry’s report,  state officials who were complicit in torture against civilians would be brought to justice. This has failed to happen. Furthermore, the highest rank of those even put before the courts appears to be a lieutenant, and that case doesn’t even relate to "torture". Naturally this has done nothing to appease those in Bahrain who want justice, as many believe that government officials are either directly responsible for issuing the torture order, or at least complicit through negligence.

Click to read more ...