Bahrain Mirror: Professor of law and international investigator Mahmoud Cherif Bassiouni, who headed the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI) that investigated the violations of the Government of Bahrain in 2011, died today on Monday (September 25, 2017) at the age of 79.

The news of his death was announced by  the US media, including the Chicago Sun Times.

Bassiouni was appointed head of an international fact-finding commission set up by the king of Bahrain to investigate human rights crimes committed by the Bahraini security services in 2011 during their crackdown on the February 14 opposition uprising.

The Bahraini foreign minister announced Bassiouni's death on his official Twitter account, stressing that he was a man who "said the truth did not more not less," as he put it.

The BICI report issued in November 2011 condemned the Bahraini government for committing heinous crimes against the opposition and widespread systematic violations of human rights, following the declaration of a state of emergency in March 2011.

In a speech delivered in the presence of the Bahraini king on November 23, 2011, Bassiouni accused the government and Bahraini security services of committing torture and brutal attacks against political detainees and anti-regime protesters.

The report was followed by international condemnations and calls that have not stop to this day for implementing the recommendations it concluded. In Bassiouni's last statement on the issue, he denied the Bahraini government's allegations that it had implemented all his recommendations, accusing it of falsifying media statements attributed to him in June 2016.

Arabic Version