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ADHRB: 1 in Every 635 Bahrainis Arbitrarily Detained, Abused

2019-07-26 - 4:36 p

Bahrain Mirror: Americans for Democracy and Human Rights in Bahrain (ADHRB) said that "1 in every 635 Bahrainis has been arbitrarily detained, disappeared, tortured, raped, killed, or otherwise abused" by the Ministry of Interior.

During launching "Anatomy of a Police State: Systematic Repression, Brutality, and Bahrain's Ministry of Interior" report in Washington, on July 11, 2019, ADHRB member Monica Zuraw said "the report analyzed over 1,000 discrete incidences of abuse comprising more than 3,000 specific rights violations attributable to the Ministry of Interior between 2011 and 2018, and this pattern of police brutality and repression was apparent at every command level." 

Zuraw accused the Bahraini government of creating a culture of impunity that rewards and incentivizes abuses. According to the ADHRB report: "1 in every 635 Bahrainis has been arbitrarily detained".

She said that Bahraini nationals accused of taking part in human rights violations should be barred from entering the US, as most are in violation of the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act. 

In response to a question from the audience, Zuraw said that ADHRB has recorded 46 cases of abuse by Bahrain's Special Security Force Command (SSFC), including 25 extrajudicial killings. She also spoke of 77 further cases, of which 46 were extrajudicial killings, in which no perpetrator has been clearly identified but which match SSFC patterns of abuse.

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