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Amnesty Int'l: Recent Releases under Alternative Penal Code in Bahrain don't Inspire Confidence

2021-09-25 - 9:03 p

Bahrain Mirror: Amnesty International said that the recent releases do not inspire confidence that Bahrain's "alternative sentencing" program is being applied in compliance with human rights law.

Questioning the effectiveness of Bahrain's recent decisions, Amnesty International commented on the decision to release one of the convicts in a tweet saying "In an act of "generosity" for which Ministry of Interior officials are pressuring the family to thank the King and Crown Prince, Kameel Juma is now "free" on condition he not go to any "political, religious or cultural gathering," speak to media (except to thank the King), or write on social media."

"Kameel, now 18, had 16 cases raised against him by the terrorism unit of Bahrain's Office of Public Prosecution, and got over 28 years in prison sentences."

He went on this alleged streak as a "terrorist mastermind" between the ages of 13 and 17.

On September 13, Kameel was released after spending one year and 8 months in Dry Dock Prison.

"Not coincidentally, these prosecutions started as soon as Kameel and his mother, well-known activist Najah Yusuf, refused pressure to become informants when state security summoned them to the Muharraq office of the Criminal Investigations Directorate on April 23, 2017," it stated

Amnesty went on to say that "The Public Prosecution raised more and more cases against Kameel as his mother continued to tell local and international media about how she was physically and sexually assaulted under interrogation."

Amnesty indicated that Haq Movement leader, Hassan Mushaima, 73, is serving life imprisonment in Jaw Prison over leading peaceful protests in 2011 in Bahrain.

"Hassan Mushaima, 73, has been serving his life sentence in Jaw prison for a decade for peacefully leading the 2011 demonstrations in Bahrain," Amnesty International said. Interior Ministry officials last week offered him a deal last week to release him on conditions similar to Kameel's conditions, but he refused.

In this context, Amnesty considered that "the recent releases do not inspire confidence that Bahrain's "alternative sentencing" program is being applied in compliance with human rights law."

Quashing the rights to free expression, association and assembly as an "alternative sentence" is not freedom or justice.

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