[Other] Guerilla Projection On BBC - Why is BBC Silent On Bahrain? #FreeHassanMushaima
inminds 4 September 2018 Why is BBC Silent On Bahrain? #FreeHassanMushaima
Free Hassan Mushaima Guerilla Projection On BBC - Why silent on Bahrain?
Guerilla projection on BBC HQ in solidarity with #FreeHassanMushaima
#FreeHassanMushaima #الأستاذ_حسن_مشيمع
On Saturday 1st September 2018 Inminds human rights group along with the Islamic Human Rights Commission carried out a guerilla projection on the walls of the BBC headquarters in London to ask the BBC why it is not reporting on the systematic human rights abuses by the Khalifa regime in Bahrain, and in particular why it is ignoring the hunger strike of Bahraini activist Ali Mushaima who had to be rushed to hospital on Thursday after a month without food, camped outside the Bahrain Embassy 24 hours a day 7 days week.
Inminds chair Abbas Ali said "Despite the BBC's carefully crafted image of journalistic standards, of independent unbiased reporting, the truth is that the BBC is weaponised propaganda in the service of the British state. Award winning journalist John Pilger called the BBC "the most refined propaganda service in the world.. an extension of the established order in this country", and he was right. Media from all around the world, including the Bahraini regimes own mouthpiece, have covered Ali Mushaima's hunger strike, but the BBC is silent. One month without food, protesting non-stop on the door step of Bahrain's London embassy, to save the life of his tortured, imprisoned father, a prisoner of conscience according to Amnesty, who is being denied essential medical care, denied family visits and even denied his books including the Holy Qur'an. But the BBC continues its silence. We are here to ask the BBC, what is the reason for this silence? Is it because the UK government has supplied £83m worth of weapons to the Khalifa regime, and trained its security forces that have used those weapons to slaughter peaceful protestors? Or is it to do with the fact that the British government has provided 863 days of training to Bahrain's prisons where torture is rampant, including training the 400 guards at Bahrain’s infamous Jau Prison where Ali's father Hassan Mushaima was brutally tortured and is still caged?"
Inminds chair Abbas Ali added "Hassan Mushaima is one of thousands of political prisoners caged in Bahrain since the peoples peaceful uprising, demanding human rights and democracy. Each imprisoned victim of this regime, abducted, tortured and caged by UK trained thugs, has a story of suffering and resistance to tell. All are all ignored by the BBC. So we used the walls of the BBC to shine a light, to show a glimpse of some of their tragic stories. Their stories also feature villains, torturers.. so we also name and shame a few of them."
Free Nabeel Rajab #FreeNabil
Why is BBC Silent On Bahrain? #FreeHassanMushaima
NABEEL RAJAB - IMPRISONED FOR A TWEET
Bahraini Human Rights Defender Nabeel Rajab was abducted from his home in the village of Bani Jamra on 13th June 2016 after the whole neighbourhood was surrounded by security forces at 5am in the morning. A year later, in July 2017 he was sentenced to two years imprisonment which was later on 21st February 2018 extended by an additional 5 years for tweeting about Saudi Arabia’s war on Yemen and on torture in Bahrain's notorious Jau Prison. Human Rights Watch reports that Nabeel Rajab is caged in a "cramped, dirty, and insect-infested cell at Jaw Prison no bigger than 3-by-3 meters that he shares with five other detainees.. locked in their cell 23 hours a day", this has resulted in a skin infection for which he is denied medical care.
Last month on 15th August 2018 the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention issued a formal decision declaring Bahrain’s imprisonment of human rights defender Nabeel Rajab unlawful, and demanded Bahrain immediately and unconditionally release Rajab from custody and “accord him an enforceable right to compensation and other reparations.” Bahrain has ignored the ruling as has the UK government.
Inminds chair Abbas Ali said "On his birthday we show our solidarity with Nabeel Rajab by projecting his image on the BBC, demanding his immediate and unconditional freedom. The UK government has shamelessly ignored the UN ruling and continues to do business as usual with Bahrain. It is the responsibility of the media to hold up a mirror to those in power to show these truths, the BBC instead is busy whitewashing Bahrain's crimes to facilitate the UK governments cosy relationship with the brutal Khalifa dictatorship."
BACKGROUNDHassan Mushaima
70 years old Hassan Mushaima, an academic teacher by profession, is also a leader of the 2011 mass movement that peacefully called for human rights and democratic reforms in Bahrain. The Khalifa dictatorship using British weapons and British tax payer funded training, along with invading Saudi mercenaries, brutally crushed the peacefully demonstrations, killing over a hundred people and caging five thousand more.
In March 2017, Hassan Mushaima along with other human rights defenders and opposition leaders were abducted, brutally tortured and given life sentences in mock trials simply for calling for democracy in Bahrain. Hassan Mushaima was horrifically tortured in Bahrain's notorious Jau prison that left him in need of surgery four times.
In prison the regime is denying Hassan Mushaima urgently needed medical treatment. His son Ali Mushaima is on hunger strike here in London, he is bravely camped outside the door of the Bahraini embassy, on hunger strike since 1st August. His demands are very basic – allow medical care for his father, allow his family to visit, and allow his father access to his books.
Why is BBC Silent On Bahrain? #FreeHassanMushaima
Arrest King Hamid Khalifa - Crimes Against Humanity
British complicity
The British government is deeply complicit in every aspect of the suffering of the Bahraini people, including Hassan Mushaima. Since the protests began in 2011, the UK has provided the Bahraini dictatorship with over £83 million worth of weapons with which to crush the people.
Further more, the UK has provided training. After repeated denials by the UK government it was finally revealed that having gained experience of repressing protests in Northern Ireland, the British government has used that experience to train the Bahraini security forces in the tactics of ruthlessly crushing protests, use of attack dogs, cannons, and how to gather intelligence on protestors. To hide the training the UK government has cynically described it as 'protection of human rights training'.
Documents also reveal that the British government has provided 863 days of training to Bahraini prison guards and officials, including training 400 guards at Bahrain’s infamous Jau Prison where Hassan Mushaima was tortured. That training in the UK was paid for by the British tax payer.
Another prisoner who was tortured at the British trained Jau Prison was teenager Ali al-Singace. He was abducted by the Bahraini police and severally tortured with electric shocks, and raped. The torture continued for two months at Jau Prison. He was forced to make a false confession for which he was executed by firing squad in January 2017.
Women Tortured in UK Trained Prison
A week after the Formula One Bahrain Grand Prix in April 2017, Bahraini female activist Najah Ahmed Yousif was arrested for her social media post criticising the holding of F1 Grand Prix in Bahrain. She was tortured at Muharraq Police Station for four days, 8 hours at a time. In her own words Najah describes the ordeal:
“If I wrote down the violations I was subjected to, it would be a book. They insulted my honour and dignity, they physically assaulted me, removed my headscarf, tried to tear off my clothes, and touched my sexual organs. They threatened me with rape, and threatened to kill or put my sons in prison. All this in the presence of plainclothes officers.”
Najah was told to sign a pre-prepared confession without reading it. When she refused to sign it, Najah was violently beaten, kicked and sexually abused. A thug was specially brought into the police station to frighten her with rape. When she could take no more, she signed and for that she was given a three year sentence in June 2018.
Muharraq Police Station where she was tortured is a beneficiary of the training provided by the UK Foreign Office. In August 2015, Brigadier Fawaz Hassan, the current head of the Muharraq Police Station, received direct training provided by the UK Foreign Office in Belfast.
A month after Najah’s torture, another female human rights activist, Ebtisam Al-Saegh was tortured in the same British trained police station. It was punishment for her testimony at the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva. Upon returning to Bahrain she was arrested and taken to Muharraq Police Station where she was savagely tortured. She was blindfolded and sexually assaulted and threatened with rape if she did not put an end to her human rights activities. She was brutally beaten and had to be rushed to hospital after the interrogation.
Al-Sayegh told Amnesty: “The men told me ‘no one can protect you’. They took away my humanity; I was weak prey to them.”
Bahraini thugs having graduated from the British government training courses, paid for the British tax payer, are guilt of rampant human right abuses including murdering peaceful protestors, and torturing women and children.
Free Hajer Mansoor
Hajer Mansoor
A few weeks ago, mother of two Duaa Alwadaei temporarily joined Ali Mushaima on hunger strike outside the Bahrain Embassy. Her demand is for the Bahraini regime to disclose the medical report of her imprisoned mother Hajer Mansoor, provide adequate medical care for her, and end its acts of retaliation against her and Duaa's imprisoned brother Seyed Nizar. Both were imprisoned as revenge for Duaa Alwadaei's husband’s peaceful activism in the UK exposing Bahraini regimes crimes against the people.
Sayed Ahmad AlWadaei was identified by the regime as one of those protesting against the London visit of the King of Bahrain. Within hours of the protest, the regime took revenge. The family of his wife Duaa – her mother, her brother and her cousin – were straight away abducted by British trained Bahraini security forces and tortured until they were coerced into signing false confessions. With no evidence presented other than the fabricated confessions they were convicted. This was two years ago, today they are still languishing in a Bahraini dungeon. Duaa’s hunger strike was for her mother Hajer Mansoor.
Medina Ali
Earlier this year on 22 March 2018, 28 years old imprisoned mother, prisoner of conscience Medina Ali joined a hunger strike, initiated by her fellow inmate Hajer Mansoor, against the ill-treatment of women political prisoners at Isa prison. On the 2nd day of her hunger strike she was stripped naked in a humiliating manner as punishment for revealing abuses at the prison. This followed an interrogation by Major Maryam Al-Bardouli, Head of the Isa womens prison, about why Medina had exposed how inmates are treated by the prison authorities, to which Medina responded, “I cannot remain silent”. Major Al-Bardouli has further threatened to punish Medina, by revoking her family visitation and phone calls.
Free Medina Ali
Prince Nasser bin Hamad al-Khalifa
Prince Nasser bin Hamad al-Khalifa has been accused of being involved in the torture of prisoners during a pro-democracy uprising in Bahrain in 2011. In October 2014 UK High Court judges overturned the Crown Prosecution Service's decision that the prince had state immunity from prosecution. Under the UN Convention Against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment and Punishment 1987, states must criminalise torture and pursue public officials of other nations when they are present in the state's territory. A dossier of torture allegations, dating back to 2011, had been given to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) in 2012 while the prince was in the UK for the London Olympics. The arrest and prosecution of the prince was then sought. However, he was allowed to return to Bahrain after the CPS decided he had diplomatic immunity.
Major Maryam Al-Bardouli
Major Maryam Al-Bardouli is head of Bahrains notorious Isa womens prison (Center for Reform, Rehabilitation and Women’s Custody in Isa Town) where torture of women as a punitive measure is rampant. Major Maryam Al-Bardouli has directly threatened and carried out reprisals against both Hajer Mansoor and Medina Ali for revealing abuses at the prison.
Arrest Major Mariam AlBardouli - oversees torture of women
Source: www.inminds.com
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