DUBAI, 3 December 2002 — A wave of protests is sweeping Bahrain as opposition groups use new-found freedoms to highlight past human rights wrongs, focusing on a former political police colonel accused of torture and fraud.
Constitutional reforms over the last two years have greatly improved the image of the country but a past tarnished with repression has yet to be put to rest.
Leading opposition members who say they were tortured by Adel Jassem Flaifel, an ex-officer in the Interior Ministry’s Security Intelligence Service, were to address a meeting in Manama tonight of the “Committee of Victims of Torture”.
Free to speak out under a democratic reform process launched by King Hamad, the gathering is to include Abdulwahab Hussein, a Shiite figure arrested in January 1996 along with seven other opposition men, including senior leader Sheikh Abdul Amir Al-Jamri.
Flaifel returned to Bahrain on Nov. 23, six months after he defied a travel ban and corruption investigation to flee to Australia.
The following day, 1,500 protesters staged a sit-in outside the Justice Ministry demanding he be arrested on allegations of torture, abuse of power and embezzlement.
Two more sit-ins followed on Nov. 25, when dozens of women gathered in front of the ministry and at Sitra, a Shiite majority suburb southeast of Manama, hundreds turned out against a royal amnesty which effectively clears Flaifel.
Protesters, backed by four political groups, including the Islamic National Accord Association,n, have also demanded compensation for victims of torture. (AFP)
