MANAMA, 2 March 2005 — An appeals court here has upheld a decision by a lower court which ordered the Ministry of Interior to pay 35,000 Bahraini dinars (about $93,000) in compensation to the family of a Bahraini youth who died from injuries sustained during an anti-Israeli protest in Manama three years ago.
“The Higher Appeals Court on Monday upheld a court ruling (issued in April 2004) which ordered the Interior Ministry to compensate the family of Mohammed Jumaa Al-Shakhoori,” said Mohammed Ahmed, the family’s lawyer.
The ruling, the first ever against a ministry in Bahrain, provided for compensation totaling 50,000 dinars (around $133,000) — 35,000 dinars ($93,000) to the family, 5,000 dinars (about $13,000) in separate compensation to both the mother and father of the victim, and the rest in fees and for lawyers.
Clinical investigations supported witness testimonies that Shakhoori had died after being hit in the head by a rubber bullet during a demonstration outside the US Embassy in April 2002.
Shakhoori was the first non-Palestinian Arab to die in support of the Palestinian cause during unrest that swept the region following the Intifadah.
Shakhoori, 24, suffered fatal injuries when security forces used tear gas and rubber bullets to quell a demonstration by thousands of Bahrainis who hurled stones and petrol bombs at the US Embassy in protest at an Israeli offensive in the West Bank.
“The appeals court’s decision confirms the responsibility of the Interior Ministry for the behavior of those affiliated to it, (in this case) riot police,” Ahmed said.
Meanwhile, Bahraini police have detained two more men working on a website seen as critical of the government and ruling family, a lawyer said yesterday. Activists said Hussein Youssef and Sayid Mohammed Al-Mosawi, who helped run www.bahrainonline.org, were arrested late on Monday and handed over to a prosecutor.
Police detained the man who ran the website, Ali Abdul-Imam, on Sunday on charges of stirring hatred against the government and spreading false news that could jeopardize state security.
