The International League Against Arbitrary Detention urges the Government of Bahrain to take all the necessary actions to implement the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention Opinion No. 16/2024 concerning Muntadhar Abdali Mohamed Khatam, Murtadha Abdali Mohamed Khatam and Mohamed Abdali Mohamed Hasan Khatam, asking the Government of Bahrain to immediately and unconditionally release them and to accord all three of them an enforceable right to compensation and other reparations in accordance with international law.
Read the full WGAD Opinion concerning the three individuals (Bahrein): Opinion No. 16/2024.
THREE BROTHERS DETAINED AND TORTURED
Muntadhar Khatam and Murtadha Khatam are twin brothers born in 1994, and their older brother, Mohamed Khatam, was born in 1992. They are all nationals and residents of Bahrain and were high school students at the time of their arrests.
Muntadhar Khatam and Murtadha Khatam were arrested at different occasions between 2012 and 2013 - respectively in October 2012 for the former, and in 2012 and March 2013 for the latter. These arrests were allegedly due to their participation in demonstrations. They were detained between 3 and a half to 9 months in different locations following these arrests.
On 5 April 2015, while they were both out with their friends, the brothers were surrounded by security forces, pursued and arrested near a relative's house. They were then transferred to the Criminal Investigations Department, and on 8 April 2015, were transferred to the Dry Dock Detention Centre. Following their respective trial, they were convicted for prison sentences going from 13 and a half to 14 years in prison (i.e., appeal's decisions), for different charges. For both of them, it included the participation in unlawful assembly, assaulting and wounding a security personnel, and blocking roads with tyres; and for Murtadha. Additionally, Murtadha was also convicted for manufacturing fake explosives and insulting a judge.
Mohamed Khatam was dirst arrested during a protest in Sitrah in 2012, following which he was sentenced to a month in prison. He later became a wanted person, and was eventually arrested by riot police officers on 5 May 2015 at his house, who then transferred him to the Criminal Investigations Department. On 12 May 2015, Mohamed Khatam was transferred to the Dry Dock Detention Center. A few months following his arrest, he was sentenced to 16 years, 6 months and 10 days in prison, for manufacturing fake explosives, insulting a judge, vandalism, unlawful assembly and rioting, assaulting security personnel, burning tyres.
During their different arrests and detention, all brothers were allegedly tortured on numerous occasions. At the time of the source's communication, the brothers were still detained at Jau prison, with their health conditions remaining a point of concern according to the source.
The Government of Bahrain was given the opportunity to answer these allegations, which it did on 16 February 2024.
ARBITRARILY ARRESTED AND SUBJECTED TO ENFORCED DISAPPEARANCE
According to the source, the three brothers were arrested without being presented with a warrant, nor were they informed of the reasons for their arrest. The Government of Bahrain failed to provide any proof of the existence of a warrant despite alleging that legal guarantees were provided. For this reason, the Working Group found their arrest in violation of articles 3 and 9 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and articles 9(1) and 9(2) of the Covenant. Moreover, according to the source, the three individuals were not promptly brought before a judge following their arrest. As the Government did not contest or bring any information concerning this allegation, the Working Group found a violation of article 9(3) of the Covenant.
Additionally, the Working Group found that the failure to provide warrant during the first arrests of Murtadha and Muntadhar Khatam, while the twin brothers were still minors, was a violation of Bahrain’s engagements under the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and more specifically article 37(b) of the instrument.
The Working Group also welcomed the source’s allegation that Murtadha Khatam was held in solitary confinement as a form of retaliation against his participation in a sit-in protest in the Jau Prison to contest the prison conditions him and the other detainees endured, especially denouncing medical negligence and lack of care during a COVID-19 outbreak. For almost a month, Mr. Khatam was held in an undisclosed location and unable to reach his family or a lawyer and was not provided with medical treatment. Considering the lack of response from the Government on this mattter, the Working Group found that this amounted to enforced disappearance, an aggravated form of arbitrary detention, in violation of article 9(4) of the Covenant.
Therefore, the Working Group found that the arrests and detentions of the three individuals were all arbitrary under category I, as they lacked any legal basis.
NOT LEGALLY REPRESENTED, TORTURED FOR CONFESSIONS AND MEDICALLY NEGLECTED
Not only has the source alleged that the three brothers were denied access to legal assistance, especially during their interrogation and pre-trial detention, it also submitted that they were at times denied from entering the courtroom. When they were able to access the trial room, they were unable to recognise their legal representatives because they had not been made aware of their file numbers, nor had ever met their court appointed lawyer. The source also brought to light that Murtadha and Mohamed Khatam had to file their own appeals. These elements compelled the Working Group to consider that the detainees had their right to adequate time and facilities for the preparation of their defence and to communicate with counsel violated under article 14(3)(b) of the Covenant, despite the Government contentions.
One of the source’s main submission was that the three brothers were forced to sign false confessions under duress or torture as they were subjected to severe beatings as well as threats of electrocution and sexual assault. The Working Group accepted this allegation, the Government not having been able to prove that the statements of the detainees were given freely. One of the elements taken into consideration was the presence of visible injuries on the detainees, notably in the case of Muntadhar Khatam. The Working Group therefore found a violation of articles 14(2) and 14(3)(g) of the Covenant as the brothers were deprived of their right to be presumed innocent and not to be compelled to confess guilt, their entire proceedings being rendered unfair by the use of torture for the obtainment of their statement. The Working Group also noted that these practices violated Bahrain’s obligations under the Convention against Torture, which ought to be investigated by the local Prosecutor.
These findings related to a fair trial violation were supplemented by the medical neglect the brothers were subjected to during their detention. Despite the Government’s submission highlighting the number of medical examinations the detainees had attended, there was no specific information about the reasons behind those appointments, the treatments administered or the detainees’ current health conditions. The Khatam brothers have not only suffered beatings on several occasions during their detention, but Murtadha also suffered pain in his hand, for which the doctor’s recommendation of transfer to a hospital was denied by the prison authorities. Besides, his overall health had also reportedly deteriorated as a result of the poor conditions he was detained in and the hunger strike he undertook in August 2023 to denounce those conditions. The source submitted that Mohamed Khatam also suffered pain after a tooth extraction with no medical follow up. For these reasons, the Working Group referred the case to the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
Therefore, the Working Group found that the arrests and detentions of the three brothers were all arbitrary under category III, as they gravely violated the detainees’ fair trial rights.
CONCLUSIONS OF THE UN WORKING GROUP AGAINST ARBITRARY DETENTION
In light of the foregoing, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention considered that the detention of Muntadhar Abdali Mohamed Khatam, Murtadha Abdali Mohamed Khatam and Mohamed Abdali Mohamed Hasan Khatam was arbitrary and fell under categories I and III because their deprivation of liberty was in contravention of articles 3 and 14 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and articles 9 and 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
The Working Group recommended that the Government of Bahrain take the necessary steps to remedy the situation of Muntadhar, Murtadha and Mohamed Khatam without delay and bring it into conformity with the relevant international norms. The Working Group considered that, taking into account all circumstances of the case, the appropriate remedy would be to release the Khatam brothers immediately and accord them an enforceable right to compensation and other reparations, in accordance with international law.
The Working Group noted that this case is part of a larger pattern of arbitrary arrests and detentions in Bahrain. It recalled that under certain circumstances, such widespread or systemic arbitrary detentions may constitute crimes against humanity.
Eventually, the Working Group also called upon Bahrain to take measures to reverse or redress any prejudice that the brothers have experienced, as they stopped attending because of fear of persecution when released after their initial arrests and also because they were banned from taking certain examinations for having protested against the officers raid and damage to their belongings in May 2023 with other detainees during their subsequent detention. This has resulted in them repeating their academic year.
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