ADHRB Weekly Newsletter #358
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** Bahrain
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** 53 Members of the European Parliament Urged the King of Bahrain to Commute or Pardon 12 men on Death Row
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On 23 July 2020, 53 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs), today wrote to King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa of Bahrain, calling on him to commute the death sentences passed against Maher Abbas al-Khabbaz, Salman Isa Ali Salman, Hussein Abdullah Khalil Ebrahim, Mohammad Radhi Abdulla Hassan, Sayed Ahmed Fuad Abbas Isa Ahmed Al-Abar, Ali Mahdi Jasim Mohamed, Hussein Ebrahim Ali Hussein Marzooq, Moosa Abdallah Moosa Jafaar, Mohamed Ramadan and Hussein Ali Moosa, ([link removed]) Hussain Abdullah Marhoon Rashid, Zuhair Ebrahim Jasim Abdullah.

Read the full letter HERE ([link removed])

The letter centers upon the 13 July 2020 decision of the Court of Cassation which upheld the death sentence against Mohammed Ramadhan and Hussain Moosa. Security forces arrested Moosa, 33, on 21 February 2014, and Ramadhan, 37, on 18 February 2014, on charges of attacking police with terrorist purpose. Their arrests followed a bombing in the village of Al-Dair that resulted in the death of a Bahraini policeman. Both Ramadhan and Moosa were convicted and sentenced to death on December 29, 2014, with their sentences being upheld 13 July 2020. Both men allege that they were subjected to torture and have been the subjects of intense international attention.
Read the full article here. ([link removed])


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** 39 French Parliamentarians Call on Bahrain not to Execute two Torture Victims
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On 27 July 2020, 39 French Parliamentarians wrote to the Government of Bahrain on 23 July 2020, calling on him to commute the death sentences passed against Mohamed Ramadhan ([link removed]) and Husain Moosa ([link removed]) . This letter, drafted by Député Jacques Maire, joins calls issued by their American ([link removed]) , British ([link removed]) , Italian ([link removed]) , and European ([link removed]) colleagues, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
([link removed]) , Amnesty International ([link removed]) , Human Rights Watch ([link removed]) and Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain (ADHRB) ([link removed]) to halt the execution orders against Mohamed Ramadhan and Husain Moosa, and to allow them a new trial that adheres to international standards and norms around due process rights.

Click HERE ([link removed]) to read the letter in French

Click HERE ([link removed]) to read the letter in English

The letter focuses on the 13 July 2020 decision ([link removed]) of the Court of Cassation which upheld the death sentence against Mohammed Ramadhan and Hussain Moosa. Security forces arrested Moosa, 33, on 21 February 2014, and Ramadhan, 37, on 18 February 2014, on charges of attacking police with terrorist purpose. Their arrests followed a bombing in the village of Al-Dair that resulted in the death of a Bahraini policeman. Both Ramadhan and Moosa were convicted and sentenced to death on December 29, 2014, with their sentences being upheld 13 July 2020. Both men allege that they were subjected to torture and have been the subjects of intense international attention.
Read the full article here. ([link removed])

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** Ambassador Siberell: “Is No Friend to Human Rights”
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The United States Ambassador Justin Hicks Siberell is a career diplomat and counterterrorism expert who is ending his nearly three-year posting in Manama, Bahrain. Before his ambassadorship, he served in missions in five countries across three continents and served as acting Counterterrorism Coordinator for the State Department. Far from a political appointee, Ambassador Siberell is an expert on these issues and a talented diplomat, however, as noble as his intentions seem, they appear to be out of touch with the current pressing needs of Bahrainis and the US-Bahraini alliance. There is a reason Ambassador Siberell was selected for this position: counterterrorism efforts are imperative in the region. However, Ambassador Siberell has promised to do more, and so far, his promises seem to be as hollow as Bahrain’s political reforms.

Ambassador Siberell’s failure to address any of Bahrain’s human rights issues is all too apparent in his public statements. He is quick to celebrate a new arms deal or give his condolences when there is an act of terror in the region, however, he has not once commented on the most dire issue in Bahrain: the government’s continued abuse of its own people. Ambassador Siberell’s actions show that he values his relationship with the Bahraini ruling family more than doing his duty to represent American principles in Bahrain. As one of the founding nations of the modern democratic tradition, we have a responsibility to carry our democratic values wherever we go and Ambassador Siberell has plainly failed to do so.

Read the full article here. ([link removed])

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** Bahrain: Halt Executions of Two Men Unfairly Convicted – 16 Rights Groups Appeal to King to Commute Sentences
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On 23 July 2020, the King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa of Bahrain should commute the death sentences of Mohamed Ramadan and Hussein Ali Moosa ([link removed]) , 16 international and Bahraini rights groups said today in a joint letter ([link removed]) to the king. The men were not afforded a fair trial and their allegations of torture were not adequately investigated.

Security forces arrested Moosa, 33, on February 21, 2014, and Ramadan, 37, on February 18, 2014, on charges of attacking police “with terrorist purpose,” in connection with a bombing that year in the village of Al-Dair that resulted in a policeman’s death. Both men alleged that their confessions were obtained under torture. Neither defendant was able to meet with his lawyer at any time before the trial.

“The death penalty is unique in its cruelty and finality, and serious doubt cast on the fairness of the trial should be grounds for commuting the sentence,” said Joe Stork ([link removed]) , deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “Bahrain’s King Hamad should correct this grave miscarriage of justice and ensure that Hussein Ali Moosa and Mohamed Ramadan are not executed.”

A criminal court sentenced the two men to death on December 29, 2014, and the Court of Cassation confirmed the death sentences in November 2015 but overturned them in October 2018 after a previously undisclosed medical report appeared to corroborate Moosa’s torture allegations. Nevertheless, without further investigation and based on the same evidence, the High Criminal Court of Appeal reinstated the convictions and death sentences of Moosa and Ramadan on January 8, 2020, and the Court of Cassation upheld them on July 13, 2020.

Read the full article here. ([link removed])


** Profile in Persecution
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Jasim Mohamed Ebrahim
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The 28-year-old Jasim Mohamed Ebrahim was arrested in November 2015 by Bahraini authorities on account of terror-related charges for joining a terrorist group named “Zulfiqar Brigades” and sentenced to life imprisonment. After being accused in a mass trial, his citizenship was revoked

Following his arbitrary detention, he is serving a life sentence at the Dry Dock Detention Center, Bahrain. On 9 June 2020, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) published an opinion for the immediate release of Jasim and 19 other Bahraini citizens convicted in the mass trial for the same charge of their alleged involvement in Zulfiqar Brigades.

Jasim was arrested on 3 November 2015 by riot forces, police officers and CID officers dressed in civilian clothing at midnight. The police authorities surrounded the house and a large number of officers entered Jasim’s family house without a warrant. There was no warrant presented for the search and seizure of Jasim’s belongings and he was refused any information for the reason of his arrest. The authorities confiscated two mobile phones and a laptop in this raid.

Pursuant to the arrest, Bahraini police subjected Jasim to a 24-day enforced disappearance in the Criminal Investigations Directorate (CID). On 5 November 2015, officers allowed Jasim to call his father for a few seconds to inform him of his whereabouts. After this call, Jasim was prevented from contacting his family for over twenty days. The interrogation ended on 27 November 2015, after which Jasim was transferred from the CID to the Dry Dock Detention Center.

During the entire period of his interrogation from 3 November to 27 November 2015, Jasim was tortured by CID officers that coerced him into signing a prepared confession. The CID officers subjected Jasim to a wide variety of severe and inhumane torture methods of beatings on his head, cold water dousing and electric shock. They subjected Jasim to sectarian insults and threatened him with rape. Jasim was eventually forced into providing a false confession admitting to possessing an illegal weapon, a crime that he did not commit.

Read the full report here. ([link removed])


** Around the Gulf
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** Bidoon: Being Stateless in Kuwait
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Bidoon (shortened from the term Bidoon jinsiyya and meaning “without nationality” in Arabic) are stateless minorities in Kuwait who, despite being long-term inhabitants of the country, have been systematically denied Kuwaiti citizenship. The government of Kuwait classifies Bidoon as “illegal residents,” though they do not hold any alternative connection to another country. Following decades of suppression, Bidoon are confronted with significant difficulties when attempting to obtain civil documents, education and employment status, healthcare, and social services, as well as encountering difficulties with marriage rights and passing their nationality to their children. Despite these struggles, their experience has been largely met with silence from the international community.

The majority of Bidoon came from nomadic tribes native to the Arabian peninsula, and established themselves in Kuwait in 1961 when the country gained independence. However, many Bidoon were unable to register as citizens – thus rendering them as stateless. This was due to legislation set out in the 1959 Nationality Law, where they were subsequently denied citizenship and the privileges that the status afforded to Kuwait’s non-bidoon citizens. Additionally, in 1991 during the Iraqi invasion, some Bidoon sided with Iraq and were consequently rejected from Kuwaiti society, further stoking ongoing national prejudice that was held against them. An estimated one third of the population of Kuwait was previously classified as Bidoon, with the government of Kuwait recently asserting there to be “over 100,000” Bidoon in the country in 2014. Today, there are thought to be as many as 500,000 people recorded as stateless across the Gulf region in total. Yet official numbers of the Bidoon in Kuwait are
difficult to ascertain. Some activists claim official Kuwaiti government statistics on the matter are whitewashed, estimating the true number of Bidoon in the country to be nearer 240,000.

Read the full article here. ([link removed])


** GCC in the Wire
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** - Group: Yemen Rebels Should Be Sanctioned Over Moored Tanker ([link removed]) ([link removed]) (New York Times) ([link removed])
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A leading international rights group on Monday urged the U.N. Security Council to impose additional sanctions on Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels unless they provide U.N. experts access to an oil tanker moored off the coast of Yemen and in danger of leaking.


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- ([link removed]) Qatar state minister for defence meets with Turkish defense minister and Libya's minister of interior ([link removed]) (Reuters) ([link removed])
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Qatar’s state minister for defense affairs met on Monday with the Turkish defense minister and Libya’s minister of interior to discuss the latest developments in Libya, Qatar’s ministry of defense said on Twitter.


** - ([link removed]) Gulf Dispute Has Gone on Too Long, U.S. Envoy Says on Visit (New York Times) ([link removed])
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U.S. Special Envoy for Iran Brian Hook said on Sunday a rift between Qatar and some of its other Gulf Arab allies had lasted too long and urged them to rebuild trust and unity.


** - ([link removed]) Qatar reiterates commitment to resolving Gulf dispute via diplomatic means: state news agency ([link removed]) (Reuters) ([link removed])
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Qatar has reiterated its commitment to resolving the diplomatic dispute in the Gulf via peaceful and diplomatic means, state news agency QNA said on Thursday. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt have since mid-2017 severed political, trade and transport ties with Qatar over accusations it had been supporting terrorism and cosying up to regional foe Iran.



** - Yemen's children starve amid rising fears of famine ([link removed]) [link removed](Reuters) ([link removed])
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Weighing just 9kg at ten years old, Hassan Merzam Muhammad is so emaciated by the severe malnourishment plaguing hundreds of thousands of Yemeni children like him that he can no longer walk. Fears of famine in Yemen are resurfacing, the United Nations says. A U.N. report Wednesday said Yemen was returning to “alarming” levels of food insecurity.



** - ([link removed]) Factbox: The foreign policy issues that divide Trump and Biden (Reuters) ([link removed])

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Republican President Donald Trump won election in 2016 promising to put “America First,” overturn what he said were unfair trade deals and force U.S. allies to pay more toward joint defense measures.


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Are you a victim of a human rights abuse in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, or other GCC states?

Document your case with the Special Procedures of the United Nations through
** ADHRB's UN Complaint Program ([link removed])
.

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