Al Hammadi rebuffs HRW report as ‘misleading’
Parliament and Information Affairs Minister Isa bin Abdulrahman Al Hammadi rejected the newly-issued Human Rights Watch (HRW) report that accused Bahrain of mistreatment, impunity and torture of detainees. “The report is biased, unprofessional and misleading, as it lacks substantial evidences.”
In a televised interview with BBC Arabic yesterday, Al Hammadi said, “Two personnel of the prisons department were recently suspended and interrogated on the background of allegations of mistreatment. Additionally, more than 70 others were recently interrogated for the same reasons and strict procedures were taken.”
The Minister also stressed that “there is a clear mechanism followed by Bahrain while dealing with suspects from the moment they’re detained until the time of trial and sentencing.”
“Any accusations of mistreatment by the security forces are taken seriously by Bahrain. The Kingdom has a transparent policy and is always engaged openly with various international human rights organisations. Bahrain has established independent constitutional bodies to ensure the protection of human rights. We strongly oppose any kind of mistreatment and we follow strict measures against the violators,” Al Hammadi explained.
He said, “If there are any reports of abuse, there is an existing system to investigate such allegations. There are no such polices followed in Bahrain that support mistreatment.
We reject HRW’s report which is unprofessional and misleading.”
Explaining while addressing local media in a press meeting that followed the weekly Cabinet meeting at Gudiabiya Palace yesterday, the Minister affirmed that “Bahrain takes mistreatments seriously and the government has agencies to tackle the human rights issues.”
The Minister opined that HRW completely ignored a wide range of evidences provided by the Bahraini government agencies and prepared a biased report.
“The report didn’t mention the information that was provided to the HRW by the General Secretariat of Ombudsman, which is an independent institution, and they also ignored the data provided by Interior Ministry and other authorities, including the Special Investigation Unit in the Public Prosecution,” he added.
Public debt
Meanwhile, during the post-Cabinet press briefing yesterday, when asked about last week’s parliamentary consensus putting a cap on public debt, Al Hammadi stressed the government’s commitment to all that is referred by the legislative branch.
He said that a cap would be put on Bahrain’s public debt once the law takes effect, pointing out that the government would then have to go back to the Council of Representatives for a budget rethink, taking into account the state revenues, the current spending levels as well as the loan which may be granted to the Government of Bahrain.
As for the governmental taskforces, which were set up to reduce expenditure, he said that they work in accordance with a fixed timeframe, adding that the panels would submit their reports by December 1 to the Ministerial financial committee.
“The reports will then be submitted to the Executive Committee before their referral to the Cabinet,” Al Hammadi said.
He added that “the taskforces were assigned to reduce spending by 30 per cent with the focus essentially on the Government’s internal operating expenses without affecting citizen-oriented services.”
Photo Caption : Isa bin Abdulrahman Al Hammadi
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