Murder of Bahraini blogger Zakria Rashid al-Asherri by the US-Saudi puppet Hamad Al Khalifa
Mourners during the funeral of Zakria Rashid al-Asherri, 40, in Dair village north of Manama on 11 April 2011. The death of al-Asherri raise the toll of people reported dead while in police custody over the last six days to three. EPA/MAZEN MAHDI
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Bahrain buries dead blogger as government crackdown continues
Hundreds of mourners took part in a funeral procession in Bahrain on Monday for dead blogger Zakria Rashid al-Asherri, who died while in police custody. Tight security was in place in al-Asherri’s home village of Dair, north of the capital Manama. Anti-riot police were deployed near the graveyard where he was buried and a police helicopter hovered above.
Al-Asherri, 40, was one of two detainees to be announced dead by the authorities on Saturday while in their custody. The other detainee, Ali Isa Saqer, 31, died after police used force to subdue him. He was buried on Sunday amid further controversy.
The Ministry of Interior has attributed al-Asherri’s death to medical complications deriving from a blood disease. But his family disputes the findings of the initial autopsy, arguing that he was only a carrier of the disease. They suspect he died as a result of torture.
A new autopsy has been carried out to determine the cause of death.
The father of a 12-year-old boy and a 7-year-old girl was detained on April 2 for running a website which the authorities say he used to incite hatred of the regime and call for its overthrow.
Three people have now died in police custody in in Bahrain in less than a week.
Meanwhile, the former editor-in-chief of the local Arabic daily al-Wasat, Mansoor al-Jamri, as well as a former managing editor and a former head of local news were questioned by the public prosecutor for allegedly publishing fake news about the unrest and protests that have been witnessed in the Gulf island since pro-reforms protests began on 14 February.
Prosecutors later said the three would be charged with circulating false news that harmed the public’s interest. The editors deny the charges.
Also on Monday, Bahrain’s health minister, Fatima al-Balooshi, said her ministry, which employs approximately 9,500 people, had suspended 30 staff, including doctors and nurses, for their alleged role in supporting the protests and involvement in criminal activities.
She said an additional 150 medical workers were being investigated for their alleged involvement.
Sources told the German Press Agency dpa that five doctors were detained, in addition to eight that are already being held, among them several female doctors.
The international humanitarian organization Medecins Sans Frontieres says the country’s hospitals are no longer safe havens for the sick or injured, but rather places where patients risk being beaten and arrested by the authorities.
The government’s brutal crackdown on the opposition has so far led to the death of at least 21 people and the arrest of more then 400.
Hundreds of others, mainly Shiite Muslims, have been sacked from their jobs for taking part in a general strike called to express support for the protests. Bahrain is a Sunni monarchy where Shiites account for some 60 per cent of the population and serves as a home for the US Navy 5th Fleet.
Source: Monsters and Critics
Editorial Board Opinion
The U.S. silence on Bahrain’s crackdown
By Editorial, Monday, April 11, 8:00 PM
Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-us-silence-on-bahrains-crackdown/2011/04/11/AFpKywMD_story.html
PRESIDENT OBAMA has backed a NATO intervention to stop crimes against humanity in Libya, and he has denounced as “abhorrent” the bloody crackdown in Syria. But the president and his administration remain mostly silent about another ugly campaign of repression underway in the Arab world, in the Persian Gulf emirate of Bahrain. The reason is easy to understand: Bahrain hosts an important U.S. naval base, and the wave of arrests, extrajudicial killings and media censorship has been strongly supported — if not ordered — by neighboring Saudi Arabia.
The administration’s silence, like the crackdown itself, is nevertheless counterproductive. The repression, which is focused on Bahrain’s majority Shiite population, is likely to foment the very problem that its advocates seek to prevent: a sectarian uprising in the region that could be exploited by Iran.
Though the Saudis and Sunni hard-liners in Bahrian’s ruling al-Khalifa family insist on describing it in sectarian terms, Bahrain’s unrest began very differently — as a mass, mostly peaceful pro-democracy movement like those elsewhere in the region. After an initial attempt at repression, the regime, encouraged by the Obama administration, tried negotiating with the opposition. The relatively progressive crown prince proposed talks on a series of democratic reforms, including granting more power to an elected parliament.
But on March 15, Saudi troops, in concert with other Gulf States, invaded Bahrain, nominally at the invitation of the government. A protest encampment at a traffic roundabout was cleared by force, and the monument in Manama’s Pearl Square that was its centerpiece was torn down. In the past month, police and other security forces have killed at least 15 people and arrested hundreds. Reports of beatings and torture of those arrested are abundant, and at least three detainees have died in custody.
The arrested have included people suspected of participating in protests as well as prominent human rights activists and opposition political leaders. The editor of the country’s leading independent newspaper was forced to resign. According to Human Rights Watch, “abuses have escalated in recent weeks, including beatings at checkpoints by masked uniformed and plainclothes men, nightly raids on homes of perceived activists and demonstrators, and the forcible removal from hospitals of badly injured patients who appear to have sustained injuries from police.”
The Obama administration opposes the crackdown; it has tried to strengthen the regime’s reformists and has pushed for a return to negotiations. But apart from an initial critique of the use of force by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and one statement about the arrest of a blogger, the administration has remained silent. Worse, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates appeared to bolster the Saudis’ hard line during a visit last week to Riyadh, saying that “we already have evidence that the Iranians are trying to exploit the situation in Bahrain.”
No doubt Tehran will benefit from sectarian conflict in a Persian Gulf state. But the regime’s crackdown makes that strife more rather than less likely. Instead of quietly tolerating the repression, the United States should be pushing back with both Bahraini and Saudi leaders — and letting the rest of the region know where it stands.
Dead man’s picture on Twitter
April 12 2011 at 09:23am
REUTERS
The body of Ali Isa Saqer, 31, is carried during his funeral procession in Manama. Saqer was one of two men who died in police custody in Bahrain.
Sehla – A Bahraini rights activist is facing criminal charges for publishing photos on his Twitter account of a man who died in police custody.
Just hours earlier on Sunday, one of two detained protesters who were declared dead on Saturday by Bahraini authorities was buried in his home village of Sehla on the outskirts of the Bahraini capital Manama.
An Interior Ministry statement said that the head of the dissolved Bahrain Centre for Human Rights (BCHR), Nabeel Rajab, would appear in front of the military public prosecutor for publishing “fabricated” pictures on his Twitter account of Ali Isa Saqer, 31.
Along with the press release, the ministry issued two pictures it said were taken by forensic officials showing the original condition of Saqer’s body, before he was turned over to his family.
Rajab could not be immediately reached for comment.
His last Twitter post read: “Brothers, sisters, if I am arrested I call on you to intensify your efforts to fill the gap created by my absence -I am full of confidence in you and your belief in the righteousness of your cause.”
According to an earlier Interior Ministry statement, Saqer had died before reaching the hospital, after police inside the detention centre where he was being held used force to subdue his “unruliness.”
The statement did not clarify if other detainees were involved or injured in the Saqer incident.
His body showed signs of severe beating over the head, chest, back and legs. Local morgue staff noticed that his left arm was broken.
Police said that Saqer was being held for attempted murder of a police office, whom he allegedly tried to run over with a car on March 13 during unrest on the streets. Saqer’s family said that he had turned himself in a few days ago, after police raided the family home several times to arrest him.
Another detainee, Zakria Rashid al-Asherri, 40, is expected to be buried on Tuesday. His family had demanded that an autopsy be carried out to determine the cause of death.
On Saturday, the Interior Ministry attributed the death of al- Asherri -who was discovered dead inside his prison cell – to complications of sickle-cell anaemia, which the man’s family disputed, saying he was only a carrier of the genetic disease.
“He had never complained before of anything relating to sickle-cell anaemia. He carried it but he was not sick as a result of it,” his brother, Ali al-Asherri, a former member of Parliament for the largest Shiite opposition grouping al-Wefaq, told dpa.
Al-Asherri, a blogger who supervised a local website called al- Dair was arrested on April 2 on a charge of inciting hatred of the regime and calling for its overthrow on the internet.
The deaths of Saqer and al-Asherri bring the death toll of people reported dead while in police custody to three within six days.
On April 3, Hassan Jassim Maki, 39, was the first to be declared dead in police custody. Police had attributed his death to a sickle-cell anaemia, while his relatives accused police of torture and medical neglect.
A security crack-down that began following the February 14 pro-reform protests had lead to the deaths of more than 21 people and the arrests of more than 400 – many of whom are politicians, activists and professionals.
Hundreds of others, mainly Shi’as, had been sacked from their jobs for taking part in a general strike called to support the protesters.
Bahrain, a Sunni monarchy where Shi’as account for some 60 percent of the population, and which serves as a home for the US Navy 5th Fleet Command in the region, accused Iran of interfering and inciting the protests to destabilise the regime and the regimes of neighbouring Gulf states.
The opposition insists that their demands arise from local concerns and demands for reform, with no links to outside agendas.
In recent days, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and Doctors Without Borders were among several human-rights groups that have criticised the Bahraini government crackdown. – Sapa-dpa
http://www.iol.co.za/news/world/dead-man-s-picture-on-twitter-1.1055446
The Quiet Crackdown
APR 1 2011, 10:37 AM ET
Al Jazeera reports:
Bahrain has stepped up the arrests of Shia Muslims, including many cyber activists, with more than 300 detained and dozens missing since it launched a crackdown on pro-democracy protests, the opposition has said. Activists and politicians said on Thursday that a growing number of reform campaigners are going into hiding, after the country’s most prominent blogger was arrested on Wednesday. “The situation is critical … Almost all the bloggers and activists who aren’t in jail are now in hiding,” Nabeel Rajab, head of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights, said.
Justin Gengler, who runs a great blog on Bahrain, zooms out:
While the United States is busy providing air cover for government opponents in Libya, its friends in the Arab Gulf have nearly finished mopping the floor with theirs.
Backed by some 2,000 ground troops from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar, along with a Kuwaiti naval detachment, the Bahraini government has all but stamped out the Shi�a-led pro-democracy movement that had brought this small island nation to a standstill since mid-February. …
While no one is likely soon to forget the patch of barren land that just two weeks ago was “Martyrs’ Square,” life in Bahrain is indeed slowly returning to normal. Curfews have been shortened. Roads have been reopened. First elementary and now middle school students have returned to classes. Malls, hit hard by the turmoil as has Bahrain’s entire economy, have been keen to bring back shoppers, advertising their hours on Twitter and Facebook. And, most telling of all, the thousands who gathered last Friday for the sermon of Bahrain’s highest Shi�a religious authority, Sheikh �Isa Qasim, did not continue on to a customary post-prayer rally; they simply returned home.
(Hat tip: 3QD; Photo: Bahraini Shiites women attend the funeral of Bahiya al-Aradi, holding portraits of her, in central Manama on March 22, 2011. Aradi, 51, went missing on March 16 evening, and a car that she drove was found the day after in al-Qadam village, west of Manama, with bloodstains on the driver’s seat. She was pronounced dead on March 21 after being shot in the head. By Joseph Eid/AFP/Getty Images)
http://www.theatlantic.com/daily-dish/archive/2011/04/the-quiet-crackdown/173515/
Bahrain blogger “Emoodz” detained
This post is part of our special coverage of Bahrain Protests 2011.
On March 30, 2011, Bahraini blogger Mohamed El-Maskati, better known in the blogosphere as “Emoodz” was arrested. According to Reporters Without Borders, El-Maskati’s arrest came after threats from a member of the royal family occurred on Twitter, where El-Maskati is known as @emoodz as well.
On Twitter, Bahraini residents and friends from around the world are calling for El-Maskati’s release.
Muhammed El-Maskati’s public Facebook profile photo.
The Bahrain Center for Human Rights (@BahrainRights) tweets a link to the Arabic version of Reporters Without Borders’ report, commenting:
تدين مراسلون بلا حدود أيضاً حملة القمع الممارس ضد المدوّنين البحرينيين. http://ow.ly/4sSRt #freeemoodz @emoodz #bahrain
Reporters Without Borders condemns the crackdown on Bahraini bloggers.
Afaf Al-Dawar (@Pearl14Feb) states:
Mohammed Almaskati @emoodz is a Bahraini blogger who has been arrested for expressing his opinion #FreeEmoodz #Bahrain #feb14
Also on Twitter, Muhammed Abdulla (@mabdulla88) writes:
I surely consider @emoodz as one of the best sources of news in Bahrain, Now he’s in prison and we all want him free #FreeEmoodz
@Zanoob11 shares a video recorded by El-Maskati back in 2007:
In the ten-minute video, El-Maskati discusses blogging and Islam, switching back and forth between English and Arabic.
El-Maskati’s sister, @Moooly85, tweeted on April 4, her brother’s fifth day in prison:
Day 5: it’s been 5 days since they arrested my brother ! #FreeEmoodz
Prominent blogger Mahmood Al-Yousif (@Mahmood), who was detained the previous week, has expressed his support as well:
I miss the free spirit of my friend @emoodz and look forward to shaking his hand again soon. I know he will be free. #FreeEmoodz
Reporters Without Borders has noted that Mohd Al-Khalifa, the member of the royal family accused of threatening El-Maskati on Twitter, tweeted threats to El-Maskati’s supporters before deleting his account:
Khalifa meanwhile continues on Twitter to threaten anyone calling for Makati’s release: “#FreeEmoodz anyone that’s living in Bahrain and is supporting the terrorist emoodz, will have his IP address taken and will get arrested!”
Tweeted threat from Mohd Al-Khalifa, a member of the Bahraini royal family to El-Maskati’s supporters before his account was deleted.
This post is part of our special coverage of Bahrain Protests 2011.
Written by Jillian C. York
Posted 5 April 2011
http://globalvoicesonline.org/2011/04/05/bahrain-blogger-emoodz-detained/
US ‘deeply concerned’ over Bahrain blogger arrest
AFP/File – Bahraini army tanks take position near Pearl Square in Manama in February 2011. The United States on …
Play VideoMideast Video:Around the World: Riots in Lebanon FOX News
– Wed Mar 30, 4:27 pm ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) – The United States on Wednesday criticized Bahrain over the arrest of popular Internet blogger Mahmood al-Yousif, and repeated its condemnation of violence in the Gulf monarchy.
“We’re deeply concerned about his arrest. He’s a prominent and respected blogger,” said Mark Toner, a State Department spokesman.
“We’re also concerned about reports of detention of two other Internet activists who have expressed their views on recent events in Bahrain,” Toner said.
“We hope that the Bahraini government’s decision to arrest bloggers and Internet activists will not make it more difficult to resume a national dialogue,” he said.
Yousif was already being sued by Bahrain’s Minister for Municipal and Agricultural Affairs Mansur bin Rajab for libel. The court case opened on April 17 but was swiftly adjourned to May 8.
[ For complete coverage of politics and policy, go to Yahoo! Politics ]
Yousif had lashed out at bin Rajab in his blog, “Mahbood’s Den,” for saying that his ministry did not shirk its responsibilities following floods in December.
Yousif also criticized Bahrain’s penal code and press laws on the eve of his trial, claiming that they “criminalize” the “civic responsibility of criticism.”
Earlier this month Bahrain’s Sunni monarchy, backed by forces from neighboring Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, cracked down on weeks of Shiite-led protests in the kingdom.
US Vice President Joe Biden on Sunday urged Bahrain’s Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa in a phone call to hold talks with opposition leaders on political reforms.
Bahrain has been wracked by protests since mid-February, when thousands in the Shiite-majority country took to the streets demanding political reform.
At least 24 people have been killed in a month of protests, Bahrain’s Interior Minister Rashed bin Abdullah Al-Khalifa said Tuesday.
Toner said that US officials “condemn the violence against civilians and peaceful protesters” in Bahrain.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110330/pl_afp/bahrainpoliticsunrestmediaus
A libel case brought against a popular Bahraini Internet blogger for criticising a government minister began on Tuesday and was swiftly adjourned to May 8.
Mahmood al-Yousif was taken to court for criticisms he made on his blog about Minister for Municipal and Agricultural Affairs Mansur bin Rajab.
In the blog entry in question Yusif lashed out at bin Rajab for saying that his ministry did not shirk its responsibilities following floods in December.
We “should not be cowed into a status of never questioning or criticising a government official no matter how high that position is,” Yousif wrote on his blog on the eve of the trial.
He went on to criticize Bahrain’s penal code and press laws, claiming that they “criminalise” the “civic responsibility of criticism.”
The site, called “Mahmood’s Den,” is one of thousands of blogs that have sprung up across the Middle East in recent years, providing an avenue for dissent often lacking in the region’s established media.
In 2005, the Bahraini moderator of an online discussion forum and two web technicians were detained for two weeks on charges of defaming King Hamad.
Bahrain’s information ministry in 2002 censored Internet sites on the grounds of inciting sectarianism or propagating lies, sparking protests by activists. Several sites were also censored last year for discussing an alleged plot to maintain Sunni domination of the Gulf kingdom.
Yahoo News – AFP
http://mahmood.tv/about/in-the-news/bahraini-blogger-libel-trial-begins/
BahrainRights Bahrain Human Rights
Police detained al-Shirawi because she had been photographed weeping over a dead victim of a police crackdown http://ow.ly/4xVuI
Police in blue uniforms & helmets dragged her from her car, put a gun 2 her head, stripped her of her black headscarf http://ow.ly/4xVp0
Back Human Rights in Bahrain – by Joshua Colangelo-Bryan http://ow.ly/4yess #bahrain #humanrights
RT @chanadbh: Al Wasat: Over a 1,000 workers have now been laid off in #Bahrain following protests (Arabic) http://bit.ly/eIQwOK