Bahrain Mirror: The Bahraini Minister of Information Affairs, Isa bin Abdulrahman Al-Hammadi, said in response to a report issued by Human Rights Watch (HRW) on continuing torture and mistreatment of detainees in Bahrain: "The Human Rights report was based on one-sided points of view," describing it as "misleading".

"Bahrain has during the past few years established independent national institutions in order to verify any allegations of abuses of detainees and prisoners, including the General Secretariat, Ombudsman and the National Institution for Human Rights, which are independent parties," Al-Hammadi added in a press conference held on Monday (November 23, 2015).

"The government has cooperated with Human Rights Watch and supplied it with information through the Ombudsman and the Ministry of Interior. This was the only truth mentioned in the report," he further stated.

HRW had issued a report entitled "The blood of People Who Don't Cooperate," in which it highlighted the ongoing torture of detainees and continued abuses in the island kingdom, criticizing the lack of independence and transparency in the institutions established by Bahraini authorities in 2012 to stop the abuses, such as "the Special Investigations Unit (SIU), the Office of the Ombudsman in the Ministry of Interior, and Prisoners and Detainees Rights Commission (PDRC)."

Arabic Issue