Bahrain Mirror (Exclusive): It is time for Bahrainis to know the whole truth behind the Lyrica pills case. Reliance on law enforcement agencies such as the Interior Ministry, the Public Prosecution or the judiciary is nothing but a mirage. Poet Ahmed Matar has already said in one of his sarcastic comments that only those who own the law in our homelands have the right to play it. This is how things are.

In fact, five months after uncovering a huge clue in this critical case in March 2020 and after the establishment of commissions of inquiry, discipline and interrogation, specialist Dr. Sharifa Siwar, who volunteered to expose the incident was convicted and accused of lying. In addition to that, investigations were adapted to convict the complainant student. Drawing a red herring across the trail, the Ministry of Interior has recently said in a statement that 3 people who had stolen 60,000 tranquilizers and narcotic pills from Al-Salmaniya medical complex were arrested. The Interior Ministry told us everything it wants us to know about the Al-Salmaniya medical complex crime, but there is nothing about the "third person", the purchaser of the drugs or who is behind it. How can someone dare to continue doing this after all the reactions this issue has provoked since the beginning of the year?

Smile, you are in Bahrain!

You are in a country where the son's king takes control of the "Lyrica Cell". The king's fifth son, Sheikh Khalid bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the first deputy President of the Supreme Council for Youth and Sports and president of the Bahrain Olympic Committee, is the head and the most senior official involved in promoting the "Lyrica" pills in girl schools. He is also addicted to heroin and Captagon pills.

When you stare at his photo from now on after reading this information, you can notice what narcotics have done to his lips and how he has changed from a "Shaikh" who was on his way to become a senior leader in the state into a junkie.

Bahrain Mirror has followed this case since its emergence in the beginning of the year. Bahrain Mirror also managed to have interviews with a number of students, teachers, supervisors, in addition to employees in the Education Ministry who have disclosed many details, noting that some of them refused to say anything fearing retaliation. Bahrain Mirror managed to draw from the collected information a detailed structure for all of the Lyrica cell distributors, with their full names and positions. It has also seen the full files of the case from the beginning since the Ministry of Interior's "formal" interrogations of the concerned persons, the prosecution's case and court deliberations.

We present the outcome of this follow-up to the public opinion and to the elites of Bahraini society, the Parliament and Shura Council, and those who still have a conscience among state officials. 

The Bahraini public knows or may have been fully informed about the general details of the "Lyrica" case. The public opinion needs to know the full story so that the issue does not remain vague or ambiguous any longer.

"I don't know how to start my pleading. Should I start it with a greeting? But the defendant did not leave any space for greetings. Should I start by saying 'In the name of Allah'? But the defendant has abandoned the most basic principles of Islam. On Tuesday (March 23, 2019), calmness spread all over the country. At 11:00 p.m., the defendant detonated a nuclear bomb which sparked the sky, not with sunshine but with a burning fire, buring the hopes of the Bahraini people, stripping the safety from their hearts; and a volcano whose fire devoured the country's security. This bomb withered flowers, distorted the kingdom's most beautiful qualities, its past and features, but we will not allow it to harm the kingdom's present. Yes, Mr. President, we have come today to bring to your ears one of the worst cases that the Bahraini people have witnessed, not a murder or rape, but even worse."

What you have read above is the prosecution's pleading against psychologist Dr. Sharifa Siwar after she uncovered the scandal of the Lyrica pills that hit Hamad city school students in a well-known video, under which the Lower Criminal Court sentenced her to one year in prison, fined her 200 dinars and set 500 dinars for halting the execution of her sentence.

It is not odd that such a prosecution office and judiciary would bury this serious issue, which has shaken Bahraini society. They are involved and responsible for covering up the real perpetrators. It is enough to read such a plea statement and see the complicity to know who is behind it.

Most of those interviewed by Bahrain Mirror mention the names of four figures from the ruling family. Students who distribute the narcotic pills usually hide behind these names and constantly repeat their names in front of those who respond to their pressures and accept to cooperate with them: Sheikh Khalid bin Hamad Al Khalifa, son of the king, first deputy president of the Supreme Council for Youth and Sports and president of the Bahrain Olympic Committee, Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamad Al Khalifa, son of the king, the king's representative and president of the Supreme Council for the Environment, Sheikh Isa bin Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Isa bin Salman Educational Charitable Trust, and Sheikh Khalifa bin Ahmed Al Khalifa, general inspector in the Ministry of Interior. Many of the Bahrainis who have followed this case are eager to know who has been referred to as "so-and-so".

Yes, this "so-and-so" is Sheikh Khalifa bin Ahmed Al Khalifa, the general inspector in the Ministry of Interior. He is the one who the Interior Ministry's employees, Ibrahim Bou Alay and Mohammad Hazim, threaten the students with when they refuse to cooperate with them in distributing narcotic pills to their schoolmates.

When you know all that, you can understand how this case has come to an end and how its serious events were covered overnight to turn into a case of "spreading false news" and nothing more. Even with the recent reopening of the case, only the names of Al-Salmaniya complex employees were exposed, who were the minor participants in the crime. However, the "senior" players have their names and seats protected and far from being touched.

In the next report, "Bahrain Mirror" will present the roles played by each of the mentioned members. It specifies who lured girls into the drug trap, and who are the link between the Shaikhs and students, not only in the distribution of "Lyrica" pills, which were later recognized by the Ministry of Health as anesthetic pills and banned dispensing them without a prescription, but even in cases of trafficking minors in which another son of the king is involved in. 

Arabic Version