Bahrain Mirror (Exclusive): This report was not destined to complete. The verdict to arrest Dr. Ali Al-Ekri was faster than us. Wednesday 3rd October was scheduled to be our next meeting with Dr. Al-Ekri, however, the verdict of the Cassation court on 1st October to confirm his five years of imprisonment and his arrest on 2nd October were faster than us.

We are publishing what had been gathered before he has turned into the torturers’ hands. We are writing the story as was narrated by Al-Ekri himself.

We vow to you and to history, to be faithful in writing all the biographies that are shaping the national moments we live these days. 14 February chronicles is the sum total of all those biographies.


In the previous part, Al-Ekri lived the moments of the first attack on the Roundabout in the dawn of 17 February, the surprise attack on the sleeping protesters that surrounded the Roundabout from three directions and left one direction for escape.

Handcuffed dead body

The medical tent was full of people choking of tear gas. Outside was mounting chaos. Everyone was escaping death. Until then, Al-Ekri had not known about the severe injuries that happened and could not arrive at the medical tent.

Al-Ekri returned home after he had been dropped by someone. He was still choking and could hardly breathe when he received a call from his friend who was with him in the tent. At that time, Al-Ekri did not know what was going on inside the tent, or what happened to his friends. Among them was his cousin Dr. Sadeq Al-Ekri. His friend asked him over the phone: “Where is Sadeq Al-Ekri?” and told him that he had called Sadeq and a policeman answered the phone and replied in offensive language. “I understood then that he was in their grip” Al-Ekri said.

Al-Ekri and his friend left at 4 AM heading to Salmaniya Hospital. “I couldn’t comprehend what was happening as if I was in a nightmare that had no end. I was on-call that night, (the on-duty doctor would call me if the need arose) the on-duty doctor called me from the hospital telling me: Come quickly, we have a lot of wounded. We reached Salmaniya crossroad. The road was closed off. We headed to the back gate at the Emergency Department courtyard. It was chaotic. The crowds filled up the place, and there were dozens of injured people. People were hysteric. It was a morning that was second to none. The place was an ocean of sadness.”

Al-Ekri started treating the injured that had been brought to hospital by ambulances and private cars. “I treated 8 fracture cases injured by birds gunshots from very close range. At that point of time I wasn’t concerned with suffocation cases. It was much chaotic in the Emergency Department. I decided to let the patients in, for the Emergency to receive new cases, fast decisions had to be taken.”

The martyr Mahmoud Abu Taki was among the first arriving victims. “It was bizarre, despite they brought him to hospital a dead body his two hands were handcuffed! Sadeq Al-Ekri was brought to hospital in a poor condition, he was handcuffed too” Al-Ekri wondered.

A Smashed Head

In the dawn, at the Roundabout, Sadeq Al-Ekri woke up to sounds of shelling. He left the tent to find a woman looking for her lost child. He started to help her, however, he found himself besieged by policemen. He was wearing his white coat. He raised his hand: “I am a doctor!” That did not mean anything to them. They attacked him kicking and beating with the guns butts until he fell to the ground.

 “They brought him in a shabby condition. His clothes were stained in blood and he was screaming of severe pain. He was bleeding from his nose and under his eyes. I spoke to him but he didn’t recognize me. He was almost unconscious and his hands were handcuffed. We released his handcuff, checked him, gave him saline and took him to the CT Scan Department. We were worried that he had internal bleeding. We found he had many fractures and we took him to Ward 11. I phoned Dr. Ahmed Jamal the chief of the Doctors Society. I said to him: You are shouldering a huge responsibility. The Society should have a sand of what happened today. Sadeq Al-Ekri was about to die, the medical workers were beaten. There must be a declaration of a stand that condemns what has happened.”

Amid all of that, Al-Ekri lived pain and was alert. That alertness converted into a stunning shock. “The stunning scene that shocked all of me was the scene of bringing in the body of Haj Isa. I didn’t believe seeing a head smashed in that horrible way. The place was stormed by crying and screaming. I could barely compose myself not to collapse. It was the first time I saw such a thing, even in Gaza I hadn’t seen something like that despite the numerous dead bodies we had seen. It was evident that it was a close-range shot. The purpose was to kill. I was screaming how that could happen! Where we in a war? Was what I saw reasonable? With whom are we living? Why all that happened?”

Ambulances Disappearance

The injured continued to arrive. The medical workers were shocked, collapsed or incredulous of what they had seen only on war movies. Despite that everyone was working to their maximum capacity to save what could be saved. “The injured continued to come. An ambulance after the other. The sun would rise and the injured still were coming. Later the injured were brought in private cars. It was 6:30AM when the ambulance services suddenly stopped. We were surprised. We were amazed when all the ambulance vehicles disappeared from Salmaniya Medical Complex. We learned later that they were not allowed to go to the Roundabout. We asked: Why? They said: Instructions. The medical workers who went there were beaten by the police. At that time we didn’t know about the details of the communication between the Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Health that was revealed later and exposed the Ministry of Interior plan to prevent the ambulances from rescuing the injured.”

That morning which was fraught of shocks would never end. There was news of injured that nobody could reach, there were talking of bodies lying on the roads but nobody was able to pick them up. Nobody was able to discern the truth from the rumours or expectations. Nobody knew since nobody was able to reach the Roundabout or the surrounding area. That area was completely cordoned off. The ambulances disappeared and nobody knew anything about them. What to do?

“Later, we learned that there were many injured in the areas of Gufool, Mani, Sanabis and Burhama areas. Their injuries were fractures, wounds and choking. The people offered them first aid. Among them a Kuwaiti doctor who received some of the injured in her apartment that overlooked the Roundabout.  She was any eye-witness of what happened on 17 February in all its details. She wrote what she’d seen to one of the international media outlets. I met her after returning to the Roundabout in the medical tent and she narrated what she’d seen.”

The Doctors Statement

Al-Ekri went on: “During that time the ambulances were prevented from going out, Ali Al-Momen injury happened. In a recording of a phone call between the ambulance chief and the Ministry of Interior it was said that there was a body lying in the area between Al-Hawaj shops Gufool traffic lights. The police closed off the roads. We just waited not knowing how to act. Every minute that passed could have saved a life; however, we were unable to do anything. No injured were brought to us. We learned that the ambulances were impounded in Kanoo Health Centre. Some screamed angrily: We will move the ambulances. At around 8 in the morning, spontaneously, a protesting march set off chanting: Down with the Minister, Down with the Administration. The march moved along the College of Medicine. I tried to stop the march. I said to them: It’s futile to think of moving the ambulances, that’s not our work. Let’s return. I was able to convince them. I diverted the march and returned it to the Emergency Department.”

It was after 9 in the morning. Thousands of angry people gathered at the entrance of the Emergency Department while the medical staff stood aside at the College of Medicine. “There was a group of doctors along with Ahmed Jamal the chief of the Doctors Society and Qasem Imran. A group of doctors (most of them from an older generation to us) took the initiative and held a meeting with members of the Doctors Soceity board, specifically in the meeting room in the third floor. I wasn’t in the meeting. I was standing in solidarity with the medical staff that were beaten and against halting the ambulance services and the collaboration of the Ministry of Health in that.”

Ahmed Jamal came to where we were standing at the Emergency entrance. He had a draft statement. He ushered to me and showed me the statement. It was very weak and did not represent a stand that was proportionate to the grave incident. I said that to him, and I added that: even the name of Sadeq Al-Ekri was not mentioned. A number of doctors expressed the same opinion.  We absolutely rejected the statement. It was an emotional moment and full of anger.

Some voiced angry comments against Ahmed Jamal. They considered him flattering and accomplice. Some words of betrayal were said. I tried to intervene. I hugged Jamal to protect him. I said to them: Guys, this Jamal is an honest patriot and he’s from Waad Society. I hugged him and tried to calm down the angry atmosphere. I chanted “Ahmed Jamal is a hardcore patriot”. Everyone repeated it and clapped their hands. I took his hand and walked together to the medical staff that were standing aside (we were keen to stand aside to avoid blocking the Emergency entrance). Jamal took the megaphone and condemned the Ministry of Health stance but never called for the downfall of the Minister.

Down with Minister..

Inside the hospital, rage was building up. Chants demanding the resignation of the Minister were coming from every side even in the corridors. It was after 10 in the morning and ambulances were still impounded. Distress calls were coming without being attended to. “We went to the office of the under-secretary Ameen Al-Saati, everyone was upset and shirking the responsibility. We are 20 in number, his office was small and everyone was angry. I tried to calm everyone down so I could talk. He said: what do you all want? I said: what’s going on is a disgrace, allow the ambulances to move. You are our boss; please take an action in this, distress calls are still coming about wounded and injured.

 Saati called the Minister who responded that he would keep in touch with the Ministry of Interior and will see what happens. After a waiting time, the approval came to move the ambulances to the area surrounding the Roundabout with the guarantee to ensure their safety. He told us they would bring 7 equipped ambulances from Kanoo Health Centre. We asked him to come down and talk to the people saying to him you are an official and your word has its influence on the people. He came with us to the gate of the Maternity Department. We asked him: When will they come? He said: Within 10 minutes. We counted down. We counted the minutes from 1 till 60, and then started again, after 4 minutes the ambulances arrived.”

Al-Ekri recalls: “During that, I called the Minister of Health. I said to him directly: Abo Nawwaf, what happened today in the Salmaniya Medical Complex and the way the Ministry handles the crisis is a disgrace to the history of medicine in Bahrain, it’s a disgrace and shame to the Ministry of Health and as you are at the top of the health hierarchy, I advise you to put in your resignation to protect your history. He said to me: Who are you to ask me to resign? I replied: a junior employee who is keen to preserve the Ministry’s reputation and the reputation of the profession of medicine. I added: Where are you? The country is in havoc and the hospital is in chaos while you are sitting in your office? You have to be here!”

Disappointed Ambulances

The aim of insisting on moving the ambulances was to search the place. Police and Defence toops were deployed in the area surrounding the Roundabout. “At Gufool traffic lights we were stopped by the police, then the army troops stopped us. After phone calls they allowed us to pass through. Three ambulances actually reached the area close to the Roundabout. The car was moving on heaps of shoes and rubber bullets. At that time 80% of the tents were removed. The bulldozers were removing the tents and the food stands. We didn’t see anyone. We felt disappointed. We left towards Al-Abraj restaurant, we turned the ambulance siren on. An emergency case could hear the sound and come to us. They forced us to turn it off under threats. In front of Al-Abraj restaurant I saw two foreign reporters, they rode the ambulance with us and left. At each crossroad there was a checkpoint.

 At Al-Moayyed crossroad they stopped us and asked: Do you have cameras? We replied: No. One of the reporters who was filming, hastily disassembled his camera and threw it under one of the seats and kept a small personal camera with him. The policeman asked: Who are you? I showed them my card and said I’m an orthopedic surgeon and I introduced all the medical staff. They didn’t believe us. They argued among themselves for a while then they allowed us to continue our way.”

At 12 the ambulances returned. Some of them got some minor cases. A huge crowd was waiting for us in the Emergency Department courtyard. “We felt ashamed that we were not able to help. They received us. Some of them were talking in a small megaphone. I was dragged into talking through the megaphone. I said what I had seen in pain and broken-heartedly: The place has been bulldozed. The look was very depressing. Shoes were everywhere. The bullets canisters filled the place. It was like a warzone. I expressed my disappointment of going late. After that Dr. Abdulkhaleq and Dr. Ghassan spoke.”

After a depressing day

It was a long, exhausting, stressful and depressing day. I spent the remaining of the day looking after Sadeq. The thousands of protesters who were at the Roundabout the previous night came to the Emergency courtyard. Some of the protesters put a table; most of them were not employees of the Ministry of Health. The international media was there. I spoke to a couple of them before returning home carrying my wounds, exhaustion and pain.
I threw myself to my bed to sleep.

 My eyes resisted sleep. What the Minister said echoed in my ears: “Who are you to ask me to resign?” It was a flippant response that could not come out of a responsible person. The tumultuous incidents of the day danced in front of me in worry and deep sense of duty and responsibility and a question of: What should I do? The night was about to end and I was cornered by those thoughts, images and scenes. The call for the dawn prayer seeps into my thoughts. I got up to pray and did not sleep.

In the next part: What happened on Friday 18 February?

• Link to part 1
• Link to part 2
• Link to the Arabic copy