Bahrain Mirror: The Bahraini government said it received the recent Human Rights Watch (HRW) report and is reviewing its contents and allegations stated therein.

"Since the cases mentioned in the report are within the specialty of the Ombudsman, the Bahraini government would like to urge HRW again to present such complaints to these institutions and provide them with sufficient information in order to allow them to make effective investigations, particularly since publically criticizing these institutions without giving them a chance to look into these allegations does not serve the efforts made to protect and enhance human rights," the government stressed.

It added that "the allegations mentioned in the report are from anonymous sources and are based on a limited number of interviews, including interviews made with political activists."

"The Bahraini government notices with great concern that many cases of torture allegations issued by individuals mentioned in the report were addressed on previous occasions. For instance, the Bahraini Ministry of Interior has publically addressed one case on two occasions; during an investigation by Amnesty International , noting that it is possible that the allegations change; however, the government's stance remains the same; which is that no such acts of maltreatment took place neither during arrest nor detention," it claimed.

"The recommendations presented by HRW regarding the call to stop the cooperation programs with the UK and the technical cooperation with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights are also worrying. Instead, HRW was supposed to praise and support the cooperation and technical help provided by other parties that help implement reform programs in Bahrain," the government further stated, calling on the organization to look into the report of the National Human Rights Organization for more extensiveness in addressing human rights developments."

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