Bahrain Mirror (Exclusive): The deputy president of Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR), Sayed Yousef Al-Mohafdha, confirmed that torture in Bahrain is in fact an official systematic policy, highlighting a number of cases documented by Human Rights Watch (HRW).

During a seminar at the American University in the French capital Paris (Thursday, December 3, 2015), Al-Mohafdha stressed that the crime of impunity in Bahrain is covered by senior Bahraini officials, including the king.

"They allow no one to criticize the authorities (...) So, they target social media activists and human rights defenders," he added, pointing out that the regime in Bahrain upheld death penalties issued against two pro-democracy protestors and stripped dozens of Bahrainis of their nationalities.

For his part, BCHR member Mohammad Sultan highlighted how the Government of Bahrain practices a policy of "persecuting and arresting children in order to spread panic and fear among citizens and prevent them from participating in any protest calling for their rights."

"More than 200 children were taken into custody, and most of them are still deprived of their right to education," he added.

Sultan further stated that the Bahraini law considers a child of 15 years of age and above to be held fully accountable for his criminal acts as adults, stressing that "some were even sentenced to life imprisonment."

The Secretary-General of the European-Bahraini Organization for Human Rights, Hussein Jawad; however, shared his personal experience and the torture he was exposed to in Bahraini prisons, calling on the seminar attendees to support who he described as "the persecuted in the oil-rich gulf, where the peoples suffer from the oppression of their regimes and double standards of western governments."

Arabic Issue