Bahrain Mirror: The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, on Monday, March 18, 2024, published its opinion adopted during its 98th session on November 16, 2023, based on a complaint filed by Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain. The UN team confirmed that 4 senior Bahraini opposition leaders were subjected to arbitrary detention, torture, enforced disappearance, unfair trial, and medical neglect.

In a statement, the UN team called on the Bahraini government to "immediately release the four leaders and conduct an independent investigation into their circumstances, holding the perpetrators accountable."

The UN team noted that this case follows a similar pattern to several others in Bahrain, including arbitrary arrest, limited access to pretrial judiciary, denial of access to lawyers, coerced confessions, torture, ill-treatment, and medical neglect.

The UN team reiterated its concern about the effectiveness of the "Office of the Ombudsman" and the "Special Investigations Unit," stating that they "are neither independent nor effective," considering that complaints submitted to these investigative bodies do not appear to have been resolved.

In a statement issued on Monday, the HR organization supported the UN team's opinion and recommendations regarding the four opposition leaders, urging the Bahraini government to immediately release them, compensate them, and conduct a comprehensive investigation into their arbitrary detention.

ADHRB Executive Director, Hussein Abdullah, expressed that, "The opinion of the UN group strongly reinforces what the world already knows: Bahrain violently persecutes its democracy-supporting leaders and systematically mistreats them. Bahraini rulers are afraid of democracy."

Arabic Version