Judicial authorities in Bahrain on Wednesday nullified the convictions and harsh prison terms given to 20 medical workers last week by a special security court prosecuting cases arising from civil unrest in the country. The medical workers were ordered released from custody, with new trials scheduled in a civilian court.
The decision appeared to be at least a tactical retreat by Bahrain?s Sunni monarchy in the face of strong international protests over the punishments, including criticism from the secretary general of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon. The special court had condemned some doctors and nurses among the defendants to terms as long as 15 years because they had treated demonstrators who were wounded by security forces. Most of the protesters are members of the Shiite majority in the tiny Persian Gulf country.
Bahrain?s attorney general, Ali Alboainain, said in a statement carried by the country?s official Bahrain News Agency that he had studied the judgment that the security court rendered Thursday and had ?determined that the cases should be retried before the ordinary courts.?
Citing his department?s authority to ensure ?rightful application of the law,? the attorney general also said: ?No doctors or other medical personnel may be punished by reason of the fulfillment of their humanitarian duties or their political views. Pending the outcome of the retrials, the accused shall not be detained.?
The security court found that during the height of the protests, the medical workers took over the Salmaniya Medical Complex, Bahrain?s largest public hospital, and used it as a base for antigovernment plots, including the storage of fuel bombs and weapons. The defendants were also accused of stealing medical equipment and ?fabricating stories and lies.?
Supporters of the defendants denied those charges and said the medical workers were put on trial simply because they treated wounded protesters, out of a duty to treat anyone who came to the hospital.
In what seemed a tacit acknowledgement that the defendants had been denied rights by the special court, the attorney general said, ?By virtue of the retrials, the accused will have the benefit of full reevaluation of evidence and full opportunity to present their defense.?
The prosecution of the medical workers has become a signature theme in the course of the Bahrain conflict, and a sensitive issue for the monarchy, an important American ally and the host to the United States Fifth Fleet?s naval base. Rights groups have accused the monarchy?s security forces of trying to systematically deny medical services to wounded protesters by mistreating and intimidating doctors and nurses.
Physicians for Human Rights, an advocacy group that has strongly criticized the Bahrain government?s behavior in the protests, reacted cautiously to the attorney general?s announcement on Wednesday. ? We are glad for any kind of review of the grossly unjust convictions,? said Hans Hogrefe, the group?s Washington director. At the same time, he said, ? the proof will be in the pudding.?
Mr. Hogrefe said he believed the attorney general?s announcement reflected a ?response to the international outcry.?
He and others also noted that the announcement came as Congress is beginning to evaluate the planned American sale of $53 million worth of weapons to Bahrain, including bunker-busting missiles, night-vision technology and dozens of Humvee vehicles. Rights groups have written to Congress urging that the deal be blocked because of rights abuses in Bahrain.
Rights groups estimate that since the unrest there began, at least 34 people have been killed, more than 1,400 have been arrested and as many as 3,600 dismissed from their jobs.
Source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=340f8f160bc337cd0635d49330fd213f
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