The video released by the Information Affairs Authority (IAA) on Saturday is a self-explanatory evidence and can be accessed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kr0QqHOnHAk shows the gravity and severity of crimes committed by the followers of the noble profession of Florence Nightingale during their so-called political movement between February 14 and March 14, 2011.
The Secretary-General expressed his deep concern over the harsh sentences handed down in Bahrain to civilians, medical professionals, teachers and other, by the Court of National Safety, according to a statement released in Manama by the UNIC, attributing it to the UN Secretary General. “These proceedings were conducted under conditions that raised serious questions of due process irregularities,” the statement added.
The Secretary-General called for the release of all political detainees and reiterates his appeal to the Bahraini authorities at the highest level to ensure the application of due process and respect for international human rights norms. “This will contribute to conditions for national dialogue, reconciliation and reform as sought by all the Bahraini people,” the UNIC statement added.
Justice is served
Bahrain Government officials have elaborated on the various charges made against the 20 medical staff who was sentenced on Thursday to between five and 15 years in prison for crimes that included incitement to overthrow the Government during the unrest in February and March.
Speaking at a press conference at the IAA, officials from the Bahrain Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Human Rights and Social Development, and the CEO of the Salmaniya Medical Complex, Dr Waleed Almannii, showed video footage as evidence of the points they wished to make clear. In a separate statement, the Military Prosecutor, Colonel Yussef Rashid Flaifel, has spotlighted points from the cases of the twenty defendants in the National Safety Lower Court ruling.
Child denied treatment:
The Government officials said medics set up their own checkpoints around the hospital and prevented people from accessing the hospital for treatment. They cited one example of a toddler who was brought in by her parents, and refused treatment for her naso-gastric feeding tube.
Medical staff was being selective about which groups should be treated in the hospital, said the officials. They mentioned a group of Asian patients, who were brutally assaulted, physically and verbally, and held hostage in handcuffs when they arrived at the hospital. Among the casualties of the unrest this year, four were Asians, who were killed by protesters.
Stolen blood misused:
In his statement, Colonel Flaifel said blood bags from the hospital were used by the medics to fabricate incidents by pouring blood on protesters who were not injured and who were then photographed in a manner to deceive people. Colonel Flaifel said these images were then broadcast to local and worldwide audiences by television channels that were allocated rooms on the second floor of the hospital. The intention, he said, was to project the Bahrain Government in a bad light in order to gain international support for the protesters.
The Bahrain Government officials said the medical staff further used the foreign media for their own agenda, by giving the media wrong information about the numbers of injured and types of injuries, and by fallaciously stating that Bahrain security forces used prohibited gases.
According to the officials, medical staff in their hospital uniforms made statements inciting young men to become martyrs in the protests. A part of the video film shown at the press conference shows one of the medical staff holding a Qoran above the heads of young men, blessing them for potential martyrdom.
The medics built a stage in the emergency entrance car park, and further video footage at the press conference shows doctors and religious clerics making speeches on the stage calling for the overthrow of the Bahrain Government.
Ambulances requisitioned for protests:
Ambulances were found to be used for carrying weapons to the protesters, whilst being prevented at times from carrying patients, and the medics were found to be harboring weapons in the hospital complex itself.
“It is very clear from all the evidence, especially that which appeared on the video film, that those medics sentenced on Thursday were not sentenced for simply treating wounded protesters or for exercising their right of free speech, as has been claimed by various human rights groups and other bodies. They were committing serious crimes of a very unethical nature for the medical profession,” an IAA spokesman, said.
All the twenty medical staff sentenced on Thursday can now appeal against their sentences in the highest Bahrain civilian court, the Court of Cassation.