BAHRAIN MEDIA ROUNDUP

9th/ 10th/ 11th May 2014

Bahrain jails six men
to 25 years for terror
acts
A Bahraini court Sunday
sentenced six men to 25
years in prison in
connection with an act of
terror two years ago, an
ofcial said.
Bahrain's High Criminal
Court sentenced the six
men in connection with the
2012 killing of a civilian
using a home-made bomb.
Capital Governorate Chief
Prosecutor Mohammed Al
Maliki said in a statement
that the six men blocked
the main road in Hamad
Town on April 16, 2012 by
setting tyres on re, Xinhua
reported.
He said they planted an
explosive device that
injured 18-year-old Bahraini
Ahmed Salim Al Dhufairi
when he went to remove
the burning tyres.
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From Manama With
Love
Just when the Obama
administration is straining to
isolate the Kremlin with a
new round of sanctions as
punishment for the
annexation of Ukraine, a
major U.S. allytrotted off to
Moscow last week to strike
a series of military and
economic deals with the
Russian government.
The crown prince of
Bahrain, a longtime
Washington favorite
identied as the man most
likely to bring reform to the
troubled Gulf kingdom, led
a Bahrain government
delegation to Moscow,
meeting President Putin
and various business
leaders and clinching a deal
with Bahrain's sovereign
wealth fund. The delegation
also secured a new
contract with Russian arms
suppliers Rosoboronexport,
opened direct ights from
Manama to Moscow,
announced the easing of
visa restrictions for
Russians doing business in
Bahrain, and signed a
memo of co-operation
between the cities of
Manama and St
Petersburg.
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Prince Andrew
praises Bahrain,
island of torture
The Duke of York will be the
keynote speaker at a
conference in London this
Friday celebrating Bahrain
as a place of religious
freedom and tolerance of
divergent opinions.
Speaking during a visit to
Bahrain last month, he said:
"I believe that what's
happening in Bahrain is a
source of hope for many
people in the world and a
source of pride for
Bahrainis."
This is very strange, as the
island kingdom of Bahrain
has a proven record of
jailing and torturing
protesters demanding
democratic rights for the
Shia majority, an estimated
60 per cent of Bahraini
citizens, from the Sunni al-
Khalifa monarchy. In its
annual report on human
rights, the US State
Department identies many
abuses, the most serious of
which include "citizens'
inability to change their
government peacefully;
arrest and detention of
protesters on vague
charges, in some cases
leading to their torture in
detention". It draws
attention to the fact that
"discrimination [has]
continued against the Shia
population".
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Bahrain slashes U.S.
human rights report
Bahrain on Saturday
strongly condemned and
questioned the ndings of
the U.S. State Department
's 2013 Country Report on
Human Rights in the
kingdom, APA reports
quoting Xinhua.
The U.S. report sharply
criticized Bahrain for what it
claimed as arbitrary arrests,
torture and other strings of
human rights violations. But
Bahrain's Interior Ministry
counteracted each points
stated in the report, starting
with the so-called 52 deaths
during the 2011 unrest.
The ministry said that an
independent inquiry,
Bahrain Independent
Commission of Inquiry,
found 35 deaths were
linked to the unrest from
February to April of 2011.
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See no evil, hear no
evil
Prof Eoin OBrien examines
the recent RCSI and NUI
submissions to the
Oireachtas on RCSI-
Bahrain.
Lloyd Mudiwas recent
report in Irish Medical
Times (April 11, 2014) on
the appearance of the RCSI
and NUI in front of the Joint
Oireachtas Educational and
Social Protection
Committee makes
disturbing reading for a
number of reasons, and
merits closer scrutiny. Let
us remember that the
reason for debate in the
Oireacthas stems from two
eventualities.
First, the Royal College of
Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI)
has invested some "60
million in a medical and
nursing school, RCSI-
Bahrain.
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Revealed: The British
exports that crush
free expression
The Arab Spring has not
stopped Britain from
helping crush free
expression and freedom of
assembly by selling crowd
control gear to authoritarian
states including Saudi
Arabia and Bahrain.
Analysis of newly-published
data on export licences
approved by the UK
government have revealed
ministers backed over 4
million of tear gas, crowd
control ammunition and CS
hand grenade sales over
the last two years to Saudi
Arabia - one of the most
repressive states in the
world.
The British government
also allowed crowd control
ammunition to be sold to
Malaysia and Oman, as
well as tear gas to Hong
Kong and Thailand.
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