King Shaikh Hamad bin ‘Issa Al Khalifa

From:

King

Shaikh Hamad bin ‘Issa Al Khalifa

Office of His Majesty the King

P.O. Box 555

Rifa’a Palace

al-Manama

Bahrain

Fax: [phone]

Date:

Your Majesty,

I am writing to appeal to you in the case of the following 20 health professionals whose trial resumed on 8^th March before the civilian High Criminal Court of Appeal:

14 men: ‘Ali ‘Esa Mansoor al-‘Ekri, Nader Mohammed Hassan Dewani, Ahmed ‘Abdulaziz Omran Hassan, Mahmood Asghar ‘Abdulwahab, ‘Abdulkhaleq ‘Ali Hussain al-‘Oraibi, Ghassan Ahmed ‘Ali Dhaif, Bassim Ahmed ‘Ali Dhaif, Ebrahim ‘Abdullah Ebrahim, Sayed Marhoon Majid al-Wedaei, ‘Ali Hassan al-Sadadi, Qassim Mohammad ‘Omran, Hassan Mohammed Sa’eed Nasser, Sa’eed Mothaher Habib Al Samahiji, Mohammed Faeq ‘Ali Al Shehab

and 6 women: Roula Jassim Mohammed al-Saffar, Nada Sa’eed ‘Abdelnabi Dhaif, Fatima Salman Hassan Haji, Dhia Ibrahim Ja’far, Najah Khalil Ibrahim Hassan, Zahra Mahdi al-Sammak.

I am very concerned to learn that the travel bans on the defendants have not been lifted and that there has been no independent investigation of their allegations of torture. Apparently their lawyers are also experiencing difficulties in preparing their defence. May I therefore urge you and the relevant authorities to make sure that the appeal proceedings comply with international standards for fair trial, that the defence lawyers are allowed to call any relevant witnesses, and that they are given adequate time to prepare their clients’ defence.

Should the defendants be jailed, I fear that they would be prisoners of conscience imprisoned solely for peacefully exercising their rights to freedom of expression and assembly.

Meanwhile, I ask for an independent and impartial investigation to be launched into allegations by the defendants that they were subjected to torture and other ill-treatment and for their claims to be examined by an independent forensic body.

This case is causing widespread concern and I sincerely hope that you will take prompt action on the above requests.

Yours respectfully,

Copy to: Ambassade du Royaume de Bahreïn, Paris, France.