Bahrain Protest in Support of Irish Trained Medics

In April, the Bahraini Authorities took brutal action against members of the medical profession for providing medical assistance to protesters who had been injured during the February and March demonstrations in Bahrain..

Medical personnel were arrested, detained, and subjected to interrogation, beatings, and in some cases torture.

On 7 July, Front Line issued an open letter to the King of Bahrain demanding the release of the imprisoned medical professionals. Front Line Deputy Director Andrew Anderson formed part of an independent delegation of medical professionals and politicians that traveled to Bahrain on a fact-finding mission. While there, the delegation held meetings with Bahraini human rights defenders, families of the detained medical workers and Bahraini officials.

On 29 September, 20 of the medical professionals were sentenced to five to fifteen years by a security court on an array of spurious charges ranging from the incitement of hatred of the regime to possessing weapons. The medics deny all charges against them.

A month later, on Sunday 23 October, amid sharp international criticism of the verdicts, a Bahraini civilian court began a retrial of the medics.