Manama,
Bahrain -The lobby group Human Rights Watch (HRW) warned in a report Monday that Bahrain must take urgent steps to end torture and ill-treatment of
security suspects during interrogation. The 89-page report, "Torture Redux: The Revival of Physical Coercion during Interrogations in Bahrain" launched in the capital, Manama, called on the government to promptly investigate all torture allegations and prosecute any security officials suspected of abusing detainees.
"The return of torture is especially distressing since Bahrain showed the political will a decade ago to end this scourge," said Joe Stork, deputy
Middle East director at HRW during a press conference at Bahrain Human Rights Society.
Stroke however pointed out that the fact that HRW was able to base their report on the medical reports by government doctors, and that a
court had confirmed the victims' allegations of torture and thus discounted their 'confessions' - as a sign that the situation was not as bad as in the mid-1990s.
That was when HRW first published a report on abuses in Bahrain.
"The government should promptly investigate all torture allegations and prosecute offenders according to international fair trial standards," Stork added.
Officials with the Ministry of Interior and the Public Prosecution Office, in separate meetings with Human Rights Watch, denied that security forces employed torture.
