In the name of God the most merciful and precious
Statement by the Lawyer of the Bahraini Medics regarding the
Start of the Hearings before the Criminal High Court of Appeal
The Criminal High Court of Appeal yesterday, 23rd October 2011,
held its first hearings of the appeals filed by the Medical Staff and
also by the Public Prosecution. In a precedent considered the first of
its kind in the history of the Courts of Bahrain, the Public
Prosecution distributed among the persons attending the Court
hearing, just a few minutes before the hearing started, an English
statement printed on the Public Prosecution’s letterhead papers,
consisting of three pages. The statement was entitled “Fact Sheet for
Hearing of 23.10.2011.”
In our capacity as the defense lawyers for the Medical Staff charged
in the Case, we hereby lay our response to the Public Prosecution’s
statement and also what the Public Prosecution’s representative
recorded in the hearing minutes, as follows:
First: There is difference in the charges put against the Medical
Staff before the Court of Appeal and those which were put against
them before the military National Safety Court. The Public
Prosecution, for example, dropped three minor charges out of 14
charges put against them. The three charges which the Public
Prosecution dropped from the list of charges are only misdemeanors
the punishment for which does not exceed a maximum of three
years’ prison term. Those three misdemeanors are:
1. Public incitement of hatred to the ruling regime or showing
contempt towards it, which is punishable according to Article
165 of the Penal Code.
Statement by the Lawyer of the Bahraini Medics regarding the Start of the Hearings before the
Criminal High Court of Appeal
2. Publicly broadcasting false or malicious news or statements
which are detrimental to the public interest, which is punishable
by Article 168 of the Penal Code.
3. Inciting others, by any method of publication, not to comply
with the applicable laws or to do any act that constitutes a
crime, which is punishable by Article 173 of the Penal Code.
Therefore, it is clear that the Public Prosecution maintained all
charges against the Medical Staff the constitute felonies, which are
the most grave and serious, mainly the following:
1. Occupying a public hospital which is punishable with up to
life imprisonment as per Article 149 of the Penal Code.
2. Possessing arms without license which is punishable with up
to 15 years’ imprisonment as per Article 7 of the Explosives
and Arms Law.
3. Detaining public
servants and preventing them of carrying
their duties which is punishable with up to 15 years’ imprisonment
as per Article 357 of the Penal Code.
4. Promoting the overthrow of the political system of the State by
force which is punishable with up to 10 years’ imprisonment
as per Article 160 of the Penal Code.
Practically speaking, dropping the said three minor charges by the
Public Prosecution will have no impact on the prison sentences
passed against the Medical Staff, in case the Court of Appeal upheld
the ruling handed down by the military National Safety Court for
any of the felony charges above-mentioned. This is because
according to Article 66 of the Penal Code, a single punishment
which is that or the gravest offense will be applied.
Second: The Public Prosecution said that it shall not rely on the
“confessions” made by the Medical Staff during the interrogation
phase, those “confessions’ on basis of which the military National
Safety Court passed its judgment. This proves the credibility of the
Medical Staff defense that the so called “confessions” were extracted
Statement by the Lawyer of the Bahraini Medics regarding the Start of the Hearings before the
Criminal High Court of Appeal
through coercion and under torture. As a result, the military National
Safety Court’s judgment, which was based on evidence collected
through an illegal method, becomes of no legal effect or value.
Third: The Public Prosecution said that it intends to submit new
evidence before the Court of Appeal, as established in its statement,
and as declared by the Public Prosecution’s representative before the
Court, which proves beyond any doubt that the evidence submitted
before the military National Safety Court was not enough to convict
the Medical Staff. The Public Prosecution should have, in the course
of disclosing that it needs to submit new evidence to prove the
charges, focused its appeal only on the petition to overturn the
military National Safety Court’s ruling, in order to prove its
keenness to serve public interest, justice and law.
Fourth: It is crystal clear from the Public Prosecution’s statement,
as well as from the assertions of the Public Prosecution’s
representative before the High Court of Appeal, that the Public
Prosecution is still insisting on considering the procedures currently
standing before the Court of Appeal a “re-trial.” This is not true at
all, because all the proceedings existing at present are part of an
Appeal against the military National Safety Court’s ruling, and not
in any way a re-trial. The reason is that a re-trail should involve a
cancellation of an earlier decision and the start of a new trial before
the same Court which issued that earlier decision. This does not
apply to the case against the Medical Staff, because the conviction
ruling is standing, while the Court of Appeal will only hears the
appeal against this ruling.
Accordingly, the term “re-trial” does not at all apply to the current
proceedings before the Court of Appeal. But despite that, the term
“re-trial” was nonetheless used in English version of the Public
Prosecution’s statement issued on 5th October ‘2011 and from which
the word “appeal” was clearly dropped whereas the word “appeal”
was repeatedly used in the Arabic version of the same statement.
If we go along with the Public Prosecution in its contention that we
are in the process of a “re-trial” before the Court of Appeal, this
inevitably proves that the challenge by the Public Prosecution
against the conviction ruling, handed down by the military National
Statement by the Lawyer of the Bahraini Medics regarding the Start of the Hearings before the
Criminal High Court of Appeal
Safety Court, should be limited to seeking to revoke this ruling only.
This is further supported by the fact that the current proceeding
before the Court of Appeal means that the Medical staffs were
deprived of one stage of litigation before their normal judge.
Furthermore, they were prevented from submitting their defense
during that phase. This cannot be rectified or corrected by only
allowing the judgment of the military National Safety Court to be
challenged by way of appeal.
We are surprised that the Public Prosecution’s statement claims that
the Case is being heard now in “stages,” because the truth is that the
Case has already exhausted the first instance stage of the litigation
stages, which is the most important stage, because the members of
the Medial Staff, who are civilians, were tried before the military
National Safety Court. This important stage has concluded without
the defendants being provided with the opportunity to exercise their
right to defense, as set under the local laws or the international
standards for fair trials. Therefore, the appeal, albeit having been
conducted through different hearings, yet all these hearings are
classified as part of the appeal stage only, contrary to what the Public
Prosecution has stated.
Fifth: It should be noted that the Public Prosecution has
emphasized, in its statement, the right of the Medical Staff to testify
for themselves before the Court of Appeal. Making such testimony,
whether in respect of the torture they were subjected to, or for the
purpose of refuting the charges put against them, is a right that they
have been deprived of before the military National Safety Court,
despite their repeated demands for this right to be provided to them.
All this proves unequivocally the nullity of the trial proceedings
before the military National Safety Court, which has adversely
affected the ruling and inevitably led to the conviction judgment.
Sixth: The Public Prosecution’s statement, in its last paragraph,
stressed that all the hearings of the Court of Appeal will be open to
the public, which inevitably entails that the Public Prosecution
should remove the ban on publication, which has previously been
imposed in respect of this Case.
Statement by the Lawyer of the Bahraini Medics regarding the Start of the Hearings before the
Criminal High Court of Appeal
From all the above, we conclude that the military National Safety
Court has not proved that any of the charges attributed to the
Defendant, who appeared before it, are true nor that their trial has
been fair under the local laws and the international standards. This
necessarily requires that all the proceedings and measures taken by
the Military Authorities against the Medical Staff, including the
judgment handed down against them, should be overturned. In this
respect, there is no justification for this trial to continue, or to
maintain the unjustified measures related thereto, including the
travel ban imposed against the Medical Staff or suspending them
from carrying out their humane occupations, when their patients
badly need their services. Therefore, and for justice to prevail, we
are looking for these measures to be soon lifted and for the charges
to be permanently dropped and the court proceedings to be
immediately cancelled.
Manama, 23rd October ‘2011.
Lawyers
Hafedh ALI Hameed ALMULLA
Jalila SAYED Ahmed JASIM
Isa IBRAHIM Abdulla ALSHAMLAWI
Hassan RADHI Sami SAYADI
Mohamed ALTRANJA Abdulhadi ALQAYDOOM
Abduljalil ALARADI Ali A.HUSSAIN
Statement by the Lawyer of the Bahraini Medics regarding the Start of the Hearings before the
Criminal High Court of Appeal
List of Bahraini Medics sentenced on 29th September 2011:
No
Name
Gender
Specialty
Age
Verdict
1
Ali Al Ekri
M
Consultant,
Orthopedic Surgeon
44
15 years in
prison
2
Ali Al Sadadi
M
Kitchen worker in Salmaniya
Medical Complex
15 years in
prison
3
Nader Dewani
M
Consultant, Pediatrician
53
15 years in
prison
4
Ahmed Omran
M
Consultant, Family physician
47
15 years in
prison
5
Mahmood Asghar
M
Consultant,
Pediatric Surgeon
40
15 years in
prison
6
Ibrahim Al Demistani
M
Senior Nurse
43
15 years in
prison
7
Rula Al Saffar
F
Head of nursing society
Assistant professor in College
of Health Sciences
48
15 years in
prison
8
Abdulkhaleq Al Oraibi
M
Consultant,
Rheumatologist
39
15 years in
prison
9
Ghassan Dhaif
M
Consultant,
Oral & Maxillofacial Surgeon
45
15 years in
prison
10
Basim Dhaif
M
Consultant,
Orthopedic Surgeon
47
15 years in
prison
11
Sayed Marhoon Al Wedaei
M
Ambulance Head
36
15 years in
prison
12
Nada Dhaif
F
DenWst
39
15 years in
prison
13
Hassan Al Tublani
M
ICU Consultant
10 years in
prison
14
FaWma Haji
F
Rheumatologist
33
5 years in
prison
15
Deya Ibrahim
F
Nurse
5 years in
prison
16
Najah Khalil
M
Family physician
5 years in
prison
17
Mohammed Al Shehab
M
Lab technician
5 years in
prison
18
Saeed Al Samahiji
M
Ophthalmologist
56
10 years in
prison
19
Qassim Omran
M
Intensivest
15 years in
prison
20
Zahra Al Sammak
F
Consultant,
Anesthesiologist
45
5 years in
prison
Statement by the Lawyer of the Bahraini Medics regarding the Start of the Hearings before the
Criminal High Court of Appeal
