03/07/2014 11:25Bahrain Weekly Newsletter

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Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy View this email in your browser

Wednesday, 2nd July 2014, Issue #1

BIRD Weekly Newsletter Freedom for the Bahrain 13 - Join the Campaign

We are happy to announce the very first edition of BIRD's weekly newsletter! Pleaseexpect our updates every Wednesday morning at 10.00am (CET).

Bahrain 13 Campaign

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The “Bahrain 13″ are a group of prominent political prisoners in Bahrain whowere arrested in March 2011 for their calls on civil and political rights andjustice during the February 14 Uprising. They have been sentenced for up tolife imprisonment after facing systematic ill treatment and torture during theperiod of their arrest and detention. Many have been beaten and sexuallyabused. BIRD and its campaign partners, Americans for Democracy andHuman Rights (ADHRB), the Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR), theBahrain Youth Society for Human Rights (BYSHR) and the European BahrainiOrganization for Human Rights (EBOHR) invite you to participate in thiscampaign, demanding the release of the Bahrain 13.

Follow this link to write to your UK MPFollow this link to write to UK Prime Minister Mr. David Cameron

To find out more information about each of the Bahrain 13 and to read theirindividual testimonies, please follow this link.

Bahrain 13 Spotlight:Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja

Member of the Bahrain 13, Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja isa human rights defender and pro-democracy activistwho was arrested on the 9th of April 2011 whenheavily armed forces broke into his home and beathim before taking him away. Read more about hiscase on the following link.

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Weekly Highlights

Following 75 days of detention, the corpse of Abdulaziz Al-Abbar, a victim ofpolice shooting, will finally be handed to his family for burial. The family ofAbdulazeez were prevented from burying their son after the death certificateissued failed to acknowledge that the cause of his death was direct police fireusing a shotgun. The funeral will take place this Friday.

Dr. Saeed Al SamaheejiBIRD expresses its concern regarding the recent arrestand imprisonment of Dr. Saeed Al Samaheeji, a medicand human rights activist who has been sentenced toa year imprisonment for insulting the King of Bahrain. In2011, Dr. Al Samaheeji extended his medical help toinjured protesters during the popular uprisings. As ahuman rights activist, he has actively reached out to helpvarious individuals stripped of their Bahraini citizenship.

BIRD Team recognizes UN International Day

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in support of victims of torture

Thank you SR. Mendez - Bahrain Institute for Rights & Democracy

On Friday 27th of June, BIRD recognized the UN International Day in supportof victims of torture and expressed its thanks for the work of United NationsSpecial Rapporteur on Torture Mr. Juan Mendez.

SR Juan Mendez expresses "grave concern" forHuman Rights in Bahrain

Special Rapporteur on Torture Mr. Juan Mendez speaks on UNInternational Day in Support of Victims of Torture

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Mr. Juan Mendez, United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture and other cruel,inhuman or degrading forms of treatment, during a hearing at the House of Lordsnoted how the escalating human rights situation in Bahrain is a reason for "graveconcern" . Mr. Mendez further recognized that “the important recommendationsmade by the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry under the chairmanship ofProfessor Cherif Bassiouni are all in a state of non-implementation, despite the factthat it has been more than three years since that seminal report was published." Similarly, he pointed out that "all the recommendations made by the Human RightsCouncil during the Universal Periodic Review on Bahrain are ... not beingimplemented by Bahrain at this point”.

You can watch the entire speech here.

News Updates

Main FeatureThe Bureau of Investigative Journalismrevealed that an adviser to

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the Bahrain government, LordClanwilliam, was placed with UK defencesecretary Phillip Hammond and pro-govBahrain APPG chair Conor Burns at a keyTory fundraiser.

Bahrain hired PR firm Bell Pottinger wasalso present at the event.

The Guardian:'Tory fundraising party: Bahrain lobbyistsat with defence secretary'

Gillford was asked whether herepresented Bahrain's interests at theevent, or discussed any issues affectingany of his firm's clients. He declined tocomment.

BBC:'Bahrain Court Acquits opposition leader KhalilMarzooq'

Brian Dooley, Human Rights First: "Marzook needs tobe out of jail to be part of a negotiated settlement toBahrain's crisis. But so do other political leaders still

in prison. If real dialogue is ever to begin it will have toinclude opposition figures beyond Wefaq"

RT:'"Don't take photos"': HRW slams Bahrain fortargeting photographers over protests coverage'

Joe Stork, Human Rights Watch: "The images thatAhmed Humaidan and Hussain Hubail captured,portray a reality that the Bahraini governmentwould prefer that the world - and other Bahrainis -

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not see"

Join this week's twitter trend with BIRD and tag #Freedom4Bahrain13 for a retweet.

Facebook @birdbahrain_ birdbh.org

Copyright © 2014 Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (BIRD), all rights reserved.*|Newsletter Issue 1|*

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