Bahrain Mirror (Exclusive): The obvious result which was shown by the activity of the February 14th, is that there is a king named Hamad bin Isa neglected a text of the constitutional oath "I swear by Allah the Almighty to respect the Constitution and the laws of the State, and defend the liberties of the people, interests and properties, and to safeguard the independence and territorial integrity".

The microscope of the February 14th uprising has shown the King's negligence of the oath, as well as the date of February 14th, 2002 showed the abolition of the 'Contractual' Constitution by the king, and Bassiouni's report came as an attempt to heal the legitimacy that the King had damaged by such negligence.

The opposition had given the King an opportunity to heal his legitimacy, but he did not do that during the last eight months that followed the release of Bassiouni's report, what are the options before him now? This is what we are trying to answer by investigating the performance of the King biography that contradicts the constitutional oath.


Is the King aware?
 
Bassiouni's report confirmed to the king of the responsibility of the government and security agencies for flagrant violations and abuses that occurred during the months of February and March 2011:

Confirmed that the security authorities used excessive and unnecessary force, "The security services of the GoB resorted to the use of unnecessary and excessive force, terror-inspiring behaviour and unnecessary damage to property." paragraph 1693.


The report emphasized that the security forces violated the principles of necessity and proportionality in dealing with the demonstrators, "In many situations, the security forces violated the principles of necessity and proportionality, which are the generally applicable principles in matters relating to the use of force by law enforcement officials. This is evident in both the choice of the weapons that were used by these forces during confrontations with civilians and the manner in which these weapons were used." Paragraph 1699

Emphasised on the deliberate practice, "This again indicates certain patterns of behaviour by certain government agencies. Not all of the detainees were subjected to all of the techniques of mistreatment. Rather, there was a more discernible pattern of ill-treatment with regard to certain categories of detainees. The extent of this physical and psychological mistreatment is evidence of a deliberate practice...." 1694

Confirmed that they constitute a violation of the Bahraini Penal Code: "Consequently, these measures fall within the meaning of torture as defined in the Convention Against Torture (CAT), to which Bahrain is a State Party. They also constitute violations of the Bahrain Criminal Code." Paragraph 1697

The report also demonstrated the lack of accountability and the spread of a culture of impunity: "The Commission is of the view that the lack of accountability of officials within the security system in Bahrain has led to a culture of impunity, whereby security officials have few incentives to avoid mistreatment of prisoners or to take action to prevent mistreatment by other officials. …." Paragraph 1698

Also, the Commission demonstrated that the decree of the National Safety was used to commit serious violations: "The manner in which the security and judicial agencies of the GoB interpreted the National Safety Decree also opened the door for the perpetration of grave violations of human rights, including the arbitrary deprivation of life, torture and arbitrary detention." Paragraph 1702

These were some of the brief notes that were confirmed by the report; as well as stressing many others and documented them in detail.

A follow-up by the King

Did not the King really know? However, in the May 9, 2011, during a meeting with the a group of the clergymen, and after making the decision to terminate the state of the National Security, the king said "the brothers who greatly contributed to the exceptional case, attended their roles to the fullest, with all the ability, wisdom, and powers they possessed, and I did ensure that nobody had exceeded the powers and, indeed, everything was accurate, and they complied with the law during that stage"(1)
How consistent the words of the King: "I was following not to exceed the powers", with all the violations that were corroborated in Bassiouni's report as well as international organizations?
 
How consistent the King's saying: "Brothers who have contributed to the exceptional case, attended their roles to the fullest, and everything was accurate," with what was called in Bassiouni's report of the approach followed by the security forces and judicial bodies in interpreting the decree of the National Safety, which "opened the door to gross human rights abuses including arbitrary deprivation of life, torture, and arbitrary arrest "?
 
Was the interpretation of (the brothers who have contributed to the exceptional case) a personal explanation? Or was it an (accurate) interpretation according to the King?
And thus who was responsible for the work which the King described as (was done fully and accurately)?

And who was responsible for the culture of non-accountability that was condemned by Bassiouni's report, whereas the King blesses the "ability and wisdom and the powers of those authorities and said that they "complied with the law of during that stage?"

Ministers are lying

We are not here to view the details of the violations that were documented by Bassiouni's report and other similar reports: mass corporal punishment, unjustified killing, non-binding violence and repression, arrest, torture, destruction of livelihoods, humiliation, oppression, defamation, and distrust.

We are not also going to view the details of religious contempt and desecration of holy sites, the demolition of mosques for a particular religious sect, which Bassiouni asserted in paragraph 1707 that he sees it as "a collective punishment because it is applied to buildings belonging to Shiite"
We are not also viewing the details of the official media contempt inside and outside of Bahrain, and the smear campaign against the protesters by describing them as traitors, conspirators, Safavī (Persians) and coup mongers. All this was carried out by official government agencies that were explicitly condemned by the report, involving the ministries each in its own way.
 
Hundreds of innocent people were tried in military and civilian tribunals, during which the Public Prosecution exercised the role of the adversary to the people rather than being an adversary against corruption. The courts did not support a single case against any violation of the right of the people; and the courts did not issue any ruling in favor of one of the affected people.
 
On the other hand, the military tribunals issued legendary charges, as described by Bassiouni as (unfair) on civilians, including medical staff, who faced charges of murder, occupation, and possessing weapons and the attempt to overthrow the government (they have been acquitted of these charges recently). Ministers assumed promoting the lie of the charges in full, through press conferences and local and international media, and before the start of the trial of medical staff.
 
Did these ministers (liars, revengeful and who fought with people in their jobs) were also doing their job with "with all the ability, wisdom, and powers"?

Was the king following them not to exceed their authorities in pressing absolute charges, sentencing, and declaring charges, as in the case of the defamation of more than 40 members of the medical staff?

Blessing of the King

What did the King do after all that which has been revealed of the gross involvement in atrocities of ministers, government authorities, and other security organisations? The answer: None. What did he do about all those who have committed violations against the nation, religion, and the Constitution? The answer: None.

Both the Minister of Health and the Minister of Justice, who lied about the medical staff, smeared their reputation, and dubbed them as traitors in the local and international media, are still on top of their jobs.

The Minister of Information, who produced the worst machine of intimidation, incitement and accusations of treason against the majority of the population, is still heading the ministry.

The Minister of the Interior, who the report proved his flagrant and large scale violations that were carried out by his employees, is also at the head of his ministry.

The Minister of Education who allowed the security forces to violate the university campus and to break through schools, and allowed the arrest of large numbers of teachers and students from the examination rooms, and converted governmental schools into an intelligence and slandering community, and who participated in arbitrary dismissal of dozens and arrest of hundreds, also remains at the head of his ministry practicing in more of arrests of teachers and deduction from their salaries?

And still all the other ministers who participated in the unfair dismissal and collective punishment against more than half of the population, are on the top of their ministries and are blessed by the King.

The King did not take any action against the ministers who were involved personally in the conversion of the period of the National Security to a McCarthyism punishment. The Ministers turned the violations into a non-accountability culture. The King, before all these egregious ministerial abuses, contented himself with the issuance of a decree to reinstating the employees to their jobs. As his ever disgusting decisions: he issued a decree to form a committee. That was it.

When was the first time, since 14 February, he King got angry?

To be continued...

• Link to the Arabic copy

• Part 1
• Part 3