There were many situations which we experienced in the prison, but the most terrifying was taking us to the unknown, the prison's administration were eager to let the unknown juggle in different directions. Our terrorized minds defeated our vulnerable bodies, we did not have other than obedience of what they wanted, only to discover later that we were in the court or Criminal Investigation Department building or Ministry of Interior, and this time was no different from its predecessors, it was a day of the month of Ramadan, they suddenly woke us up, as usual, we did not know the reason for that, but we had become familiar with the way when they wanted to take us somewhere, they just ordered us without telling us about our destination, or allow us to question. Because we were in the month of Ramadan, we got used to sleep after dawn prayers, so it was disturbing awakening us at that time, in addition to our worry of what was to come.

 

The prison administration called us and all the medics detainees got on the bus. We did not realize that we were at the Fortress prison only after our arrival, we were ordered to sit in the waiting room, it was for about two hours, questions and ideas started to float, was it a new interrogation or another chapter of torture or what?! After about two hours of waiting and anticipation we discovered that we were there to meet forensic doctors arranged by Bassiouni Commission. For the first time since being detainees; we felt that we are respected and that we were humans with value! That did not continue more than the time it took to meet with the medical committee of Bassiouni Commission. 

In a place like meeting rooms, two persons were waiting for us two, they introduced themselves to us: Bradley and Sir Nigel, and there were consultants in forensics with them working for the Commission, at their request we introduced ourselves, then they distributed a set of printed sheets and asked us to go through them to know the purpose of the their mission. I specifically remember that after I read their roles; I asked a direct question to Sir Nigel: “Can we use the results of the medical examination conducted by Bassiouni Commission in court to prove torture and abuse that occurred to us?” It was clear that Sir Nigel was hesitant in the beginning, and continued to be so, but eventually he acknowledged that the use of such evidence depends on the decision of Mr. Bassiouni personally. 

After the finishing the meeting and clarifying the objectives of the committee;  a doctor  assigned by the commission for each doctor of us, we did not really know whether there was any specific  target of allocating a specific doctor for every of  us or that was for coordination purposes only. 

Ellen Keller, this name will be linked to me for many years to come, the doctor who has examined me and listened to my story and what happened to me. A few minutes after I sat with him and before he started examining my body; I was surprised to see Sir Nigel entering and requesting to attend the meeting. I began telling the story of my arrest and torture and insults, they were very astonished, they couldn't hide their feeling as their faces indicated marks of confusion and wondering of how I was subjected to torture and maltreatment, and their sympathy had extended to even crying sometimes. The forensic doctor expressed his surprise at the extent that a group of people tortured a senior and famous consultant and by such ugly means, and how this can happen in a country that claims civilization, democracy and observing human rights.

 

The forensic examination proved that day a presence of various injuries and disability in the right shoulder and legs, and had proven that in his report sent to the Court of Appeal; also he requested carrying out an MRI examination of the injured shoulder and X-rays of the legs. 

Until now, neither an official nor a competent party has taken the recommendations of this committee!! After the completion of the examination;  he asked me of names of detainees who had been tortured and had broken parts or fell as a result of torture, I directly told him that I knew one of the detainees whose name was Hussein Al-Saffar – a defendant in “Manama Case” - who lost his front teeth and I had seen that with my own eyes, in addition to seeing signs of beatings by sharp object on his back, leaving marks and deep wounds with clear scars, I was confident that these were still exist due to the severity and the impossibility of their disappearance, but, as expected, he was never called up for examination. 

 

By the end of my meeting with Dr. Allen, he told me personally that he and until that day we met had not understood the goal of forming the Bassiouni Commission especially that all detainees were tortured and confessions were extracted under torture, which clearly means that the truth is as clear as the sun and it does not need a commission to explore!!

 

Then I thanked him; he then gave me his business card to communicate with him, but he said h would not promise to respond to any messages from me or my family, and I told him I understood that, but I promised him that we would meet together again in the future not in Bahrain, but in New York. 

"In the time before our release i.e. during the month of Ramadan, everything was almost allowed, they allowed us to get a lot of clothes, our perfumes and we wore the clothes we had used to wear before arresting us, we felt that we no longer had any missing thing in that place, only our families and iPhones." Ramadan, the Month of worship, was spent in prayer. The detainees did not forget their real habits, an hour before breaking their fast, they offered dates and food to their jailers. When they came out of the cells they distributed sweets, candies and food to the jailers too, and some policemen asked to have bottles of rose water, so one of the detainees gave them small bottles of rose water. "The most beautiful thing is the moment to touch on the human side within the jailer", says Bassem .

 

 

Within the spiritual atmosphere of Ramadan, the sad spirits had melted; and they yearned for a breeze that was not controlled by the jailer. Lack of enough information caused confusion. Among all that one of the Dhaif brothers was called upon from his cell. He returned sadder than usual. His friends did not what the issue was. After persistent requests, Ghassan said: "They took me to the Military Prosecution, I met the Military Prosecutor and he told me they would release me within 24 hours," his brother grabbed him and said to him: “Do not cry. This is good news.” Later, he told them that he had to sign a few documents that he knew nothing about, and he was told they would release him within 24 hours, and days later the other brother would be released too.

 

My feelings were mixed. I did not know which one dominated the other, my happiness for him, or my sorrow for myself. That night it happened that we had a visit, signs of confusion were showing clearly on my face, my daughter Zainab was crying, I felt that she probably was wondering how I would stay while my brother would lease. Next day nothing happened, and the 24 hours had passed without any news, in afternoon, my brother asked to see the Lieutenant, he told him that he was promised to be released, the Lieutenant replied: we haven't been informed of anything like that. From time to time, news were intermittently received, some real, mostly rumors, nevertheless,  hope was all that was left when you were in prison, after the release of Rula (one of the medics), the hope was refreshed and covered our exhausted lives, and there was rumors before Eid whereby hearts were loaded with hopes for release, but nothing happened."

It was the first Eid that passed without being with our families, without Eid special lunch, and the laughter of children, and the hugs of relatives. "We exchanged greetings without sensing the Eid, we watched TV, that how we spent the day; although it was not too bad, but we felt lonely, I felt heartbroken. Justice was to be with my family and loved ones, in my home, rested on (the sofa) which I liked, and watching the TV programme I wanted, with the fridge in front of me, I ate and drank whatever I liked." 

By the end of the month of Ramadan, the medics decided to go on a hunger strike. With this, another phase had begun which had an impact on effect on the following days. As the strike continued, some of us lost energy and were taken to the clinic, and were put on the drip, and returned to continue the strike. The medics continued their hunger strike defiantly. The prison administration, on the other side escalated the matter: they closed the cells door and banned communication in an attempt to force us to break the strike.

"We asked to meet a member of the Bassiouni Commission. We were serious in our strike; we wanted to finish this blatant assault against us. The next day, a member of the Commission came; jotted down our demands. We told him of our will to continue with the strike until our release, and that the authorities should enable us to sit with our attorneys, and open the cells as a natural right. "

"We also asked to meet the General Inspector. When he came, they took all detainees inside the cells, and took us to the TV room, we told him that our detention was illegal, and that continuing our imprisonment is unfair, and we demanded to meet the Military Prosecutor Dr. Fleifel, at that time we heard breaking and screaming voices, the General Inspector got confused, a large number of officers came and surrounded Brigadier General Ghaith and took him outside quickly. We knew later that one of the prisoners on hunger strike fell, one of the guards went to help him, but he refused, so the guards beat him, that was enough to provoking the rest of the detainees who started to hit the doors and smash cups, most the detainees were charged with murder or attempted murder or similar charges, that night no one of the guards dared to come closer, the situation was scary, so we tried to calm them down and to restore the situation as it had been.

It is the seventh day of September. We were taken to the military court. The majority of us believed that the session that day was allocated for hearing defence witnesses and followed by pleadings to reach the verdict as known legally in the conduct of trials. It was the longest ever day for us, the sessions continued until  5 in the afternoon, it was a long day that we knew its beginning, but we didn't know its end, nonetheless in all conditions it was an important day, the day of listening to defence witnesses, as we managed before the session to coordinate and organise defence witnesses through our communication with the our lawyers and families, and the witnesses were distributed according to the charges.

When the session started, the surprises began; the first was the presence of a large number of consultants with long experience as defence witnesses and that raised up our morale a lot. They withstood all bothering to attend and testify without fear. They knew that their testimony might affect their careers. I was surprised that Dr Abdulaziz Hamza was among the defence witnesses, in comparable with Dr. Badria Turani, head of Orthopedic Department who testified against me; and thus the claim of sectarian alignment fell, Dr. Badreya (Shiite) let me down, whereas Dr. Abdul Aziz (Sunni) was fair.

The surprises continued and did not stop at that unique and surprising day: at the break time between sessions and while we were waiting outside the courtroom, a number of military police came and offered us chocolate which was very strange and we could neither absorb nor know the reason behind it. Offering sweet means joy and happiness; but we were in a court to be prosecuted! So how would we smile or celebrate?!!

In another situation which was a surprise to me personally; Officer Mazen Bouhmoud approached me and asked: Do you know me Doctor? I said: well, you look familiar to me. He replied: I am Mazen Bouhmoud, your patient who does only get treatment at your clinic and nowhere else!! Then he kissed me. I later came to know that he is a colonel and served as the Head of the Military Prosecution. And what surprised me also was that they allocated more time than usual to sit down with our families (approximately 20 minutes, which was a very long time compared to previous ones that didn't exceed 10 minutes). I spoke with my wife and lawyer Jalila Al-Sayed who expected some 1-3 years sentences to a few of us and others to be sentenced from 3-5 years and there might be a group of us that would be sentenced to 7-10 years, and she said: “It is also possible that there will be acquittal verdicts too, nothing is ever ruled out.”

After I finished talking with the lawyer, I wondered why we were not quickly taken back to the hall as usual!! In fact we were very worried, things that day seemed strange, but the lawyer answered that we were waiting for the Court's verdicts!! I kept quite respected for the surprises that characterised that day. Suddenly, a person came out to read some of the verdicts in which he mentioned several things, including carrying out medical examination and other things that either I didn't bother to hear or I didn't figure them out, for me it was all the same, and then he continued: With regard to the request for release, all detainees will be released! 

In fact, I did not hear the last sentence of the decision, but I suddenly found the room full of screaming and crying which got me stunned. Didn't grasp what had been said and I wasn't sure of what I heard, I shouted without feeling: I want to hear, what did he say? What did he say? No one heard me; crying was the master of the situation, I understood that it was Release.

I realized that what was really happening was not a dream, especially with my wife and daughter Zainab hugs, their tears and cry were a clear translation that indicated the release and nothing else. Although I initially was not aware what the word release and its implications meant, yet the joy that I saw on the faces interpreted the word to me: the release meant freedom and nothing else. I thought I finally realised, I knelt to God. “Thank God, thank God” echoed in the courtroom, I raised my head, and I stood in the court, looked around, checked the faces, I saw tears flowing profusely, tears of joy, no doubt, felt then that I was overjoyed from my head to the soles of my feet, at that time my brother Gassan came directly towards me , kissed me, and said: “I told you, I told you, I told you they would release us”,  my eyes kept looking around the hall, my lawyer Jalila Al-Sayed was crying with her colleagues, their tears were a translation of a continuous and tiring waiting, a semi-victory, for the joy and the ability, to wish something months ago without having it. The joy was not only limited to the families and lawyers, but it spread to the guards and the police that were present in the hall too.

Finally, here I am again a free bird, carrying the human that I maintained despite the difficult six months journey which was full of pain, everything stopped in the courtroom then, voices disappeared, and my heart remained alone and was beating strongly. When I came out of the hall I was overwhelmed by grief, I remembered my comrades in prison, whom I shared with the life which I had never experienced before, felt sad that I left while they are still there, they were all oppressed like me, I thought to myself: “What can I say? How I could leave them? We shared the prison bitterness and torment; so how could I leave them!” I had and still having such a difficult feeling; because they are still detained. In the final journey by bus, on the way back to the Dry Dock Prison, Sayed Marhoon was singing a special song about the release, he had written the words with his colleagues in the ward months ago, he was confident that he will be released. Bassem Dhaif stood, apologised to his colleagues, asked for forgiveness, for all the mistakes that may have occurred, which might have caused pain without intention, all errors and human whims, asking them for forgiveness, and love. 

After months of release and the continuation of the trials, the two brothers were separated. For the first time the fate didn't bring them together, Bassem was sentenced six months which he had spent in full, and his brother Gassan sentenced for one year. In reflective sadness Bassem remembered the dream of his brother Gassan "Now whenever I remember that night, everything I feel is shaking, it was after we were transferred from the Criminal Investigation Department building to the Dry Dock prison, and after what we experienced from the harshest degrees of horror and after the killing of martyrs Saqr and Al-Ashairi. When just the handcuffs were released and blindfolds were taken off, I was coming back from the clinic, when I by-passed my brother Gassan's cell, an Asian policeman allowed me to greet Gassan. I didn't know why, even though I was prevented from talking to or communicating with my brother throughout the period of detention in the (CID) as well as the four months period at the Dry Dock prison. I greeted Gassan and he was crying a lot. He took my hand and kissed it, I did the same immediately too.

 While he was crying he told me: I dreamed last night of your daughter Esra, she was crying and telling me: Why I went out and left my dad in prison lonely? Bassem completed: I couldn't grasp the dream at that time, but here we are whereby the days are telling me about it meant, I am the one who left, and I left my brother alone in prison, is there anything more hurting than this?!!