Bahrain Allows Retrial for Convicted Medics
by John Glaser,
October 05, 2011
The Bahraini government has announced that a retrial will take place for the 20 medical professionals recent sentenced to lengthy jail time for treating as patients protesters injured by harsh government crackdowns. The trial had come under severe international condemnation mainly from rights groups, as the Bahraini dictatorship equated giving medical treatment to protesters with “attempting to overthrow the ruling system” (the basis for the ultimate conviction). The decision will also moves the trial to a civilian court, allowing the charged doctors and nurses to remain free pending the new trial.
Read the whole report from AP’s Brian Murphy.
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Duglarri
October 6th, 2011 at 11:40 am
You might be interested to know that- maybe not. The CBC interviewed a Bahraini lawyer who reports that the text of the Arabic announcement on the medical professionals, and it said nothing of the kind. It said there would be an appeal of the case- not a retrial. And it did not say, as the English version did, that the medical professionals would be released pending trial.
It seems abundantly clear that one version was released to mollify international opinion, while a much starker, and harder-line- probably true- version was handed to the locals.