Two Children Face 20 Years in Prison as Oppression Intensifies in Bahrain

The Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy has warned that two children, aged 13, might face 20 years in prison.

They were arrested and interrogated on charges related to the protest in Bahrain.

The Institute reported that the two children, Hussein Ayoub and Mohammed Rashid, are expected to appear in court on February 14, the tenth anniversary of the start of the Bahrain uprising in 2011.

It expressed its concern that their pursuit was politically motivated to deter Bahraini demonstrators from engaging in the commemoration of the tenth anniversary of the revolution.

The two children’s families reported that they were subjected to hours of interrogation without their lawyer or parents’ presence.

This raised fears that they might be forced to make confessions.

Absence of fair trial,

A Bahraini judge ordered the two children to be detained for seven days after being questioned by the Public Prosecution Office on February 7 on arson charges linked to protests in their village last year.

While the child Muhammad was interviewed in his lawyer’s presence, Hussain was questioned without his lawyer or his parents, despite his lawyer’s presence in the building and the staff notifying that he was waiting for the interview.

The two children had been interrogated earlier in late December 2020, after their parents were notified of their transfer to Hamad Town Police Station for interrogation.

Police questioned Hussain for eight hours, until the early hours of the morning. Meanwhile, the police refused repeated requests from his parents to accompany their child during the interrogation.

Muhammad’s family was not present during his interrogation.

Source: Bahraini leaks.

Quoted from: al-masirah.net.