Manama, September 27 (BNA) The Ministry of Interior confirmed that the aggressive smear campaigns against Bahrain through the Qatar-sponsored Al-Jazeera channel are systematic and are organized at certain times.
The ministry said in a statement that the campaigns include Al Jazeera’s broadcast of an alleged conversation between a Bahraini youth and an employee of the Ministry of Interior.
Besides repeated allegations of torture and ban on visits to inmates, she has referred to young men as “imprisoned children.”
Intensification of incitement against Bahrain during the annual meeting of the Human Rights Council in Geneva.
This slanderous campaign of the channel targets Bahrain and its national and civilized achievements, including the “alternative punishments” program.
The facts on the ground are vastly different. An alternative to prison program is a remarkable project launched by Bahrain and has been highly appreciated by many countries, human rights organizations and experts.
Hence, the Ministry of Interior highlights the following:
First: So far, 3,552 individuals have benefited from the alternative sanctions program that international human rights organizations praise for its humanitarian and legal objectives.
Second, Qatar should focus on developing its own laws and programs to protect human rights rather than challenging the successes of others.
Third: The approach adopted by the Qatari Al-Jazeera channel in inciting people, buying their lives and conscience, and using aggressive practices that violate international conventions, in the context of the campaign against Bahrain and its people, is blatant. Al-Jazeera claimed that it was an attempt to recruit a Bahraini youth, while the evidence proved beyond a reasonable doubt, how Qatar is trying to recruit Bahraini military and security personnel.
Fourth: The channel has been broadcasting false allegations and misleading, including preventing inmates from the right to visit them. Such baseless allegations are to be expected from a channel that specializes in interfering in the affairs of others.
Fifth: The employees of the Correction and Rehabilitation Center in Joe serve their sentences in criminal and terrorist cases after they have passed all the stages of the judiciary and fair trials. The center is open to human rights organizations, including the National Human Rights Institution, the Ombudsman and the Prisoners and Detainees Rights Commission. They conduct announced and unannounced visits to ensure that inmates receive the services stipulated in the Reform and Rehabilitation Law and its rules.
Sixth: The channel’s allegations about “child prisoners in Bahrain” are unfounded and proven by facts. Inmates of the 15-18 age group are serving their sentences in a different correctional centre, the “Juvenile Welfare Centre”, under the supervision of the General Directorate of Women’s Police. Furthermore, those under the age of 14 are subject to special legal procedures and human rights care, a fact and practice that does not exist in the channel sponsoring country.
Seventh: Bahrain is proud to ratify the Law on Restorative Justice for Children and its Protection from Abuse. It is a law that affirms the application of corrective methods that meet human rights protection standards to provide for the well-being of children and protect them from abuse. The steps include a judicial committee to consider requests to change prison terms before they are submitted to children who had reached the age of 18 at the time the crimes were committed. It also includes the formation of restorative justice courts for children aged 15-18 years. Therefore, allegations of child abuse and others are unfounded.
The desperate attempts against Bahraini national cohesion and civilizational achievements, including the professionalism of human rights organizations, could not succeed.
Bahrain is implementing the Alternative Sanctions Program as a national project that reflects a gradual reform vision within the reform and rehabilitation system. It is one of Bahrain’s achievements in the field of human rights.
Bahraini society will remain a strong model of peaceful coexistence and strong cohesion thanks to the nature and character of its people and the justice of its laws.
This clarification comes on the basis of open communication with the prevailing public in the Kingdom, and in consolidation of the principles of transparency and highlighting the facts.