Bahrain Trials New Target: Medical Staff, Students

Local Editor

Bahrain has neglected international laws by continuing the military trial of dozens of medical personnel accused of trying to topple the government. Twenty doctors pleaded not guilty on Monday to charges ranging from stealing medicines to stockpiling weapons.
A second part of the hearing, where the defense could have cross-examined prosecution witnesses, was deferred until next week over legal challenges to the court's jurisdiction and requests for independent medical examinations.

The defendants wept as they told the judge they had been tortured and forced to sign false confessions, a relative told the media.
"It's the first time in Bahrain's history that such highly-educated people have been accused of crimes in this humiliating way," the relative said.
Many of the defendants - 24 doctors and 23 nurses and paramedics - worked at the Salmaniya medical complex in the capital Manama.

Prosecutors claimed that automatic weapons and ammunition were discovered in the hospital, that the defendants "hijacked" the building, used violence and kidnapped the people inside.

Security outside the court was intense and the only Bahraini journalists allowed in were from the state news agency.
Amnesty International and other human rights groups have urged the Bahraini authorities to independently investigate claims that dozens of doctors and nurses were tortured and made to sign false confessions.

The international aid agency of Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has expressed alarm at the Bahraini regime's arbitrary and sweeping court action against the country's medical personnel.