No place for freedom of speech on dissent in Bahrain: Pundit
Press TV has conducted an interview with Colin Cavell, an author and lecturer from Bluefield, to discuss a complaint filed by a Bahraini man in Switzerland against the Persian Gulf kingdom's attorney general.
What follows is a rough transcription of the interview.
Press TV: How likely will this complaint make it through?
Cavell: Well let’s hope the Swiss authorities do act on this and at the very least question the attorney general of Bahrain Ali Bin Fadhul al-Buainain for these allegations of torture. Mr. Jaafar al-Hasabi returned to Bahrain in 2010 and all he was doing was speaking as mine. But as everybody knows, in Bahrain there is no freedom of speech, [and] no freedom of association and you get tortured by the government if you exercise these universally recognized human rights.
And so Mr. Jaafar al-Hasabi was tortured, he was held incommunicado the attorney general and that is why he has filed this complaint with the Swiss authorities while the Bahraini attorney general is attending an international conference of prosecutors in Zurich, Switzerland.
And It would be very good if Switzerland and other countries do hold these criminal liable under the 1994 UN convention against torture which mandates an article 6 that people who conduct torture, who are complicit in torture be tried and held for such crimes in any country they visit.
So we need to make sure that countries of the world stand up, step up and put a word out to all Bahraini authorities who engage in criminal activities like torture that they will be arrested if they go to other countries.
Press TV: Now regarding the Bahrain itself, what does the future hold for the revolution there?
Cavell: The people are determined to get their democratic rights; they have not given up on this and I think the democratic revolution is spreading not only in Bahrain but throughout the entire Middle East.
And even though Saudi Arabia and the other [Persian] Gulf monarchs are trying to hold on to power and doing some very dangerous things and nasty things in Yemen, in Syria and others, supporting ISIS and al-Qaeda, etc. to stay in power, eventually, the people around the world will come to the realization just as people in the Middle East have already realized that they need to get rid of these undemocratic, unelected monarchs who are the most oppressive governments on earth.
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