Skip to Main Content
Printer Friendly Home > Press > Press Releases

For Immediate Release

Bahrain Government Must Drop Misdemeanor Charges Against 28 Health Professionals

Cambridge, Mass. - 07/03/2012

Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) today called for all charges of misdemeanors against 28 health professionals in Bahrain to be dropped. The health professionals have been charged with illegal gathering to protest against the regime. The medics’ sentences will be announced tomorrow, July 4, 2012, by the Lower Criminal Court.

After being held in prison for several months and allegedly tortured, the medics were tried in June 2011 with 20 other medical professionals.

“These medical professionals were merely fulfilling their ethical duty to treat the injured, including injured protesters. Not only should their charges be dropped, but the cases themselves should be expunged from their records,” said Richard Sollom, Deputy Director at PHR.

Although the medics were released from prison after the June 2011 trial, most were suspended from work until recently. The medics that have been reinstated found that their former positions have been given to others. PHR also calls for the 28 medical professionals to be compensated for the time they were forced to stay away from work.

“If Bahrain is committed to human rights they must also hold the perpetrators of the torture of these medics accountable,” said Sollom.

Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) is an independent organization that uses medicine and science to stop mass atrocities and severe human rights violations against individuals. We are supported by the expertise and passion of health professionals and concerned citizens alike.

Since 1986, PHR has conducted investigations in more than 40 countries around the world, including Afghanistan, Congo, Rwanda, Sudan, the United States, the former Yugoslavia, and Zimbabwe.

  • 1988 — First to document Iraq’s use of chemical weapons against Kurds
  • 1996 — Exhumed mass graves in the Balkans
  • 1996 — Produced critical forensic evidence of genocide in Rwanda
  • 1997 — Shared the Nobel Peace Prize for the International Campaign to Ban Landmines
  • 2003 — Warned of health and human rights catastrophe prior to the invasion of Iraq
  • 2004 — Documented and analyzed the genocide in Darfur
  • 2005 — Detailed the story of tortured detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantánamo Bay
  • 2010 — Showed how CIA medical personnel sought to improve waterboarding and
                  other interrogation techniques that amount to torture
  • 2011 — Championed the principle of noninterference with medical services
                  in times of armed conflict and civil unrest during the Arab Spring

PHR News

Take Action