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Inside the Middle East
May 4, 2011
Posted: 1053 GMT

By Jenifer Fenton

The justice ministry in Bahrain said 47 medical professionals will be tried for crimes that include incitement to overthrow the regime, deadly assault and refusal to help persons in need.

Twenty-four doctors and 23 nurses and paramedics have been charged.

During the protests in the Gulf kingdom, witnesses say security forces in Bahrain stormed the Salmaniya Medical Complex in Manama beating doctors and demonstrators. Bahraini officials deny those accounts.

Activists and human rights groups have alleged that medical personnel have been targeted by Bahraini officials for treating protestors.

“We found doctors were simply providing ethical and life-saving medical care to patients whom Bahraini security forces had shot, detained and tortured,” wrote Richard Sollom, Deputy Director of Physicians for Human Rights, in an email to CNN.

“We documented a systematic attack on medical staff in Bahrain including the beatings, torture and disappearances of more than 30 physicians,” Sollom wrote.

Approximately 30 people have been killed since the protest began on February 14. Hundreds have been detained.

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Filed under: Bahrain •Human Rights •Protests


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khadija   May 4th, 2011 12:28 pm ET

these doctores medics and nurses have commeted crimes against humanity.they have refuse to send an abulance to a house in which they had a dead old woman in..what can you say about that..are you saying that they should be treated as heros..a girl died becasue the medics weren't sending the ambulance...surgents were delibertlaly messing up their surgeries on patients based upon their sect,nationality and religion..doctors, medics and nurses were out on protest rallies in the EMERGINCY AND ACCEDENTS entransce instead of doing thire jobs healing people and helping them...during that month, nobody i know would dare go to Salmaniya hospital bacause of all the hainous things that were going on there.."shia leaders" were doing some kind of confrenses against the government and the progovernment patients INSIDE the hospital, they have put a tent inform of the entrance and converted it into a shrine...NOW CAN YOU TELL ME IF THEY ARE INNOCENT OR NOT...we are dealing with mass racist terrorist here and they SHOULD be tried...its our right as citizens to have those ciminals tried..listen to the other side for once, do not be bias towards one and neglect the other..BE FAIR...

khadija   May 4th, 2011 12:30 pm ET

these doctors medics and nurses have committed crimes against humanity.they have refuse to send an ambulance to a house in which they had a dead old woman in..what can you say about that..are you saying that they should be treated as heroes..a girl died because the medics weren't sending the ambulance...surgeons were deliberately messing up their surgeries on patients based upon their sect,nationality and religion..doctors, medics and nurses were out on protest rallies in the EMERGINCY AND ACCEDENTS entrance instead of doing their jobs healing people and helping them...during that month, nobody i know would dare go to Salmaniya hospital because of all the heinous things that were going on there.."shia leaders" were doing some kind of conferences against the government and the pro government patients INSIDE the hospital, they have put a tent inform of the entrance and converted it into a shrine...NOW CAN YOU TELL ME IF THEY ARE INNOCENT OR NOT...we are dealing with mass racist terrorist here and they SHOULD be tried...its our right as citizens to have those criminals tried..listen to the other side for once, do not be bias towards one and neglect the other..BE FAIR...please excuse my spelling in the previouse comment

Not Important   May 4th, 2011 12:30 pm ET

Hello fellow American friends, why are you silent? One of your friends is committing crimes against humanity! Hamad, is killing his people, hello, can you hear me, no he is not the president of Libya or Syria or Cuba, I mean not some evil country or something.

Come on, it is a big shame that will be written in history books. The USA has been vocal about Syria and Libya, where is the brutality of the security forces is not worse of what is going on in Bahrain. Hitlary Clinton has not uttered a single word about what is going on in Bahrain! All she cares about is Syria and Libya, I wonder why!

Around FIFTY medical doctors and nurses are tortured in the jails of one of the United states allies, Bahrain, the home of the US Navy Fifth Fleet. Doctors are tried for treating injured protesters? are you laughing or something? Because that's not funny.

ali   May 4th, 2011 7:11 pm ET

Sham on US for supporting Bahrain's dictatorship!

Mohammed Noon Dayekh   May 4th, 2011 7:37 pm ET

The Bahraini monarchy was ready to make some concessions and negotiate a deal with the protesters at the start of the uprising, that did'nt suit the Saudi Royal family for fear of an imminent revolt of their own encouraged by the success of the one in Bahrain . The clamp down on the protesters in Bahrain is purely a sectarian issue enforced by the Wahhabi Al-Saud family whose beliefs are the same as Al-Qaeda and the Taliban .

Be Clear and Speak Truth   May 5th, 2011 3:03 pm ET

God has given you a great way to express what you see in public who always watch your channel and blv, i was the one who. but now after being being here in bahrain and watching what you show on TV and on Web is all lies,,,, is entirely different from what happened here. I was in manama and and gudabia. Watched full story.. and suffered by this peacefull protesters,
Dont take one side.
After seeing all this news I think you people who are Terrorist who support Terrorist;
Protesting against Regime is not crime;
Killing people looting people is a crime and they should be punished;

I have a question for you all "If somebody in your country do crime and you will leave him or you will punish him"
Don't raise question from this question: By saying they were only protesting;
They were doing all bad things of this earth planet on that roundabout.

If you and all this people who realy want to know protest and fight for freedom then please refer "Gandhi from india".
This people here in bahrain which you call peacefull protestors they are doing all bad things and using the photo of gandhije who is the ideal person for us;

Saeed from India

Bahraini   May 5th, 2011 4:58 pm ET

Bahrain is undergoing the largest ever investigation process I've ever heard of in history in terms of the number of people interviewed and investigated.

It is really a back-aged regime against an extraordinary patient nation.

ricky   May 6th, 2011 4:29 am ET

This is the signal that ALL MEDICAL PROFESSIONALS in Bahrain should leave this country all at once. It would be better if those IGNORANT people suffer all kinds of diseases since they view things one-sided only. Medical profession & professionals treat all injured & sick people equally irregardless of political views.

Ali Sharif   May 7th, 2011 12:18 pm ET

Dear Jenifer,
i appreciate your point of view and the fact that you are getting your information from one side. but i would appreciate it if you could do some more research. please bear in mind that anti-gov and anti-Bahrain protesters had Salmaneya Medical complex under siege for a whole month before security forces came in to stabilize the biggest medical complex in the country and one of the biggest in the region.

in any so called revolution, Medical institutions never were involved since its role is to treat people from any race, sect, or nationality. however, Salmaneya Medical Complex, while it was under seige from 17th Feb till 17th March, was used to show the international society the so called brutality of the rulers while with time, it was shown that most of these were shows and acting.

Many incidents happened that proved that those medical doctors were not only "treating protesters". incidents from using the Ambulance cars to move weapons "University of Bahrain 14th March" and having at least 4 ambulances at a time near and protest proves that those medical personal were not anything near peaceful or doing their jobs. in addition, normal Bahrainis were denied medical treatment which resulted in the death of two, although not protest related, but the fact that they were denied any treatment in the hospital.

i urge you to dig deeper and take news from two sides of the story.

thank you

Hana   May 8th, 2011 6:38 am ET

I was always wondering why all of this happening in Bahrain while the world is practicing sealed lips strategy, In Bahrain the situation is horrible , it is authoritarian regime which neglects their nation basic needs, detaining physicians and executing youths is a crime act should be stopped immediately!!

salaman   May 9th, 2011 11:40 pm ET

bahrain has small population and they remained peacefull,during there demonstration.world power has no concerned for humanity ,it is just there intrest.so body is concened about bahrain and even media has less coverage for bahrain.they are neglleted by media as they have less population.bahraini regime has gone ahead of israil in committing attrocities.they have not even spare children, women ,medical staff, and even injured from hospital.these all done by regime calling them self moderate.israil atleast you are better then these dectaters.at least you are not killing your poeple in custody

salaman   May 9th, 2011 11:41 pm ET

bahrain has small population and they remained peacefull,during there demonstration.world power has no concerned for humanity ,it is just there intrest.nobody is concened about bahrain and even media has less coverage for bahrain.they are neglleted by media as they have less population.bahraini regime has gone ahead of israil in committing attrocities.they have not even spare children, women ,medical staff, and even injured from hospital.these all done by regime calling them self moderate.israil atleast you are better then these dectaters.at least you are not killing your poeple in custody

me   May 11th, 2011 12:27 pm ET

there is only one word for what is happening: GENOCIDE! and only one word for the media block on it: crime against humanity

Bahraini   May 14th, 2011 4:46 am ET

Shame on the US and its allies in Europe and ...

kgb keylogger   July 16th, 2011 8:11 pm ET

Very amusing information


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