The Civil Court in Bahrain heard the case of the 20 doctors and para-medical staff on Sunday as part of the Government’s order aimed at providing a chance to all these defendants to be heard by the Civil Court. Earlier, the National Safety Court awarded sentences between five to 15 years.
In an initial hearing of the civilian court retrial of twenty Bahraini doctors, medical workers and hospital staff, the prosecution has dropped three charges previously brought against the defendants in the National Safety Court, but kept the rest of the original charges.
The Public Prosecution said that in this retrial in a civilian court, the court is not bound to follow any steps that were taken, or follow any conclusions that were reached, at the National Safety Court. The Public Prosecution says the defendants will benefit fully from the presumption of innocence and procedural guarantees at trial in the same way as any defendant would under Bahraini law.
The charges that have been dropped against the defendants are those under article 165 (incitement of hatred for the regime), article 168 (disturbing public security through spreading false news) and article 173 (incitement of others to commit criminal acts) of the Bahraini Penal Code. The Public Prosecution stated that it would not rely on confession evidence to prove the remaining charges and would instead be relying on evidence including videos, physical evidence and eye witness testimony.
Today’s hearing was attended by lawyers of the defendants, representatives of the American, British and French Embassies, two Bahraini human rights organisations, Bahraini journalists, and members of the defendants families.
One of the defendants lawyers read out a statement to the panel of three judges, calling for various types of relief, including the lifting of the travel ban against the defendants; the return of the defendants to their jobs; private medical inspections of the defendants; hearing the testimony of the defendants; and allowing the defendants lawyers to call witnesses to testify before the court.
Today’s court proceedings were an initial hearing, and the next session has now been scheduled for 28th November.
All the defendants remain on bail pending the outcome of the retrial.