Freedom for Mr. Mahdi Abudeeb

In the Kingdom of Bahrain, education has achieved several successes since its native inception, mostly by national sincere cadres. Those who bore building a modern State that respect their human and civilian rights. Bahrain is characterized in its territory by high-quality educational process.

But Bahraini authorities after crushing the uprising in March 2011 dismissed and expelled thousands of Bahrainis (temporary or permanent), as a punishment for supporting protesters demanding more democratic reforms and promote the values of accountability, justice and impartiality, and also believed to be related to sectarian backgrounds.

The education sector was seriously and badly targeted. Security forces have raided many schools and teachers were arrested from their work points (classes). They were tortured and subjected to trial merely for exercising their right to expression. Among the detainees who were brought in front of a military court (National Security Court), President of Bahrain Teachers Society (BTS) Mahdi AbuDeeb and his Deputy Jalila AL-Salman. Both were sentenced to 10 and 3 years imprisonment respectively. They didn’t experience a fair trial.

Mahdi Abudeeb detention:

21st, March 2011 was the 1st attempt to arrest Mahdi Abu Deeb – President of BTS – took place after the brutal attack on pearl roundabout. Riot police and masked civilians raided his house around 1.15 AM, although Mahdi was not home that night, riot police stayed at his home for around 2 hours, breaking doors, furniture, tampering his personal contents ( personal papers & his family’s personal belonging).

It didn’t stop at that night, 7 attempts to arrest Mahdi AbuDeeb took place later. On the 8th attempt, 6th of April 2011, he was finally arrested from his Uncle’s house in A’ali (his uncle was arrested along with), where Mahdi was thrown from the 2nd floor. The moment he got arrested, he was subjected to torture, ill treatment and kept in a solitary confinement for 64 Days. His family knew about his arrest from Twitter. And they first heard from him after 26 days of his arrest. Same thing happened to his deputy but on different level.

The first hearing took place in a Military Court on 7th of June 2011 where BTS leaders met their lawyers for the 1st time. It was obvious that Mahdi lost 15 Kg in 2 months, looked tired and pale. His family had the opportunity to see him for 15 minutes that day. The court kept postponing the case until the Military Court sentenced BTS leaders, Mahdi to 10 years & AL-Salman 3years on 25th of September 2011. 2 days later Mahdi was transferred from Al-Qurain’s Military Prison to Jaw’s Prison.

On the 11th of December 2011 Mahdi stood before the Civilian Higher Appeal Court where the judge postponed the case to the 19th of February 2012 to attach the BICI’s report. Again it was postponed to the 2nd of April 2012 to have an independent Medical Report. On the 2nd of April 2011, Mahdi was finally allowed to talk about his detention and torture details and the reason was likel, the presence of representatives from American, British and French embassies in addition to some human rights organizations. A highlight of what AbuDeeb said is that one of his tormentors a man who identified himself as from the ruling family, and close to the Prime Minister.

Furthermore, Mahdi received a lot of sectarian humiliation, he was not allowed to pray the way Shia’s pray as the torturers told him “you belong to the government you should pray the way they do”. He faced several false executions. And after an entire year of his arrest Mahdi showed the judge the clear signs of torture on his body that he believes are caused by electrocution. The judge postponed the case until 2 May 2012 to investigate the torture complaint, which was again postponed to 30th of May.

لقد حقق التعليم في مملكة البحرين ومنذ انطلاقته الأهلية نجاحات عدة، تحققت في الأغلب على أيدي كوادر وطنية مخلصة، حملت على عاتقها بناء دولة حديثة بمقوماتها البشرية والمدنية، وتميزت البحرين في إقليمها بفضل عملية تعليمية ذات جودة عالية.
لكن السلطات البحرينية عمدت وبعد سحق حركة الاحتجاجات في آذار/ مارس الماضي إلى إيقاف وفصل الآلاف من العاملين البحرينيين في مختلف مواقع عملهم، عقابا لهم لدعمهم المحتجين المطالبين بمزيد من الإصلاحات الديمقراطية وتعزيز قيم المساءلة والعدالة والنزاهة، ولأسباب يُعتقد أيضا أنها تتصل بخلفيات طائفية.
وكان قطاع التعليم من بين القطاعات التي تم استهدافها بشكل خطير وموسع، فقد قام الأمن بمداهمة العديد من المدارس واعتقال معلمين وتعذيبهم وإخضاعهم للمحاكمة لمجرد ممارستهم حقهم في التعبير، ومن بين المعتقلين الذين تم تقديمهم لمحاكمة عسكرية رئيس جمعية المعلمين البحرينية الأستاذ مهدي أبو ديب ونائبته الأستاذة جليلة السلمان، وحكم عليهم بالتوالي بالسجن 10 و3 سنوات.
وقد تم بمعية ذلك، فصل وتوقيف المئات من العاملين في الحقل التربوي من ذوي الشهادات العالية، بالشكل الذي أثر على جودة العملية التعليمية، وهذا ما أظهرته نتائج الاختبارات الوطنية الأخيرة، علاوة على وقوع آلاف الأفراد في دائرة العوز، بخسارة معيلها لوظيفته وأجره الشهري