Statement in response to sentencing of former workers of Salmaniya Medical Complex released

Bahrain's Ministry of Health Released the following statement in response to the sentencing of former employees of the Salmaniya Medical Complex:

Doctors and other medical professionals had their sentences reviewed on Thursday. After consideration by authorities, the charges and sentences were handed down following the forcible occupation of Salmaniya Medical Complex, unlawfully controlling the entrances and exits of all divisions and departments, using force and threats, and other actions.

The 20 individuals were arrested for committing acts considered to be administrative offenses under Bahraini hospital regulations or a criminal offense under the Penal Code. Those charges include:

1. Taking control of the hospital's main points of entry and exit and guarded access with violent activist elements
2. Refusing treatment for citizens and residents based on sectarian reasons based on marking of religion and political affiliation on hospital records
3. Converting the hospital into a place of demonstrations, sit-ins, political seminars, and a platform for media interviews
4. Encouraging press to advertise and support protestors by allowing film inside the hospital including the emergency department and operating rooms
5. Providing inaccurate and false statements including wrong and exaggerated statistics about the numbers of those injured
6. Conducting unnecessary surgeries while allowing media to film and photograph in attempt to show gruesome images and achieve emotional impact on domestic and international public opinion
7. Seizing drugs and medical equipment and transfer to other locations, violating the law and hospital regulations
8. Intimidation of fellow doctors, nurses, and administrators who did not agree with the doctors in question
9. Attacking and injuring security forces and foreign workers; Kidnapped and detained Asian laborers and held them within the hospital
10. Using the hospital to store weapons. Weapons found include two AK47s (Kalashnikov) and ammunition; bladed weapons (swords and knives); and packages of flammable cocktails Molotov
11. Transporting demonstrators with their weapons using hospital ambulances to areas within Bahrain where citizens were attached

The last session of the trial based on the charges outlined above for 20 physicians was concluded on September 7, 2011. At the request of the defense, defendants were released under bail. Their appeal was heard on September 29, 2011.

As outlined, the case regarded the occupation of Salmaniya Medical Complex by force and controlling the entrances and exits of all divisions and departments using force and threats; the possession of a weapons (Kalashnikov) and knives without a license; calling for regime change by force; seizing of medical equipment; holding members of the police hostage; use of media to broadcast and incite for hatred of the regime; refusal to treat the injured; destruction of public properties and public order; committing crimes for a terrorist purpose.

The Court sentenced the following hospital staff to 15 years in prison: Ali Issa Mansour Akri; Ali Hassan Alsdda; Nader Mohammed Hasan Diwani; Ahmed Abdel-Aziz Hassan Omran; Mahmoud Abdel-Wahab, Ibrahim Abdullah Ibrahim; Rola Mohammed Jassim al-Saffar; Abdul Khaliq Ali Hussein Ureybi; Ghassan Ahmed Ali Guest; Nada Saeed Abdel Nabi, and Muhammad Qasim Muhammad Imran.

Also heard again on September 29 was the case of the premeditated killing of an officer, Ahmed Ahmed Muraysi, while he performed his duties in Sitra. Using his car in a criminal act that breached the public order and endangered the lives of innocent Bahrainis, the defendant repeatedly ran over the officer – who was on the ground. These actions also obstructed the duties of the public authorities.

The Court ruled unanimously regarding the death of Ali Yussef Abdel Wahab and sentence Mehdi Ali Attia to life imprisonment.