By Paul Alster
She’s a princess in the royal family of one of the world’s richest nations, a police officer and now, a defendant accused of torturing two doctors and a poet in a trial that has the Gulf State kingdom of Bahrain transfixed.
Princess Noura Bint Ebrahim al-Khalifa was working as a police officer when the Arab Spring swept across the Middle East and threatened to topple the oil-rich nation’s ruling family. Bahrain‘s so-called “Pearl Revolution” was put down quickly and with extreme prejudice. Prosecutors say al-Khalifa played a role by personally torturing the doctors after they were arrested for tending to injured demonstrators.
“The charge is that she used torture, force and threats against the victims Zahra al-Sammak and Kholoud al-Durazi to make them confess to a crime,” Prosecutor Nawaf Hamza told Reuters.
Princess Noura is also charged separately with being present when poet Ayat al-Qurmazi was brutally tortured. Al-Qurmazi was arrested after she read a poem criticizing the royal family in front of a crowd of 10,000 people. Her attorney claims the princess was present when others applied electric shocks to the poet’s face, spat in her mouth and beat her while she was in detention.
Al-Khalifa is one of several hundred members of Bahrain‘s royal family, and it is not uncommon for royals to hold everyday jobs. The nation is a close American ally and permanent home to the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet, but Bahrain‘s dubious record on human rights has some critics questioning the relationship.
The princess was working at the time of the pro-democracy demonstrations as an officer in Bahrain‘s Drugs Control Unit on the streets of the Bahraini capital, Manama. The doctors she allegedly tortured gave forced confessions that resulted in them receiving prison sentences of up to five years – later quashed by a review panel – from a military court.
Princess Noura, who first appeared in court last summer, strongly denies the charges against her, but has refused to make any public comment on the matter.
During the protests in which at least 35 people were killed – some human rights organizations have put the figure at as many as 80 – several medical professionals were arrested for treating the dying and wounded. Some 60 were later jailed, although the vast majority were released on appeal a short time later. There remains however deep suspicion that justice in Bahrain is neither transparent nor even-handed.
“The prosecution of Shaikha [Princess] Noura is an encouraging sign, but the earlier trials of low-ranking police have resulted in few convictions and sentences not commensurate with the crime,” Joe Stork, Middle East and North Africa deputy director of Human Rights Watch, told FoxNews.com. “We have to wait and see if justice will be served properly in this trial.”
Maryam Al-Khawaja, actingpresidentof the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, told FoxNews.com the trial is a test for the government‘s commitment to human rights.
“The absence of an independent and fair judiciary system in Bahrain creates a lack of trust when it comes to holding people in government accountable for human rights …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News