Twin brothers Ahmed and Mahmood Mohamed Habib were 17-year-old minor students when Bahraini authorities arrested them along with some of their friends on 1 July 2015 while they were eating Suhoor during the month of Ramadan. During their detention, they were subjected to enforced disappearance, torture, sexual harassment, sectarian-based insults, and unfair trials based on confessions extracted under torture. Ahmed was sentenced to 40 years in prison, and Mahmood was sentenced to 47 years and six months in prison on politically motivated charges before being released on 8 April 2024, under a royal pardon that included 1584 convicts.
On 1 July 2015, at 3:00 A.M., military and civilian vehicles, with helicopter support, surrounded the house in the Wadyan area, where Ahmed and Mahmood were eating suhoor during the month of Ramadan with their friends. Riot police officers from the Ministry of Interior (MOI) and two plainclothes officers raided the house and arrested the twins and the young men who were accompanying them: Ali Hasan Ashoor, Ali Jaafar AlAmr, Ahmed Hasan AlAnsara, and Ahmed Yasser Ahmed. The officers did not present any arrest warrant, nor provide a reason for the arrest. Subsequently, they transferred them to the Criminal Investigations Directorate (CID) building.
After their arrest, Ahmed and Mahmood were forcibly disappeared for two days. Their family didn’t know about the arrest until after it was spread on social media platforms, and they heard the news from other people. On 3 July 2015, two days after the arrest, the twins called the family and informed them that they were at the CID building.
At the CID, officers interrogated and tortured Ahmed and Mahmood. They severely beat them, took photos and videos of them while they were naked, and didn’t allow them to pray. Furthermore, they beat them whenever they tried to go to the bathroom and forced them to sign fabricated confessions to some of the charges brought against them. The interrogations lasted for about two weeks and were conducted without the presence of a lawyer. Subsequently, they were transferred to the Public Prosecutor’s Office (PPO) on 4 July 2015, and on 8 July 2015, they were transferred to the Dry Dock Prison. On 11 July 2015, 11 days after the arrest, Ahmed and Mahmood’s parents were able to visit them for the first time since the arrest in the Dry Dock Prison.
Ahmed and Mahmood were not brought promptly before a judge, did not have adequate time and facilities to prepare for their trials, weren’t able to present evidence and challenge evidence presented against them, and were denied access to their lawyer. Furthermore, their confessions extracted under torture were used against them as evidence in their trials.
The court convicted Ahmed between 29 October 2015 and 31 March 2020 in cases related to 1) gathering and rioting, 2) manufacturing usable or explosive devices, 3) negligent destruction, 4) using force and violence against a public official, 5) arson, 6) endangering people’s lives or safety, 7) violating the conditions of getting a license to import explosives, 8) using explosives to endanger the funds of others, 9) importing or possessing explosives, guns or pistols, and 10) explosion or attempted explosion. He was sentenced to a total of more than 50 years in prison. Ahmed appealed some of the rulings, however, the Court of Appeal rejected some of the appeals and upheld the verdicts. On the other hand, it accepted the rest of the appeals and reduced the sentences. After the appeals, the total sentence became 40 years in prison.
Mahmood was convicted between 23 April 2013 and 29 October 2018 in cases related to 1) gathering and rioting, 2) breaching the prestige of the court, 3) manufacturing usable or explosive devices, 4) negligent destruction, 5) using force and violence against a public official, 6) arson, 7) endangering people’s lives or safety, 8) violating the conditions of getting a license to import explosives, 9) using explosives to endanger the funds of others, 10) importing or possessing explosives, guns or pistols, and 11) explosion or attempted explosion. He was sentenced to more than 59 years and six months in prison. Mahmood appealed some of the rulings, however, the Court of Appeal rejected some of the appeals and upheld the verdicts. On the other hand, it accepted the rest of the appeals and reduced the sentences. After the appeals, the total sentence was reduced to 47 years and six months in prison.
While serving their sentences in Jau Prison, Ahmed and Mahmood were deprived of prayer and insulted based on their Shia religious sect.
On 8 April 2024, King Hamad bin Isa AlKhalifa of Bahrain issued a royal decree pardoning 1584 convicts on the occasion of the silver jubilee of his accession to the throne, coinciding with Eid al-Fitr, with Ahmed and Mahmood among them. Ahmed and Mahmood were released on the same day.
Ahmed and Mahmood’s warrantless arrest, torture, denial of attorney access, unfair trials, sectarian-based insults, and sexual harassment constitute violations of the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT), the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD), the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), and the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), to which Bahrain is a party. Furthermore, the violations they endured as minors contravene the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), to which Bahrain is also a party.
As such, Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain (ADHRB) calls on the Bahraini authorities to investigate allegations of arbitrary arrest, torture, sexual assault, denial of legal counsel, and sectarian discrimination, provide compensation for Ahmed and Mahmood, and hold the perpetrators accountable. While ADHRB welcomes the royal pardon issued, which included several political prisoners, it considers this belated step incomplete if the Bahraini government does not investigate the violations endured by these released individuals and compensate them. This step would also be considered incomplete if the perpetrators are not held accountable and political arrests and violations within prisons are not stopped.
