Showing posts with label latest. Show all posts
Showing posts with label latest. Show all posts
Saturday, 16 July 2011
Friday, 15 July 2011
Bahraini poetess confirms torture
Published today on Press TV
A young Bahraini pro-democracy poetess just released from jail and placed under house arrest says she was mentally and physically tortured by male and female officers while in jail.
“They beat me [for] nine days, morning and afternoon and at night… they beat me a lot, a lot, a lot. More than one person beat me at the same time, man and woman,” said Ayat al-Qurmezi in an exclusive phone interview with Press TV on Friday.
Recounting her bitter experience while jailed by the Saudi-backed Bahraini regime, Qurmezi, hailed as 'freedom poet,' told Press TV that her interrogator and prison guards did not allow her to use a bathroom and used very offensive and derogatory language against herself and her parents.
She confirmed that her jailers also threatened to kill her and to hurt her family, adding that she was forced to make confessions, as the only way for “the king to forgive me” and to be saved from the beatings, verbal abuse and other forms of torture.
Qurmezi, however, stated that despite repeated threats by Bahraini authorities that she would be returned to jail if she speaks to any media outlets, she was not afraid and would continue to speak the words of the Bahraini people.
Al-Qurmezi was arrested on March 30 for reciting anti-government poetry in the capital of Manama's Pearl Square.
She was then charged with incitement and insulting members of the royal family and handed a one-year jail term.
On Thursday, the 20-year-old said she had faced house arrest in exchange for freedom, but vowed to continue her freedom-seeking campaign.
“And I won't be afraid because of a paper I signed,” Qurmezi said, referring to a pledge she had signed not to violate the terms of her arrest, join protests and speak to the media.
Further, her family says she was forced by her jailors to clean filthy lavatories with her bare hands.
Thursday, 14 July 2011
Bahrain puts freed poet on house arrest
Published today on Al Jazeera
Ayat al-Qurmozi's unexpected release comes against a backdrop of halting government-opposition talks in the Gulf state.
The Bahraini government has released a Shia Muslim poet who was sentenced last month to one year in prison for reciting a poem critical of the country's ruling family.
Ayat al-Qurmozi, 20, returned home on Thursday after being unexpectedly released from prison. She remains under house arrest, however.
She is one of roughly 200 people released this week, some after months in prison, according to human rights groups in Bahrain.
The poem that led to her incarceration mocked the ruling Al Khalifa family and called for the king, Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, to step down.
"I hope Bahrain can move away from the crisis to a transition into a better future, without discrimination or sectarianism," al-Qurmozi told the Reuters news agency.
Al-Qurmozi has claimed that she was beaten while in prison. She also said that she had to promise not to attend protests or speak with the media as a condition of her release.
"I'm not afraid to speak out though. I have something to say and I won't be afraid because of a paper I signed," she said.
An uncertain dialogue
A "national dialogue" between the government and the opposition continues in Manama, but many Shias are uneasy about participating in the talks.
The national dialogue was called last month and focuses on four main areas: politics, the economy, social issues and human rights.
The Wefaq party, the largest formal opposition group in Bahrain, decided at the last minute to enter into negotiations.
But members of Wefaq walked out of a discussion earlier this week after a Sunni Muslim MP called them "heretics" and accused them of coming from Iran.
Meanwhile, scattered protests continue in predominantly Shia villages across Bahrain, and dozens of protesters remain jailed - including eight who were sentenced last month to life terms.
Ayat al-Qurmozi's unexpected release comes against a backdrop of halting government-opposition talks in the Gulf state.
The Bahraini government has released a Shia Muslim poet who was sentenced last month to one year in prison for reciting a poem critical of the country's ruling family.
Ayat al-Qurmozi, 20, returned home on Thursday after being unexpectedly released from prison. She remains under house arrest, however.
She is one of roughly 200 people released this week, some after months in prison, according to human rights groups in Bahrain.
The poem that led to her incarceration mocked the ruling Al Khalifa family and called for the king, Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, to step down.
"I hope Bahrain can move away from the crisis to a transition into a better future, without discrimination or sectarianism," al-Qurmozi told the Reuters news agency.
Al-Qurmozi has claimed that she was beaten while in prison. She also said that she had to promise not to attend protests or speak with the media as a condition of her release.
"I'm not afraid to speak out though. I have something to say and I won't be afraid because of a paper I signed," she said.
An uncertain dialogue
A "national dialogue" between the government and the opposition continues in Manama, but many Shias are uneasy about participating in the talks.
The national dialogue was called last month and focuses on four main areas: politics, the economy, social issues and human rights.
The Wefaq party, the largest formal opposition group in Bahrain, decided at the last minute to enter into negotiations.
But members of Wefaq walked out of a discussion earlier this week after a Sunni Muslim MP called them "heretics" and accused them of coming from Iran.
Meanwhile, scattered protests continue in predominantly Shia villages across Bahrain, and dozens of protesters remain jailed - including eight who were sentenced last month to life terms.
Bahraini woman poet tells of torture while in custody
Published today in The Telegraph, by Richard Spencer
A young Bahraini woman who was arrested after reciting an anti-government poem to demonstrators in the Gulf kingdom said she was beaten, electrocuted and threatened with sexual assault while in custody.
Ayat al-Qurmezi, 20, became one of the symbols of the protests that hit the centre of the Bahraini capital, Manama in February and March. After she was arrested, reports circulated that she had been whipped and even at one point raped and killed, leading to an improvement in her conditions and her release on Wednesday evening.
Greeted by a crowd of hundreds of people at her home, she told her family she had not been sexually assault but threatened as well as being electrocuted with clips attached to her face.
She also denied that she had committed treason by attacking the king, saying she wanted reform not revolution. "The demand isn't to overthrow the regime, but we want a real constitutional monarchy," she said to reporters.
Miss al-Qurmezi, a member of the Shia majority who was at teacher training college when the protests began in February, was filmed reciting poems to a huge crowd at Pearl Roundabout, the epicentre of the demonstrations.
One featured a conversation between Satan and King Hamad in which they outlined the complaints of the opposition, mostly Shia calling for the Sunni royal family and elite to share power.
Bahrain releases poet who became a symbol of resistance to the regime
Published today in The Independent, by Patrick Cockburn
The 20-year-old Bahraini poet Ayat al-Gormezi, jailed and tortured for reading a poem critical of the government at a pro-democracy rally, has been suddenly released – though her sentence has not been revoked.
The international outcry over the mistreatment of the student, who became a symbol of resistance to the crackdown in the island, probably led the government to free her.
After being initially beaten across the face, she had been lashed with electric cables, kept in a near freezing cell and forced to clean police lavatories with her hands, though her treatment in prison had improved recently.
Ayat was greeted by cheering crowds in her neighbourhood near Hamad town outside the capital after her unexpected release.
Her family say they are delighted that she is free although they are worried about her future. They fear that she might be re-arrested, as she has not been pardoned and her release was not the result of an appeal against her one-year sentence.
At the height of the pro-democracy protests in Pearl Square in February, Ayat had recited a poem addressed to King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa that included the lines: "We will kill humiliation and assassinate misery. Don't you hear their cries? Don't you hear their screams?"
She was arrested in March after being forced to give herself up when security forces threatened to kill her brothers if she did not do so.
At first her family did not know what had happened to her and endured additional mental torture when pictures of their missing daughter began to appear on dating websites.
Government repression since mid-March has been extremely severe, and hospital doctors and nurses who treated injured protesters have been tortured and forced to confess that they were part of an armed conspiracy against the monarchy, that had been backed by Iran.
A Saudi-led military force moved into the island, and mosques and other religious meeting places belonging to the Shia majority were bulldozed and destroyed on the grounds that they did not have building permission.
There are limited signs that the release of Ayat is more than an attempt to defuse international criticism of human rights abuses in Bahrain.
The king has called for a dialogue on reforms, and the country's main opposition group, al-Wifaq, representing the Shia majority, has now decided at the last minute to enter into discussions with King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa.
Earlier this week al-Wifaq walked out of a meeting on Bahrain's controversial naturalisation laws under which they accuse the Sunni rulers of naturalising Sunnis in a bid to change Bahraini demographics. The walk out happened after a Sunni representative called the Shia heretics, implying they had come from Iran.
Wednesday, 13 July 2011
RELEASED!
After imprisonment, repetitive torture and false allegations, Ayat was released a few hours ago, her brother told us.
Tuesday, 12 July 2011
Sunday, 10 July 2011
Thursday, 7 July 2011
Sunday, 3 July 2011
Current situation and new charges
Today was Ayat’s scheduled visit where she was able to meet with her parents.
Ayat was shocked to learn that her hearing, scheduled for the 02nd of July, had been cancelled without any given justification, especially since she was hoping that the appeal would reduce her one year sentence in view of the fact that she had been transferred to prison for major offences. She has been suffering from depression, due to homesickness, and has been residing in cells alongside criminals.
Ayat complained to her parents about how badly she is being treated and how she is deprived of basic necessities such as washing soap and water to break her fast with. Her family fear that Ayat has been treated badly not only by the prison guards but also by other inmates with political motivations.
Once again, Ayat’s lawyer complained about not being able to meet with Ayat to go through the evidence and statements. The lawyer added that the hearing could be cancelled as the attorney general might want to add a number of other charges; one of which states that Ayat and her friends were led by senior opposition leader, Hassan Mushaima, to topple the regime. She denies this however if the charges are added then Ayat could be transferred back to the interrogation prison, where she had spent days of torture after she was arrested on June 30th.
Her brother says the situation is not clear and no one knows what will happen next.
Ayat has been sentenced to one year in prison for a crime she did not commit, rather for simply expressing her opinion in a poem she recited during a pro-democracy rally in Bahrain.
Tuesday, 21 June 2011
Ayat's latest poem
Latest poem written by Ayat Al-Gormezi in prison. (Has not been translated yet) آيات القرمزي استعدت للوقت الذي يذيع فيه تلفزيون العار اعتذارها لحمد وخليفة وهي مكرهة،وتقول إني صامدة ولازلت على عهد الثورة..عذبوني حتى بصعقات الكهرباء والدبابيس،وهددوني بالاغتصاب!! فاعتذرت وأنا تحت الإكراه..قصيدة حفظتها عن ظهر قلب إحدى السجينات،،إنشروها على أوسع نطاق رداً على القتلة والمعذبين . (( زنزانتي .. ميدان لؤلؤتي )) بسمِ الإلهِ مخافتي ورجائي وبمحمدٍ والعترةِ النجباءِ وإليك ياربي خضعتُ تضرعاً لتعينني في رحلةِ اللأواءِ لا..لستُ أكتب بالدموعِ رسالتي دمعي يثيرُ شماتةَ الأعداءِ لاتسألوا عن وقتِ نظمِ قصيدتي فالشمسُ حلمٌ والصباحُ مسائي يا يوسفُ الصدّيق فسّر محنتي ألمُ السياطِ وصعقةُ الاعضاءِ اُنثى..ورعبُ..والعذابُ..ووحدتي زنزانتي كالجبِ بالظلماءِ ياليتني!! مصلوبةٌ،،منسيةٌ والطيرُ تأكلني،،لعُظمِ بلائي أنا لستُ يائسةٌ،فروحي حرةٌ لكنّ جسمي لايطيقُ عنائي ياليتني مسبيةٌ مع زينبٍ فتعينني لو جاءني أعدائي أنا لستُ مريم فالملاكُ يزورها "ياليتني..."قالت بلا استحياءِ وهتفتُ..يارباهُ!!من فُرطِ الأسى أولستَ تسمعُ صرختي ودعائي فكأنما الملكوتُ أرسلَ نفحةً بتوسلي ،، بروائعِ الأسماءِ أبصرتُ في قلبي سماءَ طهارةِ العذراءِ ، والزهراءِ ، والحوراءِ فاستيقظت روحي وكلُ جوانحي وجوارحي انتفضت على أرزائي وتهجدت شفتايَ بالآياتِ وابتهجت بشعرِ الثورةِ الغنّاء أ نا لستُ راكعةً لمخلوقٍ..بلى للهِ..للشعبِ العظيمِ ولائي إن أكرهوني باعتذارٍ حسبهم اللهُ يعلمُ نيتي وبلائي والشعبُ ثارَ ولن يُصدّقَ مكرَهم ألله أكبرُ ،، ثورةٌ بسمائي زنزانتي ميدانُ لؤلؤتي أنا أفديكِ يا حريتي بدمائي
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