Bahrain Mirror: Mohammad Khaled Al-Hazaa, the member of Bahrain's Special Investigation Unit (SIU), said that the SIU received during December of last year, 2015, 40 complaints ranging between allegations of torture, abuse and excessive use of force against the Public Security Forces, adding that it has begun investigation procedures.

On the other hand, the SIU has listened during the aforementioned month to more than 51 witnesses, while interrogated 56 defendants and suspects from the Public Security Forces. It referred three of the complainants to the SIU's forensic doctor to specify their injuries, and the cause and date of occurrence. It also referred three of the complainants to the SIU's psychiatrist to receive psychological examination and see whether they suffer from any psychological conditions resulting from what they claimed.

"Within the SIU's framework of following up of cases referred to courts, Bahrain's Ninth Minor Criminal Court handed down on December 6, 2015 a 2-year prison term to a policeman over assault against a detainee at the department of Reform and Rehabilitation", Al-Hazaa added.

"On December 7, 2015, Bahrain's First High Criminal Court acquitted 5 suspects from the Public Security Forces of all charges raised against them", he further stated, stressing that "the details of the case state that 2 suspects accused of trafficking in narcotics claimed that they were tortured to make confessions about the incident. After the SIU studied the grounds of the sentence, it found that it is baseless, and decided to appeal in a hearing that will be held on March 28, 2016 before Bahrain's First High Criminal Court of Appeal."

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