Amnesty International voiced serious concerns over rights violations by Al Khalifa against the Bahraini citizens.

Amnesty International voiced serious concerns over rights violations by Al Khalifa against the Bahraini citizens.

In a report released on Monday, the rights groups said it “remains concerned about the lack of reform of the judiciary, slow and inadequate investigations into past abuses, and continuing restrictions on freedom of expression, association and assembly.”

Delegates from Amnesty International visited Bahrain between 3 and 9 May and met ministers and senior government officials, survivors of human rights abuses and relatives of victims, human rights activists and organizations and political associations, Amnesty said.

It added that the delegation also met with individual prisoners, including prisoners of conscience, in Jaw Prison and women held in the ‘Issa Town Detention Centre for Women.

The visit was the first since January 2013 due to the authorities not allowing the organization back during this period and was restricted to five working days. It came a few days after a two-month mission by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to Bahrain, Amnesty noted.

Human rights concerns remain over the continuing detention of prisoners of conscience and the harsh sentences handed by Bahraini courts in connection with rioting, including against children. Other prisoners, including women, were sentenced to lengthy prison terms based on “confessions” they said were extracted from them under duress, and with little evidence to substantiate criminal intent, the report said.

More worrying is the length of time it takes to examine and bring to court alleged perpetrators of killings, torture and other ill-treatment and the final extremely light sentences handed to the few security policemen convicted of such abuses, according to the group’s report.

The organization expressed concerns regarding house raids and arrests carried out by the security forces without warrants as well as instances of torture and other ill-treatment at the Criminal Investigations Directorate, including exposing detainees to extreme cold conditions, said the report.