Ombudsman: Alleged enforced displacement, denial of communication not true

Manama, Sept. 7 (BNA): A team from the Office of the Ombudsman visited, on September 6, the Jau Reformation and Rehabilitation Centre, where it conducted investigations into the allegations of enforced disappearance and deprivation of communication against a number of inmates. The field visit is within the framework of the Office of the Ombudsman's professional and legal tasks assigned to it with regard to visiting prisons and places of detention, among others, in accordance with the provisions of decree (27) of 2012 on its establishment, as amended by Decree (35) of 2013. During the visit, the team followed the necessary procedures to investigate into the allegations. When asked by the Ombudsman’s team about the aforesaid allegations, the management of the Jau Reformation and Rehabilitation Centre stated that the necessary administrative measures had been taken immediately against the inmates in question for committing legal violations on August 10, 2022, and that the Public Prosecution had been informed about that incident to take its action. The centre’s administration added that the disciplinary sanctions imposed against those inmates had been according to the provisions of Articles (53) and (56) of the Reformation and Rehabilitation Institutions Law (18) of 2014, noting that as soon as the disciplinary penalty period had ended, inmates were allowed to communicate with their families by phone, but a number of them refused to do so. The centre’s administration affirmed that all the measures taken against those inmates are recorded and documented. The members of the Ombudsman’s team reviewed the security surveillance camera’s records, which depicted the Public Security Forces giving advice to those who refused to make phone calls to their families. The Ombudsman’s team also reviewed the administrative documents and records that show the procedures taken against those inmates to verify that they are in accordance with the law. The team also met all the inmates in question to verify their access to communication. A number of inmates reported that they had recently contacted their families by phone, while the rest reported that they had voluntarily refrained from making the contact allowed by the centre's management. When asked by the team about their whereabouts, all those inmates reported that they were currently in the wards designated for each of them. The Ombudsman’s team concluded, based on the results of its field investigation, that is no enforced disappearance and that these inmates are at the Jau Reformation and Rehabilitation Centre, where it met them. The team affirmed that the inmates in question were subject to disciplinary penalties for committing legal violations as stipulated in the Law of the Reform and Rehabilitation Institutions and its executive regulations, and that they were enabled, after the end of the disciplinary penalty, to exercise their right to telephone contacts with their families, but some of them had voluntarily refrained from making contacts with their families, rejecting the advice given to them by the management of the centre to enjoy that right.