Bahraini Hospital Staff Sentenced to Prison for Treating Patients and Saving Lives

The times they are a changin'.

But not in Bahrain. Doctors and medical personnel from the Salmaniya Medical Complex in Manama who treated protestors injured in spring demonstrations against the regime, have been sentenced to long prison sentences simply for doing the work they are mandated to do as healthcare workers, as reported in the New York Times this week:

The agency reported that eight people it identified as doctors who worked at a central hospital in the capital, Manama, received 15-year sentences. Other medical personnel at the hospital, the Salmaniya Medical Complex, Bahrain’s largest public hospital, were given terms of between 5 and 15 years.

The sentences were the latest sign that the country’s Sunni monarchy would continue to deal severely with those involved in widespread protests this year, mostly held by members of its repressed Shiite majority. Much of that effort has been focused on the doctors and nurses who treated demonstrators.

Even Saudi Arabia is feeling compelled these days to throw the people a bone: Women were granted the right to vote and run for office this month (though whether they can get to polling stations, not to mention schools and work places, without also being allowed to drive, is yet to be determined). But the oppressive state in Bahrain endures, as so well documented in Al Jazeera's documentary, Bahrain: Shouting in the Dark.

The atrocious behaviour of the Al Khalifa royals must be condemned unequivocally, and their place at the table of civilized nations shunned until the tyranny ends.

Lauryn Oates is a Contributing Writer for The Propagandist.