Dubai: Bahrain's interior ministry has dismissed a report by "three anonymous and imaginary human rights organisations claiming systematic torture" in the kingdom and warned it would take legal action against media propagating lies.
"The alleged human rights organisations are unknown and their activities are only limited to anonymous statements that lack credibility and are issued for malicious purposes," the ministry said in its statement on Wednesday evening.
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The adoption by Al Jazeera, a Qatari channel that incites sedition and disunity, of the malicious reports and its keenness on intensively broadcasting them are part of the historic Qatari conspiracy against Bahrain and its people and reveal the strong collaboration between the channel with its political agenda and the media sources of Welayat Al Faqih (Guardian Jurist) against Gulf countries and nationals, it added.
"The accusations mentioned in the reports are false and baseless, hence the appropriate legal procedures will be taken against those issuing and promoting such lies, including Al Jazeera channel, as they are considered as incitement against state authorities and policemen in a way that harms civil peace and coexistence values within the Bahraini society," the statement said.
The ministry said that some of the people mentioned as activists in the reports were fugitives or involved in terrorist cases pending trial at Bahrain’s courts, and details about the cases should not be discussed out of the commitment to the rule of law and the judiciary.
The ministry stressed that "the security authorities are committed to their duties and the reinforcement of justice and the rule of law based on the Constitution and the laws."
"Bahrain has highlighted in previous reports at the UN Human Rights Council that all police stations are equipped with CCTVs to monitor all their operations."
The ministry added that Bahrain has "many independent supervisory bodies to ensure that security authorities are committed to the Constitution and the law, mainly the Ombudsman Office and the Special Investigation Unit at the Public Prosecution that independently and neutrally investigate torture allegations and those proven guilty are referred to court."
"This indicates there is a zero-tolerance policy towards such individual cases."
