Manama: Bahrain has denied reports that a British senior police adviser recruited to ensure its procedures meet international human rights standards has resigned.
“Recent reports concerning the resignation of John Yates are incorrect,” a statement released by the Information Affairs Authority (IAA) said. “Yates’ initial six-month contract concluded on July 20 this year. However, he remains as an important adviser to the Minister of Interior, overseeing the police code of conduct and the implementation of reforms. Yates is scheduled to regularly visit the country in the coming months,” the statement said.
Yates, the former assistant commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, was recruited by Bahrain in December to oversee reform of its police force days after the publication of a report by the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI) that highlighted human rights abuses and the use of excessive force.
The BICI, a panel of international experts led by Cherif Bassiouni, published a series of recommendations to reform the security forces.
Bahrain accepted the searing report and pledged to implement the recommendations with assistance from international experts.
Yates, a former Assistant Commissioner in the London Metropolitan Police Service (2006–2011), said upon his hiring that the challenges were “big”.
“Bahrain’s police have some big challenges ahead, not dissimilar to those the UK itself faced only a couple of decades ago, but I have been impressed that the King is doing the right thing by pressing on with big reforms,” he told the Daily Telegraph.
“This is a big challenge which I will undertake with a great reforming police officer like John Timoney.”
Timoney, who worked for the New York Police Department from 1967 to 1996 and was Commissioner of the Philadelphia Police Department from 1998 to 2002 and Chief of the Miami Police Department from 2003 to 2010, was hired along with Yates to reform Bahrain’s security forces.
