Manama: Bahrain’s interior ministry has launched an investigation into the death of a Bahraini who was being transported in a police vehicle.
“The citizen was a passenger in a police vehicle belonging to the Ministry of Interior,” the investigator said.
“The accident occurred at 6.30pm on Monday in Manama and the police attributed it to ‘road works on the highway and the lack of attention by the driver who was exceeding the speed limit’.
The ombudsman has launched an investigation to look into the details of the criminal and administrative culpability that falls under its purview,” the investigator said in a statement.
The office will “recommend appropriate actions be taken based on the findings of its investigation”.
The case is the first announced investigation launched in response to a recommendation by the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI), the international fact-finding panel set up by King Hamad Bin Eisa Al Khalifa to look into the events that occurred in the kingdom in February and March 2011. The BICI offered a series of recommendations to address several issues, mainly related to security practices.
The government officially accepted the BICI report and said that it would implement the recommendations. The establishment of the special investigator to deal with alleged inappropriate actions and acts of misconduct by interior ministry staff towards Bahrainis, expatriates and visitors has been termed as a highly positive step forward.
Last week, the investigator said that the interior ministry had responded to its request to install surveillance cameras in all interrogation rooms.
In the statement it released on the fatal accident, the interior ministry said that the speeding vehicle driver “was surprised to see warning signs on the road and tried to avoid them”.
“This led the vehicle to hit the pavement. The ensuing collision resulted in the death of the passenger, while two policemen suffered injuries,” the ministry said.
