The Bahraini Parliament yesterday voted down a motion to challenge before the Constitutional Court a law that granted immunity from trial to former security officials accused by opposition groups of violating human rights in the 1990s.
A number of MPs had proposed a Bill to challenge the constitutionality of Law 56 in an attempt to scrap the law, issued by a royal decree in 2002.
The law, issued before the election of the current Council of Representatives, has given immunity to former security officers some of whom are accused of abusing the rights of political detainees during the civil unrest in the 1990s.
Law by Decree No. 56 stipulates the courts or tribunals in Bahrain will not consider any case brought against any individual accused of crimes prior to the general amnesty of February 2001.
Under the earlier amnesty decree, issued by His Majesty King Hamad Bin Eisa Al Khalifa following his accession to the throne in 1999, political prisoners were freed.
A proposal to challenge Law 56 was submitted by deputy speaker Abdul Hadi Marhoun, Ali Samahiji, Yousif Zainal, Abdul Nabi Salman, Jasem Abdul A'al, Fareed Gazi and Eisa Abulfateh.
They say the law hurts the families which "suffered emotional, psychological and physical damage" because of the State Security Law, which was abolished four years ago.
