Bahraini protester dies under torture

Opposition groups say more than 400 people have been arrested since Bahrain began a crackdown on anti-government protesters on February 14, 2011

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/174534.html

The situation in Bahrain continues to deteriorate as another Bahraini citizen, Abdul Kareem al-Fakhrawi, has succumbed to death while in police custody.

Fakhrawi, a prominent Bahraini businessman, lost his life on Tuesday due to severe torture while in prison, DPA reported, quoting the opposition al-Wefaq group.

He is the fourth Bahraini, tortured to death, since anti-government protests began in the country in mid-February.

The 49-year-old businessman disappeared on or around April 4, when he went to file a police report against policemen who had earlier raided his home, the report says.

Fakhrawi had been a potential parliamentary candidate in Bahrain's 2006 elections.

The circumstances surrounding his disappearance, detention, and death remain unclear but according to sources his brother identified the body at a local morgue.

The Bahrain interior ministry has not commented on the incident.

Fakhrawi owned the Fakhrawi bookshop chain and was an investor in the independent daily al-Wasat.

The newspaper was being investigated by the government for allegedly publishing false information at the height of the anti-government protests last month -- a claim refuted by the editors.

His death comes just a day after Bahrain buried blogger Zakria Rashid al-Asherri, 40, killed while in police custody.

Bahraini regime's brutal crackdown on protests has left dozens of people dead and hundreds of others injured.

People in Bahrain have been protesting since February 14, demanding an end to the two-century-long rule of the al-Khalifa dynasty.

Demonstrators maintain that they will hold their ground, until their demands for freedom, constitutional monarchy, as well as a proportional voice in the government are met.

Bahraini forces have severely suppressed the anti-regime protests with the help of Saudi, the UAE and Kuwaiti troops. Many people have gone missing on top of those slain since the beginning of the revolution.

In recent days Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) among other rights groups had criticized the Bahraini government crackdown.