Wednesday, April 29, 2020
Press Release
The Forum for Development and Human Rights Dialogue on Wednesday made an urgent appeal to Niels Melzer, special rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment, to visit Qatar and investigate the death of Qatari media activist and journalist Fahad Bou-Hindi at Qatar’s “notorious” Hamour prison after being tortured by Qatari security officers.
The foundation said in its appeal that information from Qatar confirms that the opposition Fahad Bou-Hindi and a group of prisoners have rebelled in recent days because of fears of an outbreak of COVID-19 in prisons.
Fahad Bouhndi was transferred to a solitary cell after a hunger strike and then transferred tothe notorious Hamour prison, the statement said.
After being transferred to Al-Hamour prison, “Fahad Bou-Hindi was beaten and injured until he died of torture, and his family was prevented from burying him only to be buried in an unknown area.”
Fahad Bou-Hindi is known as a 37-year-old Qatari engineer, blogger and writer who graduated from a British university, married with two children and is considered an activist on various social media sites and Bou-Hindi is known for his opposition to the regime led by Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad and his opposition to the regime’s repressive policies closed his Twitter account and disappeared for several days.
The Qatari dissident was detained in a security headquarters in Doha and was placed in Bohamour prison 3 years ago after a trial that did not meet the conditions of a fair trial and tried to communicate by telephone with a human rights organization through the cooperation of a guard with him and informed them about the poor conditions he is going through inside the prison and the situation of the prisoners and exposed He was tortured and prevented from communicating with his family for the duration of his imprisonment, starved him for consecutive days and intimidated and exerted psychological pressure on him, but one of the prison officers discovered the call and informed the officials and then eliminated Bou-Hindi after the security personnel took turns beating him until he took his last breath inside his cell.
The Forum said in a statement that thousands of political detainees in Qatari prisons are at risk of dying as a result of torture, deliberate medical neglect from the prison administration, failure to provide them with any health care, as well as the unprecedented inhumane treatment and physical and psychological torture inflicted on opponents of Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad.
The Forum called upon the Special Rapporteur on torture to perform his role and to pay a visit to Doha to investigate the multiple torture incidents carried out by the Qatari regime against its opponents and to ask the Qatari Government to initiate an ongoing and constructive dialogue with the United Nations Committee against Torture and on the implementation of the standards of the United Nations Convention against Torture with swift and concrete action to implement the recommendations of the United Nations Committee against Torture in its report, such as: an immediate end to the use of
solitary confinement.
Establish an independent authority to investigate allegations of torture, enforced disappearance and ill-treatment.
Acceptance of the mandate of the United Nations Committee against Torture to receive individual complaints (Article 22 of the United Nations Convention against Torture).
Join the International Convention to Protect All Persons from Enforced Disappearance.
Ratification of the Optional Protocol to the United Nations Convention against Torture, or, in the event of disbelief, the establishment of a national preventive mechanism for regular, undeclared and confidential visits to places of detention.
Allow the International Committee of the Red Cross, as well as specialized national and international NGOs, to visit places of detention to provide basic health services, psychological support or the provision of basic commodities.
