Zed Books Bahrain's Uprising: Resistance and Repression in the Gulf

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. Bahrain's UprisingResistance and Repression in the GulfBy Ala'a Shehabi, Marc Owen JonesZed Books LtdCopyright © 2015 Zed BooksAll rights reserved.ISBN: 978-1-78360-434-0ContentsACKNOWLEDGEMENTS, vii, ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS, ix, FOREWORD: ON THE PRELUDE TO THE 14 FEBRUARY UPRISING Abdulhadi Khalaf, xiii, INTRODUCTION Bahrain's uprising: The struggle for democracy in the Gulf Ala a Shehabi and Marc Owen Jones, 1, PART ONE Voices of the condemned, 1 A trial of thoughts and ideas Ibrahim Sharif, 43, 2 God after ten o'clock Ali Al Jallawi, 61, 3 A room with a view: an eyewitness to the Pearl Uprising Tony Mitchell, 69, PART TWO Configuring dissent: charting movements, space, and self-representation in Bahrain, 4 Shifting contours of activism and possibilities for justice in Bahrain Luke G.G. Bhatia and Ala a Shehabi, 93, 5 The many afterlives of Lulu: the story of Bahrain's Pearl Roundabout Amal Khalaf, 135, 6 Tn Tn Ttn and torture in Bahrain: puncturing the spectacle of the 'Arab Spring' John Horne, 151, PART THREE Suppressing dissent in an acceptable manner: modes of repression, colonial legacies, and institutional violence, 7 On the side of decency and democracy: the history of British-Bahraini relations and transnational contestation Zoe Holman, 175, 8 Rotten apples or rotten orchards: police deviance, brutality, and unaccountability in Bahrain Marc Owen Jones, 207, 9 Social media, surveillance, and cyberpolitics in the Bahrain Uprising Marc Owen Jones, 239, NOTES, 263, BIBLIOGRAPHY, 304, INDEX, 329, CHAPTER 1A trial of thoughts and ideasIbrahim SharifTRANSLATION BY AYESHA SALDANHAIbrahim Sharif al-Sayed is the General Secretary of the National Democratic Action Society (Wa ad), a secular Bahraini political society. He was taken from his home at 2 am on 17 March 2011 by men in plain clothes, who had surrounded his house and pointed a gun in his face. For a detailed account of his brutal and humiliating experience with the state security services, please see the footnote. This is his speech before the Supreme Court of Appeal.I thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak before this esteemed court, especially after we were deprived of the right to defend ourselves in front of the two National Safety Courts. We were deprived in spite of the gravity of the charges levelled against us, and their vast divergence from the truth. The prosecution's rhetoric could not hide this truth, for their claims depended on statements extracted under torture or on testimony given by `secret sources' fabricated by the National Security Agency (NSA). These fallacious claims were exposed following the publication of the report by the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI, also known as the Bassiouni Commission), claims formulated in order to justify predetermined convictions.A trial against ideasThis trial, gentlemen, has been from the very beginning an attempt to try ideas and intentions. In order to prove the charges against me, the prosecution has cited a number of quotes it attributes to me, such as 'there is no legitimacy for a regime that kills its people', 'the 2002 constitution has no legitimacy', 'the regime lacks legitimacy', 'the regime has lost its legitimacy', and 'the Bahraini army is not for the nation'. In addition, I am quoted as saying that the ruling family are invaders and that they have seized the wealth of the country, and that I would prefer a republican system and have called for the fall of the representative councils. Despite the availability of a large number of visual and audio recordings of me, as well as my writings published both before and after the popular uprising began on 14 February 2011, the prosecution has failed to provide one shred of evidence that I have called for the use of violence or worked to topple the regime by force.Ideas, gentlemen, cannot be killed or incarcerated, nor can they be defeated in this court or any other tribunal