U.S. concerned about Bahrain activist, urges probe

Reuters, WASHINGTON, Sat Jan 7, 2012

Bahrain Human rights Activist, Nabeel Rajab speaks at an anti-government

 gathering organised by al-Wafeq, in Budaiya west of Manama, December 9, 2011. 

Credit: Reuters/Hamad I Mohammed)

(Reuters) - The United States is very concerned about a prominent Bahraini rights activist who opposition activists say was beaten by security forces on Friday and it has urged the government to investigate, a senior U.S. official said on Saturday.

The official said the facts of the case involving Nabeel Rajab, head of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, were in dispute but Washington was generally concerned about frequent reports Bahraini police use excessive force against protesters.

Bahrain, home to the U.S. Fifth Fleet, launched a sweeping crackdown on anti-government protests last year that drew criticism internationally and from an inquiry panel that found security forces had tortured people to obtain confessions.

Opposition activists said security officers threw Rajab to the ground and beat him on the head, neck and back during a confrontation after a protest march on Friday.

Bahrain's Interior Ministry denied those accounts, saying on its Twitter feed that police found Rajab "lying on the ground" and took him to the hospital for treatment.

"We are very concerned about this case," the U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Reuters. He said a U.S. Embassy official had visited Rajab on Saturday.

"The facts here are in dispute but we are, and have expressed to the government, our real concern about the case," said the official. "What we are urging the government to do is to conduct a full investigation and, if excessive force was used by the police, they need to hold the relevant people accountable."

(Reporting By Arshad Mohammed; Editing by Doina Chiacu)

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