HRW: Bahrain not following BICI report

The Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI), established by King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa and headed by the Egyptian-American jurist Cherif Bassiouni, issued its findings in November 2011. The king promised at the time to carry out all of its recommendations and established a National Commission to monitor the process. That body reported on March 20 that the implementation of the BICI's recommendations had been "comprehensive and far reaching" and "touched all aspects of Bahraini life." But some of the BICI's most serious concerns, like accountability for crimes such as torture and relief for people wrongly imprisoned, were not adequately addressed, Human Rights Watch said. "Bahrain has taken some positive steps, but the Bahraini authorities can hardly claim that the BICI's recommendations have been implemented as long as hundreds of people remain behind bars solely for speaking out and demanding a change of government," said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. "And it seems that no high-ranking officials have been investigated for their roles in rampant torture or unlawful killings."