Britain's Royal Windsor Horse Show which runs from May 8 - 14, is unique in many ways. It is an international equestrian competition closely associated with the Queen. Indeed the Royal website describes it as "an annual fixture for which the Royal Family have a great affection." And among its guests of honour are Prince Nasser bin Hamad al Khalifa, son of Bahrain's King Hamad. The prince will surely be the only guest attending with allegations of torture linked to his name. On 9 May, a British high court judge lifted confidentiality restrictions that had prevented Prince Nasser being named in a case challenging a decision by the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) that he is immune from prosecution for torture. The case against the prince has been brought by a client known only as FF, a Bahraini living in the UK who was given and will continue to have anonymity as ordered by the court "to ensure that the identity of the Claimant is not disclosed and to keep confidential certain information relating to third parties." The prince is alleged to have tortured two Shia clerics and at least one other individual while they were in detention after a popular uprising against the ruling al Khalifa family was crushed in March 2011. According to a dossier assembled by the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) and cited in court documents, Prince Nasser was "personally responsible for at least three incidents of torture against three of fourteen political prisoners held at Jau prison: Sheikh Al-Meqdad, Sheikh Al-Mahroos and Hassan Jawad". The incidents are said to have happened following the crushing of an anti-government uprising in March of 2011. Dozens were killed, thousands imprisoned and thousands more sacked from their jobs, the overwhelming majority of victims being Shia Muslims. The Bahraini ruling family, the al Khalifas are Sunni Muslims in a country where the majority indigenous population are Shia. An independent panel of human rights experts appointed by King Hamad and headed by the Egyptian law professor Cherif Bassiouni found that members of the police and security services were involved in torture of detainees, in what it called "clear patterns of behaviour by certain government agencies." Their report, the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI) noted: "The purpose of mistreatment was to obtain statements or confessions incriminating the detainee in question. In other cases, the purpose was to obtain statements from the detainee with a view to using the statements against other individuals. Mistreatment was also used for the purposes of retribution and punishment." King Hamad accepted the findings of the BICI report in full. His son who also heads up the Bahrain Olympic Committee has consistently denied the allegations that he was personally involved in the torture of detainees. On Wednesday, May 14, 2014, Bahrain's Ministry of Foreign Affairs provided me with the following statement: "This litigation concerns an ongoing technical legal argument over an English prosecutorial decision. As for the underlying allegations, which are not at issue in this case, Bahrain considers them unfounded,false and politically motivated. Bahrain is not party to the litigation. It would be inappropriate for Bahrain to comment further as it has never sought from the English Courts either anonymity, or sovereign immunity, for anyone in respect of this case." According to the latest court documents in the case "the prince has not made an application to intervene and the State of Bahrain has now informed the court of its wish not to in intervene." That means Prince Nasser will avoid testifying in court. Sue Willman the solicitor representing the claimant FF told me: "The case raises important issues about whether foreign officials visiting the UK should be exempt from investigation, arrest and if necessary prosecution for heinous crimes like torture. The court has made it clear that it is in the public interest for this challenge to the UK government's approach to now be publicised" . The case appealing the decision by the Crown Prosecution Service to recognise Prince Nasser's immunity will be heard later this year.
