1 of 7 | Riot police watch as anti-government protesters demonstrate against the king in Manama's Riffa Area near the royal palace on March 11, 2011. Bahraini anti-riot police clashed with opposition protesters on the outskirts of Riffa after pro-government supporters were able to pass through police lines and attack the opposition march. Nearly 800 people were injured according to the health ministry, mainly due to tear-gas inhalation. UPI/Isa Ebrahim |
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GENEVA, Switzerland, Aug. 30 (UPI) -- Hundreds of people face military trials and thousands more lost their jobs because of their opposition to Bahrain's monarchy, the U.N. human rights office said.
Bahrain in early July started a dialogue process meant to examine possible improvements in the political structure. The government earlier received praise for transferring some trials from a military tribunal to civilian courts. Under a series of political reforms announced last month, the prime minister of Bahrain is granted more power over the state's affairs.
Human rights groups, however, have accused the ruling Sunni minority of using state hospitals as torture chambers and other abuses.
The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights in its latest update on the situation in Bahrain said there were at least 264 cases pending before what amounts to a military court. Thousands more are jobless because they were accused of taking part in anti-government protests early this year, the OHCHR adds.
"We are concerned that most of the defendants in these cases may be prisoners of conscience, detained only for exercising their rights to freedom of expression and association," OHCHR spokesman Rupert Colville said in a statement.
King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa of Bahrain in a customary gesture marking the end of Ramadan said he was pardoning an unknown number of political prisoners and called for the reinstatement of some employees.
"There are those who were charged with abusing us and senior officials in Bahrain, and we today announce that we forgive them as we hope that they understand that abusing us and others in fact offends everyone and achieves nothing," he said in a statement.
