20 May 2015 - The Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR) is gravely concerned about the decision issued on 14 May 2015 by the Court to deport two men who had their citizenship revoked on 31 January 2015 together with 70 other people. The two men involved are Professor Masaud Mirza Jaffar Jahromi and Mohammed Hassan Ali Hussain, neither of whom has a second nationality.
The decision to revoke their passports in January 2015 was based on order from the Minister of Interior and allegations of “damage to the interests of the country and loyalty to the king”. The court issued an order for their deportation and a fine of 100 dinars.
Professor Masaud Mirza Jaffar Jahromi holds a PhD in Telecommunication Networking from the University of Kent at Canterbury in the United Kingdom, and he was the Chairman of the Telecommunication Engineering Department at Ahlia University. In April 2011, he was imprisoned for five months on charges related to the peaceful exercise of his right to free expression and assembly. Professor Jahromi was released on bail on 12 September 2011, pending trial on 2 November 2011 and he remained suspended from the university. In January 2015, Professor Jahromi found himself on the list of Bahraini citizens whose passports were revoked.
Mohammed Hassan Ali Hussain is a member of the Secular Council.
On 28 October 2014, ten Bahrainis, who had their citizenship revoked on 7 November 2012, were also sentenced to deportation and a 100 Bahraini dinar (USD 265) fine. Shaikh Hussain al-Najati has already been forced into exile on 23 April 2014, after the government threatened his family with physical harm if he refused self-deportation.
The revocation of passports by a state and the decision to deport people whose passports were revoked, thus rendering them stateless and without any rights, constitute violations of internationally recognized human rights, as guaranteed by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to which Bahrain has acceded.
Since November 2012, Bahrain has revoked the citizenship of over 100 persons either through direct statements by the Ministry of Interior or through court orders.
The Bahrain Center for Human Rights call on the Government of Bahrain to:
- Immediately halt the deportation of the two Bahrainis, which is in violation of Article 15 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights;
- Immediately reinstate the nationality of all those whose citizenship was revoked in January 2015, and;
- Accede to the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and to the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness.