Zaria Bloodbath: Unfortunate Fate Befalls 57 Shiites

 Sources say the inmates were convicted of rioting and mutiny following unrest last March at Jaw prison, south of the capital Manama.

The charges included “disobeying orders and forcing guards out of the prisoners’ buildings” and then “destroying furniture, air conditioners and security cameras, ” the source said.

Al-Wasat newspaper reports that security officials stormed the buildings and clashed with the rioting prisoners, resulting in casualties among police and inmates.

The defendants were also fined a total of N268717500. It was not clear what caused the riot in Bahrain’s largest prison that is used for Shiites convicted over anti-government protests.

There have been calls by the Human Rights Watch for an independent investigation into allegations that security forces used “excessive force” to quell the unrest at the jail and later mistreated prisoners.

Bahrain’s Sunni authorities crushed Shiite-led protests a month after they erupted on February 14, 2011.