Mahazza is a village on Sitra Island, Bahrain. One of the many villages that suffer from continuous violations. On Saturday, 18 houses were raided by Bahrain's riot police and CID, in a pattern that's been going for a very long time. Only this month, The village was raided 7 times and even more extensively on Friday and Saturday, the security forces raid the houses, arrest the activists + revolutionaries they're looking for, then torture them onto confessing to False Charges. They end up either sentenced to years in jail (by the Non-independent Judiciary system), or released after weeks or even months.

When these forces raid the houses, they beat the residents, women and children, vandalize, then steal the valuable stuff along with money. These houses are raided without warrants, the forces simply do it for fun, 'punishing' those opposing the regime, and confident that they're privileged with impunity, NOT held accountable.
During the raids 3 days ago, on Saturday 31st of June, (Precisely: Midnight, approx. 1 AM), the regime forces broke into the houses and apartments of following Citizens:-

1) Mr. Hussain Hubail
2) Haji Hassan Sultan
3) Hadi Jum'aa Nasser
4) Mr. Jaffar Hubail
5) Haji Hassan AlQattari
6) Haji Ahmed Ismail
7) Sayed Ali Alawi
8) Mr. Jaffar Abdulhussain
9) Haji Mahdi Mohammed
10) Haji Abdulhussain Sahwan
11) Sayed Alawi Ebrahim
12) Haji Ashoor Abdulla Ebrahim
13) Haji Mirza Abu AlShaikh
14) Haji Ahmed Bin Nasser
15) Sayed Abbas Abu Sharaf
16) Haji Abdulwahab AlMakna
17) Haji Ali AlAradi
18) Mr. Jaffar Yaqoob (The uncle of a Martyr murdered by these forces).


Mahazza Village, Sitra, Bahrain
These houses listed and those living in them suffered of the same violations explained above, committed by these forces in – What has become a Police State – Bahrain.

We interviewed over these events, Sayed Yousif AlMuhafda, a prominent human rights defender and member of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights.


Sayed Yousif, What do you have to say about the continuous house raids and violations in Mahazza? Latest being on Saturday.

-We condemn these midnight raids that have affected and terrorized Mahazza along with its residents. Yes, the state does have the right to arrest them, but only with a warrant, and restraint, without abuse of power.. However, violations such as assaults, Vandalism, robbery, and harassments are unacceptable, illegal, and these forces have to be held accountable.

In your opinion, what's the mentality or the purpose behind these sort of events? (Especially when all it seems to do is cause trouble for the Regime)

-The purpose of such raids is to terrorize the residents and prevent them from protesting for their rightful demands like the right to Self-Determination. They want to scare them into staying quiet, but over the past year we have proven that these crackdowns and repressive security campaigns are not enough, and have failed from accomplishing their goals.

What are some of the violations that you yourself have documented over the past month of raids in Mahazza?

-The violations I have documented only this month are illegal arbitrary arrests without warrants, vandalizing and breaking the furniture of the house, stealing the residents' money, beating them up, etc..

What do you suggest, as a human rights activist, that these citizens and Activists do to get some justice?

-My advice to them is: Document and take pictures, get in touch with the human rights defenders and AlWefaq Society, spread photos and names of the torturers + whomever violates your rights, then file cases against the Ministry of Interior regarding them.. But most of all continue fighting for your demands.

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Bahrain continues to crackdown on the protestors using mercenaries and torturers, and over the past year thousands have suffered from arrests, house raids, torture, injuries, rape, suffocating poisonous gases, or, have been killed. Along with getting fired from their jobs simply for their activism.

Report by The February 14 Media Network. Tuesday, July 3 2012.