The afternoon of February 18 "We were in the sit-in at the Pearl roundabout called for by the Doctors Society to protest against preventing the ambulances from saving the injured, and against the assault on medical stuff. The place was full of medics and administrators; we did not believe that fate gathered us at that place for a greater purpose! As soon as the sit-in was about to end the news of injuries by bullets were coming, that was the first time live bullets were used, I made such remarks to the BBC interviewer who was present at the hospital. Our presence as consultants from all specialties helped to reduce the damage suffered by the injured. We responded quickly to cases that came continuously, we were not used to the type of injuries in terms of quantity or category. As for myself, I handled four cases, three injuries resulting from firing of live bullets, and a fourth one due to birds gunshots. It was the first time for me to weep in the operation room; it had not experienced this situation. My tears welled, cold blood murder was painful, I did not know the injured names or their sect, but I didn't expect what had happened to be happening in here”.

The morning of February 19, started with a meeting with Assistant Undersecretary for Hospitals Affairs Dr. Amin Al Saa'ti, in the presence of all heads of departments and consultants in the hospital. Roles and responsibilities were assigned to some consultants to oversee the voluntary work in case of confrontations; this was coordinated and agreed among those who were present in the meeting, provided that that work did not conflict with normal day to day work. In the evening, I went for the first time to the Pearl Roundabout with the masses of the doctors and nurses who went there; I did go again at a later time.

Since that day until the morning of March 13 the situation was calm, and work was moving naturally, we were at the clinics, conducting routine operations in Salmaniya Hospital and private hospitals, teaching medical students. The last two weeks of February and the first two weeks of March was the period that I examined the largest number of patients. The situation was very quiet, and I did not expect that things would get complicated to the extent that they reached. March 13, that day was tumultuous since its start. It started with the Financial Harbor and the University of Bahrain incidents. There were many and various types of injuries; the situation seemed chaotic more than likely for a moment. I was carrying out normal operations in the operations room, and I had five more scheduled operations, first started at 7:15am.

At about 8:00am, we were surprised by the visit of the Head of the Operations telling us of the order of the Chief Medical Officer Dr Mohammed Amin Al Awadhi to stop all routine operations and be ready for the injuries resulted from the clashes happened at the Financial Harbour area. As the injuries poured in, I started working on cases under my specialisation, including a case of a citizen of an Arab descent who had an injured hand and was accompanied with an injured girl from the University of Bahrain. I was about to start the operation, when it had to be postponed based on the protocol in place whereby the patient had to stop having food or liquids for 6 hours before the operation. As such, the operation was planned for evening, but I was surprised that his family took him out against the medical advice, even though his mother called me on my private mobile and I reassured her. Later in court, the mother with her son was prosecution’s witnesses against me!

The day had not ended yet, it seemed too long. The day that started with heated confrontations, also ended badly.

 At about 9 pm, I received a call from the Head of Orthopedic, Dr. Badria Turani - a doctor who later refused to offer her supported testimony in court - told me there were two severe cases at Al Seef District. I went straight ahead to the hospital, entered the operation room, assistants doctors began to arrange the requirements, I entered the operation room without knowing the nationalities of the patients, that was not important at all, I later knew that one of them was an Asian and the other one was a Bahraini. When I stepped out of the operation room heading towards home, I knew that there were a group of Asians that went through treatment; their injuries were outside the scope of my specialty, I then left.

Monday, March 14 was quiet, between the tumultuous 13th and bloody 15th! I went to the hospital and examined my patients, but the night carried the sound of bullets firing close to our houses. The sound seemed scary and nearby, we all slept in one room, my children were very scared, and my wife was not able to return from Noaim Health Center and slept there. I sensed that things were getting worse, my intuition led me to try to get away from all of it, anyway I do not belong to politics and I do not want to get involved. I called the head of the department and asked her for a two-week leave. My intuition was right from the following day.

The following days we experienced everything around us to fall apart. We were up to date via the social media and through Bahrain TV as well. From Bahrain TV, we knew that the army entered Salmaniya Hospital and besieged the medics. We were following the lies that were broadcast by Bahrain TV including the occupation of the hospital, and taking hostages, and the killing of patients! We were weeping for the deterioration of the situation to that extent, and did not realize then that we were in fact weeping for ourselves in advance! I was totally heartbroken for my country, but my feelings did not develop at that time to the stage of fear.

March 17, I received a call from my assistant doctor, Arab nationality holder, who asked me not to attend, he was crying during the conversation, I assured him that I was on two weeks leave, and I gave him special instructions pertaining to my patients. On this specific day, I began to be concerned about my brother, particularly after the TV program show, whereby names of Dr. Gassan Dhaif (my brother), Dr. Ali Al-Akri and a number of other doctors at Salmaniya Hospital were mentioned. Fear defeated me for only my brother at that time; I did not realize that I'll be part of all of it! 

In the morning of 19 March, Gassan decided to travel with his family to London taking the afternoon flight. I went to his house at 2 in the afternoon to wish him a pleasant trip.  I was hoping that he would be fine there. At 5 pm, my son Ahmed came and told me the news of the arrest of his uncle, I was disturbed with the news especially with the presence of my mother with her serious concern about him. We strongly denied the subject to her, and affirmed that these were just rumours. I tried to contact Gassan with no avail, I even texted him but he didn’t respond.

Dhaif continued narrating the memories of the most difficult stage "Nearly at 7 pm, we were praying when my son Mahmoud suddenly screeched "hurry up, we are attacked by thugs!!" We were all home, my family, my mother, my sister, my brother in law, and I. We rushed towards the window, I realized that my son's warning was meek compared to what I saw, a huge number of riot police, civilian and military; all of them were masked and heavily armed. We asked the housemaids not to open the door, but it was clear that they were not waiting for anyone to open the door, moments after and they were in the middle of the house and in our rooms.

My daughter's tears were pouring, and I was dragged on the stairs, they beat me in front of my family, they did not bother about anyone's dignity, they humiliated and cursed me; then asked me to open the safe box. They stole more than BD5000, US$4000, €3700, another BD800 that was allocated for mosques, in addition to a number of sterling pounds that I do not know how much they were. They asked to disclose all property and land ownership related documents and seized them, then searched my kids' rooms, handcuffed me, and dragged me down on the stairs, when I reached downstairs, I found some of the house holdings were broken, the situation was more like a battle that had just ended, but they were alone with no rival in that battle. I asked them to change my clothes, they did not allow me.  I will never forget that night when my son Mahmoud,  kneeled in front of them, put the Quran between him and them, and swore with tears, "Please do not kill my father, please do not kill my father," My powerless distressed me as I couldn't spare my son that pain. 

Days later, during the interrogation, and I was blindfolded, one of them asked me: "How are you today? How is Mahmoud?" Surprisingly I asked him: "Do you know Mahmoud?" he replied "I will never forget him"!!

The third strongest intelligence service

In front of my house, dozens of civilian and military vehicles stood, surrounded the houses of  Dhaif  brothers which suggested that the police were after hard core criminals. "In front of my brother's house Gassan, I was forced to get inside a civilian car, I saw them then dragging my brother’s cars, I knew with certainty that he had been arrested."

I was dragged forcibly by them in the car, beaten, cursed and forced to bring down my head, it was a long way to go, and the car was speeding, a terrifying situation and a series of conflicting questions churning in my head. The car stopped. They took me inside an unknown place. They blindfolded me and kept that blindfold on my eyes for 10-12 days, it was made of leather and it caused me harsh pain. I did not hear about the Criminal Investigations Department, only came to know it later. I heard someone saying to another, "Aha, you brought him. Take him now, apply electrical shocks on him and hang him the chicken position! “I did not know some of the terms then, I felt that someone stayed with me in the room, strikes landed on my body, he started kicking strongly and steadily, he asked me to sing, I did not know what to do. Did he really want me to sing?! He repeated it again "come on, say Mushaima (an opposition leader, sent to a life-sentence) is a bullock and has been sent to mental sanitarium”, he asked me to repeat it and I did, but then asked me to say it in a musical tone! He was beating me whenever I sang asking for more. After about ten minutes of continuous singing of this shallow sentence, I felt so tired, and then he stopped requesting.

They ordered me to stand. Someone asked me: What's your specialty? I replied “Orthopediatrician”, said: How long a person needs to stand up to break his legs? I said: I do not know, he continued: Now you will know! After that conversation I spent 7-10 days standing on my feet, and the only period they allowed me to sit was those few minutes when eating. 

The same person left off my blindfolding, asked to see him clearly, said: Am I Bahraini? I said: Yes, he said: Sure? Not a naturalised one? I said: No. He continued: How do you know? I told him that his accent indicated that, he said: We are the third most powerful intelligence agency in the world, remember this well. The truth is that I still remember it, but also I'm still wondering what was the relationship whatsoever between the previous questions with this information offered to me voluntarily!

In jail, time was mixed with pain, especially in the first days when days mixed with nights with the blindfold on in every moment. Therefore, the dates presented by Dhaif were approximate. "I remained for about 6-7 days in a solitary confinement, I was blindfolded, my hands were tied behind my back, sitting was just for minutes during the meals, and my brother’s voice came through the walls, full of pain and weeping. I could hear his voice while being beaten and tortured, and I learned later that he heard me too, obviously we were located very close to each other, and obviously that they did it deliberately to increase our psychological pain. 

They did not allow us to sleep, and at different times of the day, the doors were opened and a number of people entered, then started beating and kicking, during this period I suffered from severe swelling in the feet and legs, especially the right one, and because of the severity of the swelling I lost sensation in my feet, this continued for four months. Then lost my legs’ hair because of the pressure on the arteries and veins, guards refused to take me to a doctor, and instead they allowed me to sit down and lift my legs up to the wall. I found it extremely hard to lift them up because of the severe pain. They brought me a chair to prop on instead of crutches"

I was subjected to threat to use electrocution on me, sexual harassment, murder, and assault on my family, and threatened to take me to Saudi Arabia, over and above continuous insults and accusations that we are criminals and murderers. I stayed in Criminal Investigation Department Building for 21 days, they were entering into our cells at different periods, beating us indiscriminately, and poured cold water on our almost bare bodies, when it was winter, I remained with the same clothing for 12 days, and bathing was not permitted. I was forced to go to the toilets bare foot, and left without washing hands. 

After seven days and over the phone for just one minute, his fainted voice penetrated, he did not have the ability to speak, they asked him to tell his family that he was fine, so he punched the number, his son Mahmood answered, and called his mother eagerly. Dhaif said "That was the very affecting moments, and that was the first time my family knew I was still alive"

One night they took me to Mubarak bin Howail (a Security Officer), whom I later knew his name, he said to one of

 the guards, pointing at me: This opened the belly of a patient and stole his kidney! I was shocked and couldn’t reply. I am an orthopediatrician, how I operate on abdomen?!!

I was interrogated twice, the first time it did not take more than half an hour, but the second investigation took between 8-9 hours, and was full of surprises; I was told that my fingerprints were found on weapons they found in my house!! They forced me to confess that Dr. Ali Al-Ekri hid a number of weapons in the hospital, they asked me about the number, I said: I do not know, one shouted at me: hay come on say it bullock, I said: five pieces, he shouted again: What five only?!!, I said: is twenty a good number?!!  He said: yes, yes good. I was also forced to say that Al-Ekri smuggled weapons to the Roundabout with the help of Sayed Marhoon, Head of Paramedics, the latter was located in the next room, and I had to echo all that, so that they heard my confession, because he apparently refused to confess against anyone".

The night before the investigation, they took my brother Gassan, and then I heard them saying: "Take him to the Dry Dock." I did not know what that meant, I asked and they said that it is a prison, I was taken that night by a civilian car, and for the first time in 21 days, I breathed a clean air, weather was cold, and I felt that the breeze flew inside my dim spirit and illuminated it, however, that light stayed only for a short period.

I was promised to get a comfortable bed and good food as per the delusive Officer Mubarak bin Howail if I confess and mentioned everything, for a moment I believed him, I thought I would be really in a better place, perhaps desperation led me to believe someone like him. I thought then that torture would certainly be reduced. But we were kept in place with no bed, and torture sessions were just like food meals. I will though never forget one Asian guard who kicked me in my chest with his military boots.  For the duration of torture, I did not come across a similar pain. We continued repeating was called royal anthem each morning “Long live Bo Salman (the king), and the people want Khalifa bin Salman (the prime minister)!”

The plastic bond on my wrist was so tight, it hurt me a lot, but for some unknown reason it began to disintegrate slowly, the guards kept watching, one of them observed that the bond had unscrewed, he came quickly and fastened it tightly, which had caused me added pain, I was whispering to myself, "Oh God, show me your miracles ". The bond had loosen again, I did not move my hands, kept them rested to avoid the guards seeing them, but it seemed that I suddenly felt asleep and my hands slid, the guard came again, hit me this time, and tightened them harshly, I begged him with all languages I knew to stop.

One of the guards came at night, he ordered me to follow him, I walked into a corridor, it was not a long walk until a voice in a surprise came through, saying: You are Bassem! I said: Yes, he said: You bullock, what have you done, why?! I could not recognize him, did not seem to me that I knew him, he continued: “You know I was one of your patients; I had a knee operation done by you!!” It was not the first incident whereby I discovered that some of those torturers were at once my patients, I alleviated their pains one day, yet they dig my wounds today. He asked me: What do you want now? I said: I want to sleep. He called the guard ordered him to provide a bed for me, and I told him about the pain of the handcuff, he kept it but moved my hands to the front, I further complained to him about the torture and beating, he replied: Oh even here they beat?!

Finally they brought the bed, I went into a deep sleep. A few hours then I woke up hearing an Asian guard saying: oh a handcuff in the front, that is a special treatment!, He told me to do exercises, I stood and sat, it was however a kind of a soft torture. The guards were replaced by others, one of them said: “That’s enough, no bedding and the handcuff has to be tighten with your hands at the back…”

The jail cells are all bustling with torture.  "I heard a man's voice, what scared me while hearing him is not the torture they did on him, but the word ‘Thanks God’ who kept repeating it with each whip lashing his body, later I knew that he was Martyr Zakaria Al-Asherri. I was also hearing the voices of my brother Gassan and Dr Abdul Khaliq Al-Oraibi who two were repeating “people want Khalifa bin Salman”. But the worst of what happened was torturing a man among us, in the same cell, with his legs tied, hooded, handcuffed, and a bridle was in his mouth, I knew that from an Asian criminal prisoner who used to bring our breakfast. That person was martyr Ali Saqer, I knew his name only two weeks or maybe ten days after his death, he was my cell-mate in the Dry Dock prison for only two days before his voice disappeared forever.

Saqr kept asking to go to the toilet, yet they did not allow him, his legs were tied with a plastic bond, and he was handcuffed, and whenever they brought him back after a torture session he threw himself on me, I did not see him, but I felt his body, he slumbered in my lap, and asked me to untie him. I was totally helpless. On that day, Saqr’s voice stopped and there was a silence in that cold cell. They took me to an unknown place, beat me, and asked me if I saw anything. I said “I did not see anything”. In fact I did not lie because I was blindfolded. The guard continued to repeat the same question, and then I was given a piece of paper and asked to sign and thumbprint it, without seeing what was on that paper!

Dhaif continued: I spent twenty three days at the Criminal Investigation Department Building, but what I experienced at the Dry Dock Prison was an unbearable death. Martyr Saqer received the biggest share of torture compared to what we got, I learned after a while that two had died in the jail, Saqr and Al-Ashairi who was praising God gratefully for his agony in a rare situation, I did not know them, not even by name, I only knew one thing at the time, that their deaths was a mercy on all of us, the day they died torture was stopped at the Dry Dock prison and after their martyrdom; handcuffs were unscrewed, blindfolds were taken off  from our eyes, and they brought us beds and allowed us to sit for an extended period for the first time since 26 days.

 

Footnote:

1. Dr Bassem Dhaif: a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and a Fellow of the Royal College of

Surgeons in orthopedics, a consultant and a orthopedic surgeon at the Salmaniya Medical Complex in Bahrain. 

He is also:

• Associate Professor at the Faculty of Medicine at the University of the Arabian Gulf.

• Former President of the Department of Orthopedic Surgery.

• Former President of Bahrain Society of Orthopedic Surgery

• Former president of the Bahrain Sports Medicine Association.

Bassem did thousands of surgeries during his career, including surgery for many of the players of the various national sports teams, including football players, basketball players, volleyball players and others.

Bassem is 48 years old, married with 4 children; the eldest is 19 and the youngest is 11.