Sir, – Irish-trained surgeons Ali Alekri and Ghassan Dhaif were recently arrested in a pre-dawn raids, their houses was ransacked, their families terrorised. Following their first arrest they were violently tortured over a four- month period. International human rights organisations, including Amnesty International, Human Rights First, Human Rights Watch, Frontline Defenders and Physicians for Human Rights, have all called upon the Bahraini authorities and king to overturn the sentences and release all six medics so treated last week. The six Bahraini medics, some fellows of the RCSI, have now gone on hunger strike to protest their innocence and mistreatment.
Meanwhile, the government- controlled Bahraini Medical Society has announced that it will be taking disciplinary action against all medics arrested in 2011, including those acquitted, probably removing their right to practice.
Never before has the world witnessed such a vindictive pogrom against medical personnel, their families and their careers.
Unfortunately and again those who hold leadership roles in Irish medical organisations and colleges have failed to respond publicly to these historic events. As Desmond Tutu remarked, those who remain neutral in situations of injustice have taken the side of the oppressor. – Yours, etc,