Bahraini shura human rights committee convenes

Shura Council's Human Rights Committee (HRC) today highlighted the importance of guaranteeing the accused's rights during the investigation stage through the consideration and protection of the basic human rights standards.This came as the HRC, under the chairmanship of Dr. Aisha Salem Mubarak, discussed the draft law on the amendment of some provisions of the Criminal Procedures Law issued by Decree Law No. 46 of 2002 and associated with Decree Law No. 124 of 2001, with respect to reducing the duration of the remand of the accused and giving him/ her the right to appeal.The parties discussed all proposed amendments compared with similar laws of the GCC countries, where they agreed to enter some amendments to some of the provisions to ensure the rights of the accused, including determining the timeframe for the extension of the detention of the accused, in line with the kind of offense (misdemeanor or felony), where the duration of six months for the former and 18 months for the latter, as well as determining filing an appeal for the Public Prosecutor, in case of there is a refusal to release the accused.The HRC will resume discussions in next meeting to prepare final decision prior to submitting it to the Shura Foreign Affairs, Defence and National Security Committee.