"Bahrain Mirror (Exclusive): I swear by Apollo the Physician and by Asclepius and by Health and Panacea and by all the gods as well as goddesses, making them judges [witnesses] to bring the following oath and written covenant to fulfillment, in accordance with my power and my judgment; to regard him who has taught me this techne as equal to my parents, and to share, in partnership, my livelihood with him and to give him a share when he is in need of necessities, and to judge the offspring [coming] from him equal to [my] male siblings, and to teach them this techne, should they desire to learn [it], without fee and written covenant, and to give a share both of rules and of lectures, and of all the rest of learning, to my sons and to the [sons] of him who has taught me and to the pupils who have both make a written contract and sworn by a medical convention but by no other. And I will use regimens for the benefit of the ill in accordance with my ability and my judgment, but from [what is] to their harm or injustice I will keep [them]. And I will not give a drug that is deadly to anyone if asked [for it], nor will I suggest the way to such a counsel. And likewise I will not give a woman a destructive pessary"

A doctor only gets into the profession with the above Hippocratic Oath. The doctor becomes accountable as far as this oath is voided of its content, and would be rewarded as much as it is alive full of it. A doctor's job and responsibility is to give people life and hope, and spare them, as far as possible, death and pain.

"This oath was our choice, while others decided to choose something else” Bassem Dhaif (1)

It took weeks of storytelling with Bassim, meetings were sometimes continued for more than three hours, evoking experience of pain was not easy at all, therefore we will not restore the order of events, rather leave them as they are in his memory, scattered, confused, concerned, and sometimes fatal, nonetheless events never come out the essence of the Hippocratic Oath.

The whole world is with you …

They started calling our names, we discovered later that was to divide us into two groups, misdemeanors and felonies, they called on our group, the door opened, and in front of a huge hall, we stood stunned, walked along its length, the attendance was a mix of men and women, the judge, and the military police, and there were stunned faces while their breath seemed loud among the silence of the place, very loud, I stared into the faces, yes, here I discovered one of them, my daughter Zainab, the first beloved face my eyes captured, smiled cautiously, I shook my head, I wanted to tell her that I am your father himself and had not changed, and I was fine, just fine.

The Judge counted the names; eyes were still searching among the present faces looking for their loved ones. The judge ended the hearing session, the defendants did not realise the reasons of their presence neither their lawyers did; they were taken out again after the hearing session and left under the hot sun. It was approaching the mid-day. One of the military policemen told them that they had visits. It was the first time that they met their families after months of detention.

Everyone was drowned in tears at the first meeting, I even saw some lawyers crying. I was sitting in a chair in the first row, I saw my father running while entering the hall, I went to him, and fell on his feet, cried as I never had in my life ever. I wanted to kiss my wife's hand and forehead, but she stopped me, she said I want you to be strong, you are all innocent, lift up your heads. From far, my lawyer Jalila Al-Sayed came, she was crying, and behind her was lawyer Reem Khalaf; I knew her name later, among the present were representatives from US Embassy and Deputy U.S. Secretary of State for Middle Eastern Affairs Michael Posner and representatives of the so-called the Doctors Society.

While heading towards outside, I pointed out with my fist; and said loudly to all: I have served my country for 25-years, and I will serve it for the rest of my life. That was in front of distraught officers and military. The interview did not exceed more than 7 minutes, but left a noticeable strength inside me to endure what I went through and what would be coming. My father's word remained echoing in my mind: “The whole world is with you, my son, never get worried or upset.”

The Mercy of Quran …

In one morning, we were called to another ward, only my brother Gassan and me. We entered to an officer's office; we knew later that his name was Ibrahim Ghaith the General Inspector of Prisons, asked for our specialties and our workplace and he treated us well, he also inquired whether we were suffering from any pain, he called one of the officers, and ordered him to take me to the clinic, and to do the necessary medical tests, and physical therapy (until the release of us,  none of the tests were conducted), only I had physiotherapy a month and a half after that, when I repeated my request again and again.

Ghaith visited us later, specifically after the release of misdemeanor detainees, he asked if we wanted anything, we asked for some books and other things, he replied that these were not allowed, but later he allowed us to have two medical books, we refused, we wanted something we chose and according to our desire, and to be non-work related.

In June, Quran copies were distributed, after more than three months of our detention, those were one of influential moments, holding of a copy of Holy Quran, kissed it and started crying. Distributing the copies of Quran was of a mercy to us and on us. Quran changed very much our psychological status, I felt then that I had a gem in my hands, it was an opportunity to start finishing reading the whole Quran, given the enough spare time we had, time was indeed sufficient for more than that, for that one of our fellow detainee - Jassem - volunteered to give us lessons in intonation, Dr. Mahmoud Asgar and medic Amin Al-Aswad and I joined the program and others were involved but irregularly.

I never thought that I could intonate Quran, especially in jail. The situation changed since we were in ward No. 5, when Jassem was teaching some detainees intonation rules, I was screaming at them and repeated desperately: “You are so shallow, we are confined in this horrible prison, our morale is low, and intonation is very difficult.” However, all of that changed, we learned intonation, for two hours over six days a week except Friday when we spent the time in worshipping, praying and reading Quran.

After learning the basic principles of Quran intonation, Jassem decided to do an exam for us. It had two parts: theoretical and practical, Dr. Mahmoud Asqar who had a melodious voice and recited wonderfully deserved the first place, and Al-Aswad and I both shared the second place. The theoretical test was conducted on a piece of paper of a soap box, and we were able through an Asian criminal detainee to smuggle a small pencil. Jassem issued us certificates of performance in Quran intonation - he again used the paper of soap boxes for the certificates.

Circumventing the spare time …

The longer you stay in a place you start to adapt it and come up with ways to overcome its difficulties. "The dinner meals were distributed in boxes made of white cork material. Nabeel Hameed and Amin Al-Aswad decided to keep those boxes. Hameed decided later to exploit them to make pieces of dominoes; this was a motivation to search for what made the idea possible. One day while we were walking; they coincidently found a nail, they decided to keep it to use it for cutting the cork boxes, and the same nail was used to carve Domino's points by pressing. Later those holes were filled with colored toothpaste, and when we got a colored pen in ward 6, Dr. Nabeel used it to fix the signs.

They also made a chess game out of the same tools, and we reserved all what we found to publicly use it later. One time we found a thread, a detainee used it to clean the excess hair from his friends’ faces.

As time passed; our relationship became good with the guards, and although we did not know their names, it was a funny idea to give names to one each of them; we called one of them a "rooster" because his hair was long like a rooster comb, and another one was "Sinan" because his front long teeth were similar to a famous cartoon character named Sinan, whereas another one we named "Speed" because he used to repeat the word "speed" whenever we went to the bathroom.

I have not lost my patients' trust …

The worst contradictions of that stage was that the jailer sought the help of a doctor who was behind the bars, whereas he accused him of betraying the honour of his profession "One of the officers came to me one day saying that he had a problem in his shoulder and asked me to examine him, I told him that he did not need a surgical intervention. Another day, I was called by another policeman saying to me that he wanted me for an important matter during the break. I saw him then limping, he took me to an adjacent room and told me that he had fallen while at home, and that his knee was swollen. He asked me if I wouldn't mind examining him, I said: absolutely not. I took off his boots, and I examined his leg, and prescribed to him the suitable medicine, he came after three days, thanked me strongly, and told me that the medicine I had prescribed to him had a magic effect. The policeman in charge of the phone also described to me his wife's condition, and I prescribed him a treatment, I felt while I examined them that I did not lose my patients' trust at any time in spite of all the rumours and false accusations.

The collapse!

With the release of medical staff detainees of misdemeanor cases, the situation in Ward No. 6 deteriorated and became more complicated.

The doors of the cells were opened one afternoon, one of the officers entered, called for: Nabeel Hameed, Amin Al-Aswad and others. He asked them to take all their belongings with and said: “Release.” We felt elated for them, but felt sorry for ourselves. At night the rest stood praying. Among us was a person named Zuhair, the secretary of the Doctors Society, his cry was heartbreaking; and that cry resulted in a response, suddenly the door was opened, a guard entered, called Zuhair and asked him to carry his things with him. That was extremely an influential situation for all of us.

Dhaif said: "That night, and the night followed, were the most difficult thing we faced, my brother Gassan collapsed, I knew it through the opening in the door.  I saw the guards taking out my brother unconscious, I started to strike the door firmly, screamed to open the door, from the small window they asked me: What do you want? I said: my brother is tired, I want to go to him, they did not allow me to do that, yet they let me talk to him through the small window, I asked him to be patient and soon things would be. The release of a number of the medics who were detained with him in the same cell was a major cause for that collapse. After a day or two, when the General Inspector visited us, we requested to know our charges. He turned to my brother Gassan and told him: you don't look fine; are you sick? Tired? After Gassan's reply, I intervened and I said: my brother is psychologically tired and we are separated in two different cells, I want him to come over with me, or I go to him. The Inspector said: Is this what you want? I said: Yes; he replied: “We'll see.”

Will bring your brother …

On the same day, the officer came, I heard a noise, I looked through the window, I saw the guards opening the door of my brother's cell, they asked him to carry his belongings, and then they opened the door of my cell, the officer told me: Come on, take your belongings, will take you to Al Qureen. I did not know what that supposed to be, he continued: "a military prison". My heart was almost broken when I heard his laugh saying: “No, you brother will be with you in the same cell.”

With Gassan joining his brother, the memories pumped again into Bassim's spirit. Fate always reunited them: the same room, the same school, the same university (King Saud University in Riyadh), the same workplace (Salmaniya Hospital), they completed their study and training at the same city (Dublin), lived in the same apartment, and when their wives joined them, they moved to different apartments, yet in the same building. They became consultants in the same period. They opened their clinics in the same medical complex, and at the same time, bought a real estate at the same area, later they became neighbors with only a wall separating them, "Oh God, years passed quickly, and then we were arrested on the same day, tortured in the same way, and abused physically and psychologically in the same way. The memories took me even to the spiritual pilgrimage trip we went together, to some of the holy places, thus it was so painful separating us" Dhaif said.

With the collapse in Gassan's health, psychologically and physically, my friends in the cell noticed that Bassem shared his brother’s deterioration too, but he was not showing it off, muted pain considering his brother's condition, showed his brother a fake power, but while being alone, especially in thetoilet, he broke down and cried. He said: "It was painful, it was just painful."

A get-together across narrow eyelets…

In the second week of June, was the date of the first family visit "we were taken to the Criminal Investigation Department, inside small cabinets, I sat on the only available chair, in front of me was a plastic sheet, had about six or seven holes in the middle, each hole was of less than 1cm in diameter, and the sheet was covered with a steel net from the outside. I sat with anticipation; I did not meet my children before except Zainab whom I saw at the Military Court. The door suddenly opened, my daughter Israa, screamed: Dad, and rushed towards me, then surprisingly petrified after realizing the existence of the barrier. My younger son Mahmoud followed her, the trauma was repeated. That meeting was painful. I could not touch or hug them; I could barely touch their small fingertips through the eyelets.

The visit was limited to three members of the family; that was not enough for my mother to join. During that visit, which lasted for only 15 minutes, my son Mahmoud continued innocently talking about the tennis game that he liked. I promised to take him to the tennis tournament in the United States once I was out of the prison and the travel ban was over. That's why we will travel soon to fulfill my promise (during this writing; Bassim has flown with his two sons, Ahmed and Mahmoud to the United States to fulfill his promise). As for Israa, she remained firm in front of her father as per mother's words and advice, but once she got out she cried, "I did not hug or even touch my father" she said. Ahmed is 17-year-old, he refused to go to visit his father at that time: "I am keeping a wonderful picture of my dad, a powerful, a solemn, thus I do not want to see him weak in prison", he said that to his mother.

Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI)…

The traded news about the BICI and the debate about it were the same i.e. outside the prison and inside it. Some people said it was a commission to cover the crimes, and others were optimistic towards it, "the first person who visited us from the commission was the Judge Khalid Mohiuddin.

Our cell was the first to be visited. He greeted us and called me and my brother Gassan, sat with us, he asked to talk about everything we went through, we talked about several things, detention and torture, verbal and physical abuse, we did not touch on the charges and criminal cases against us; the visits of the Commission were repeated, and  a good relationship was built between us , they always implanted hope, and affirmed to us that we would be soon released, one of the committee's members gave me his mobile one day and said: Call your family and talk to them".

With the repeated visits of the Commission, the condition in jail improved, the relationship between the jailers and the detainees got better, and some other things were positively changed as well, calling our families over the phone changed to be on a daily basis, for a period of 5-7 minutes, later the visits were extended from twenty minutes to half an hour, then to an hour or more in the last weeks of our detention, and the number of visits were increased from one to two visits per week.

Bassiouni: You're lucky sitting with us!

"It was a special day in jail when Mr Bassiouni visited us" Bassem commented. He continued: "He came to us with a large gathering of officers, who took us to another cell with chairs and TV. Mr Bassiouni sat with us, I can only say that he was a good listener, encouraged us to talk freely, but knowing about his visit beforehand, I personally wrote a letter to him, I told him during the meeting that he was lucky, he looked in amazement at me, I repeated it and told him that he was lucky because of meeting us, so were we as lucky meeting him. "Maybe you headed several commissions and complex cases before , in Libya and Yugoslavia and other countries, and we know that you are a professor in the most modern centres in Chicago, but you are still lucky sitting with us today, as it did not happen in the history of mankind that a head of state or a governor arrested professional doctors and consultants only because they treated injured during incidents , as never in the history of mankind that such consultants and surgeons be exposed to the worst kind of torture and verbal and physical abuse and fabrication of all those lies.” Bassiouni was looking at me and listened attentively.

I told Bassiouni that he held a huge and historic responsibility, he replied: My son, you have just now obliged me with a great responsibility. I told him: “You have only two ways; either to stand with justice and enter the history or to stand with injustice and enter the history yet via a different door and route, and the history will then indicate that you stood in the dark place of it. The choice is yours.”

A number of medical staff also spoke, they described the horror of physical abuse they faced, and methods of torture they suffered, and there were things that aroused very much, when one of the doctors told him how he was forced to eat feces, Mr Bissiouni was clearly influenced by that incident, and said: “Whatever people reach of harsh treatment to others, it cannot reach to this stage of decadence.” He asked that day to talk in details about any verbal abuse we were exposed to, especially those related to belief, such as: Oh children of fun, you Shiites are defiled, you are Safavids, infringement on (Shiites) Imams, no one of us needed to look back at the memory to be sure, and they were generous enough to exaggerate in insulting us.

Bassiouni hugs the doctors …

Before he left, Bassiouni hugged the doctors. That was very emotional, Dr. Nader Diwani cried while hugging him, that influenced him deeply, he in fact mentioned that in one of his interviews. At the end of the visit of Mr. Bassiouni, things inside the prison had changed for better, they allowed the detainees to sit in the same room that they were interviewed by Bissiouni, they were watching TV twice, in the morning and evening, later the cells were opened to each other, at the beginning of the month of Ramadan the cells were opened continuously from 11am until 3am, while still allowing them to call their families daily for 5-7 minutes, some guards were cooperating more by allowing them to call more than once, and to use public phone as well, sometimes detainees did not have more to say in those calls.

Opening the cells to each other reflected positively on the psyches of the detainees. Dhaif said: "We met with each other, talked to them, consulted, and listened to the way they were arrested and the tortured they were exposed to. I was lucky to have many well-known families from the ancient Manama, like Ben Rajab, Al-Alawi, Al-Mukhriq, Al-Arayyed, Al-Hamad, Al-Saffar, Al-Qassab, and others. It is difficult to mention all of them. Because I grew up in Manama and had lots of friends who belong to the same families; that was by itself enough to bring me back to the city of my childhood. Among my valued detainees was  Sayed Alawi Abu Ghayeb, who was always amazing us with his composed moaning poems which he delivers in a distinctive way, and I learned a lot from him about the history of the families of ancient Manama, as I learned from him different phases of delivering the Husseini (related to Imam Hussian – the grandson of profit Mohamed) poems, he was delivering verses of Hussieini poems with special rhythm, for that "Mulla Ataya Al Jamiri" (one of famous Bahraini bard) book was the first one I asked my wife to bring after the prison allowed reading.”

Ramadan brings us together …

With the approach of Ramadan, the detainees behind the bars were hoping to be released, the first days of the holy month appeared heavy and painful, "My wife insisted to bring food every day, on the other side the prison's administration insisted not to allow this, but my family compensated by bringing the food during their visits, that took me to the family environment which I missed. My parents, my brothers, my uncles and my cousins all were visiting me. We celebrated the birthday of my son Mahmood, which coincided on a day of Ramadan, that night they brought cakes, and we celebrated together and sang. My son was very excited, that event took me back to the family environment too.

A word for brigadier general – the human…

I wouldn't overlook a word of thanks and appreciation to the Brigadier General Yousif Buallay. He was very helpful with us, didn’t spare any efforts to provide many things, including visits' times and duration, allowing us to call our families at times not allocated to us, he used to visit us asking how we were doing, he even once visited us in the time of the scheduled visit, and sat with my family who welcomed him. My father offered him food, and he ate with us, and returned after an hour or two and asked if we needed extra time. Once he asked me to accompany him to the Ward, we walked together without feeling a barrier between us; he as the Brigadier General and I as the prisoner, and when we arrived in the ward he asked me if what I was carrying was food, and I said yes, he then told the guards: “The doctor has food thus no need to inspect him” and asked me if I wanted to contact my family. He allowed me to talk with them for 15minutes. After our release, my brother, I, and our wives made a visit to him in his office at the Ministry of Interior and thanked him for all what he had done.

• Link to part One
• Link to part Two
• Link to the Arabic copy