After a two year court battle, in October 2014 the UK’s Director of Public Prosecutions accepted that Bahraini Prince Nasser bin Hamad Al-Khalifa is not immune from prosecution. Lord Justice Laws and Mr Justice Cranston confirmed this decision at a divisional court hearing in London. This decision opens the door to an investigation by the Metropolitan Police War Crimes Team SO15 into allegations that the prince was involved in the torture of political prisoners, and a possible prosecution.

A Bahraini torture survivor, known only as FF brought the case to challenge the Director of Public Prosecution’s (DPP) decision of August 2012 that the prince has state immunity from prosecution. The case was due to be contested in court in October 2012 when the DPP decided to back down, and withdraw their decision that the prince was immune. ECCHR, which initially raised the torture allegations with David Cameron (then Prime Minister) and then Foreign Minister William Hague around the time of the 2012 Olympics was an interested party in the proceedings.

In February 2011, a pro-democracy movement in Bahrain rallied for more participation in the political process in Manama and other cities of Bahrain. The protests were brutally stopped by Bahraini security forces, but are nevertheless still on-going. On 15 March 2011, the King of Bahrain declared a state of emergency and a first wave of repressive actions by government’s forces took place.

At this time, two oppositional leaders of Bahrain, when detained in the Manama Fort prison clinic Al-Qala’a (seat of the Ministry of Interior), alleged being flogged, beaten and kicked by the son of the King, Nasser bin Hamad. Both opposition leaders were sentenced to longtime imprisonment. Amnesty International and other groups recognize them as prisoners of conscience. A national investigation team set up of international experts, the Bahraini Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI), published its report in November 2011, detailing torture allegations against government security personnel and recommending investigations

To date, an investigation of the aforementioned allegations of the two prisoners of conscience against Nasser bin Hamad have not been initiated or at least not been publically reported about. Meanwhile, Nasser bin Hamad travels frequently to the UK and a number of other European states, without facing investigations by local prosecution services.