The Acting Attorney General, Head of the Special Investigation Unit, Mr. Mohammed Khaled Al-Hazzaa, stated that during the last third of last year, the Unit had received 16 complaints, in which allegations varied between torture and ill-treatment by members of the Public Security Forces, and the Unit had begun its investigative procedures into all those complaints.
Regarding the statistics of the Unit’s work during the period, the Unit heard the statements of 25 complainants and witnesses, while it interrogated 41 accused and suspects from members of the Public Security Forces and referred 8 of the complainants to the Forensic Medicine and Psychological Support Division.
Regarding what the Unit accomplished during the same period; the Unit completed its investigations into an incident where a child was subjected to abuse by a worker at the social care complex. It ordered that the accused be brought into custody to the Minor Criminal Court, which ruled on 11/10/2023 to detain him for ten days with effect.
In the same context, the Unit completed its investigation into one of the complaints and referred a member of the Public Security Forces to the Military Courts Administration at the Ministry of Interior to take appropriate legal measures against him. Proving that he committed a legal error while performing his job duties constitutes a form of ill-treatment that requires disciplinary accountability.
Within the framework of the Unit’s constant keenness to adhere to international human rights standards and its interest in training; In cooperation with the United Nations Development Program and the Human Rights Affairs Sector of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, it organized a workshop entitled “International Human Rights Procedures and Mechanisms,” in which about 70 international experts, officials and members of relevant national agencies and civil society organizations participated.
Whereas the five workshop sessions over 2 days 13-14 November covered several specialized topics, the most prominent of which were international conventions related to human rights and the obligations of states towards them, and United Nations mechanisms concerned with human rights.
On a related level, the unit was organized in cooperation with the General Secretariat of the Shura Council and the General Secretariat of the House of Representatives. Two introductory seminars on the Special Investigation Unit and the role it plays as an independent judicial body in protecting human rights in the criminal justice system, the international standards followed in its work, and the results of its work of continuing to reduce the crime rates it specializes in year after year.
