The death in custody of a Bahraini man whom the government accused of spying for Iran has sparked outrage after his body was returned to his family with injuries suggesting he was tortured, according to three people who said they viewed it.
The case emerged as the war with Iran threatened to reignite unrest in Bahrain, a close U.S. ally, where domestic tensions have simmered since the government violently crushed a pro-democracy uprising more than a decade ago.
Sayed Mohammed al-Mousawi, 32, disappeared on March 19, according to a relative, who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of government retribution.
The family spent a week searching for him, the relative said, before learning that he had died and that his body was being held in the morgue of a military hospital.
Mr. al-Mousawi was covered in copious bruises, burns and cuts, “from his neck to his toes,” said the relative, who saw the body while it was being prepared for burial.
Two Bahraini human rights activists who also viewed Mr. al-Mousawi’s body shared similar descriptions with The New York Times. Nabeel Rajab said he attended Mr. al-Mousawi’s funeral, while Naji Fateel said he had seen the body at the morgue.
“It was a painful and horrific sight, one that is difficult to forget,” said Mr. Fateel, a former political prisoner in Bahrain.
When asked for comment, Bahrain’s government pointed to a statement that the interior ministry issued on March 27.
That statement, released after images of Mr. al-Mousawi’s disfigured body had spread widely on social media, did not explain when he died but said that the images were “inaccurate and misleading.”
It said that a Special Investigation Unit was examining Mr. al-Mousawi’s case to determine “the circumstances of the injuries and the cause of death.”
On April 5, the unit said in a statement on social media that its investigation continued and that it was working “to hold accountable everyone who is proven to have been involved in the incident.”
Since the U.S.-Israeli assault on Iran began on Feb. 28, Bahrain has faced hundreds of Iranian missile and drone attacks, which have killed at least two civilians and damaged an oil refinery and a desalination plant.
The authorities have detained dozens of people, accusing them of passing information to Iran, expressing sympathy with the government there, or of filming the attacks or “glorifying” them, according to statements published by Bahrain’s state news agency.
The country has long accused Iran of meddling in its internal affairs and stirring up dissent. The majority of Bahrainis, like Mr. al-Mousawi, are Twelver Shiite, members of a branch of Islam that is also Iran’s state religion. Many Bahraini Shiites complain of systematic discrimination against them by their own country’s ruling royal family — which is Sunni, aligned to the other major branch of Islam.
Those tensions were, in part, what sparked the country’s aborted Arab Spring revolution in 2011.
During that uprising, Mr. al-Mousawi was convicted of belonging to a “terrorist cell,” and he spent more than a decade in prison before being released by royal pardon, his relative said.
The circumstances of his earlier case remain unclear. Bahrain’s uprising involved protests that devolved into violence at times, as people clashed with police officers in riot gear. However, it is also relatively common in the authoritarian Gulf nations for anti-government activism or nonviolent dissent to be labeled terrorism.
Mr. al-Mousawi’s family believes the charges against him in that case were fabricated because he had participated in the 2011 demonstrations, the relative said.
Mr. Fateel, 51, recalled meeting Mr. al-Mousawi behind bars in 2013 — after he himself had been convicted of attempting to overthrow the government — and described him as a “quiet and kind man.” Both were released in 2024 as part of a royal pardon that freed more than 1,500 prisoners, and Mr. al-Mousawi went on to open a men’s salon and get married, his relative said.
Mr. al-Mousawi was not named in any of the government’s recent arrest announcements. When he went missing, his father reported his disappearance to the police, but was told that he was not in their custody, the relative said.
It was only after news of Mr. al-Mousawi’s death spread on social media that Bahrain’s interior ministry issued a statement saying that he had been detained as part of a case related to “espionage” on behalf of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. The statement accused him of transmitting information about “critical locations in the country for targeting.”
Mr. al-Mousawi’s relative said that his family believes those charges were fabricated after he died in custody, to provide a justification for his death.
A death certificate issued by the Bahraini Health Ministry listed his cause of death as “acute coronary syndrome,” a term that encompasses heart attacks and similar events.
The certificate was shared with The Times by a Bahraini human rights activist who lives in exile, Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei, and was verified by the relative.
Last week, the United Nations Human Rights office called for a “prompt and independent investigation” into Mr. al-Mousawi’s case.
For many Bahrainis, the story has been a painful and frightening reminder of the crackdown that followed the 2011 uprising, Mr. Fateel said. An investigation ordered by the king found that Bahraini security forces had used excessive force, including torture and the extraction of forced confessions, against detainees.
Mr. Rajab, one of the human rights activists, said the images of Mr. al-Mousawi’s injuries circulating on social media had reminded Bahrainis of what happened in 2011.
“His family and the community have the right to know the truth,” Mr. Rajab added. “People are already worried about the war, and this human rights violation only exacerbates their anxiety.”
Vivian Nereim is the lead reporter for The Times covering the countries of the Arabian Peninsula. She is based in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
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