Information published by Bahrain’s official government news service appears to cast doubt on claims by the Fifa presidential candidate Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim al-Khalifa that he was not involved in taking action against athletes involved in pro-democracy demonstrations in 2011, the Guardian can reveal.
A document published in April 2011 and still available in Arabic on the Bahrain News Agency website outlines the creation of a special committee to identify athletes who took part in the demonstrations that it said would be headed by the Asian Football Confederation president. Sheikh Salman on Tuesday dismissed allegations against him of human rights abuses.
The communique announces that Sheikh Nasser Bin Hamad al-Khalifa, the son of the King and head of Bahrain’s Olympic Committee, is “to form an official investigation committee to look into violations committed by some of those who affiliate to the sport movement”.
“Sheikh Nasser Ben Hamad al-Khalifa, chairman of the Supreme Council for Youth and Sport, head of the Olympic Committee issued a decision to form an official investigation committee to look into violations committed by some of those who affiliate to the sport movement during the deplorable events witnessed by Kingdom of Bahrain recently,” it said.
“Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim al-Khalifa, General Secretary of Youth and Sport, will lead the investigation committee,” it adds, before going on to list the others on the so-called Commission of Inquiry.
At the time Sheikh Salman was general secretary of youth and sport and head of the Bahrain Football Association.
A statement on behalf of Sheikh Salman said: “The allegations are entirely false and categorically denied by Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa. While it was proposed that Sheikh Salman lead a fact-finding committee in relation to the events of 2011, that committee was never formally established and never conducted any business whatsoever. For the record, and in light of the recycling of historic allegations in the media, Sheikh Salman had absolutely no involvement in the identification, investigation,prosecution or mistreatment of any individuals as has been alleged.”
The Bahrain News Agency is the government’s official news service, which amalgamated with Bahrain’s Ministry of Information in 1985.
In 2013 Sheikh Salman was elected president of the Asian Football Confederation with the backing of the Fifa president, Sepp Blatter, and he is now standing to replace him at elections in February.
But the prospect has provoked an outpouring of concern from human rights groups and trade unions over his alleged links to the brutal crackdown in 2011, and concern over freedom of expression in the Gulf state.
The Guardian has seen a letter from the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy in which it, in 2014, called on Michael Garcia, then head of the investigatory unit of the Fifa ethics committee, to investigate Sheikh Salman’s alleged role in “systematically targeting and mistreating athletes who have taken part in anti-government protests”.
Associated Press reported in 2011 that more than 150 athletes, coaches and referees were jailed after a special committee, which it said was chaired by Sheikh Salman, who was then head of the Bahrain Football Association, identified them from photos of protests. BIRD claimed that in doing so he had broken Fifa’s Code of Ethics.
But Garcia, who in December 2014 resigned in protest at the treatment of his report into bidding for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, wrote back in January 2014 to say the claims made by BIRD were outside the investigatory chamber’s jurisdiction.
In addition to the 150 athletes, who included at least six international footballers, being targeted, six Shiite football clubs were fined $20,000 each and suspended from the domestic league. Those fines are also documented on the Bahrain News Agency website.
Sheikh Salman on Tuesday dismissed allegations against him of human rights abuses. “I cannot deny something that I haven’t done,” he told BBC Sport. “Such accusations are not just damaging, it’s really hurting. Some people have agenda on their table. It’s not just damaging me, it’s damaging the people and the country. These are false, nasty lies that have been repeated again and again in the past and the present.”
Sheikh Salman had also addressed the issue of the 2011 crackdown while standing for the presidency of the AFC, backed by Blatter and Platini, in 2013. He said then: “I would like to reiterate that in my capacity as the president of the Bahrain Football Association I have always been committed to manage, control and develop our game independently and autonomously without any kind of outside interference.
“I can assure anyone that the BFA is being guided according to the highest possible governance standards of integrity and transparency – fully in line with the AFC and Fifa statutes, and no action has been taken under my direction against any member of the football community.”