Sunday 30 May 2010

Il Accuse! -- Former TIBC CEO Flees Bahrain

 Copyright Allied Artists

As reported in the Torygraph, Glenn Stewart has managed to escape from the apparently intolerable conditions he was being held under in Bahrain.  And has filed a formal charge with the International Court of Human Rights for false imprisonment designed to "deliberately inflict mental cruelty and torture". 

You'll recall (if you force yourself to think some rather unpleasant thoughts) that instead of being incarcerated in one of Bahrain's jails (by all means the sort of thing one should definitely avoid),  he was forbidden to leave the island while investigations into the collapse of TIBC were ongoing.  A sort of a modified house arrest with Bahrain as the house.  I guess the nearest comparative would be the French penal colony known as "Devil's Island" for more than one reason.

As he aptly put it, having escaped from these conditions of inhumane treatment, he is akin to a runaway slave.

If that weren't disturbing enough, from the article it's hard to avoid drawing the conclusion that the parties the Bahraini authorities have detained in connection with the collapses of TIBC and Awal believe they are victims of an unjustified conspiracy against them involving the Bahraini authorities, Ernst and Young, and Hibis and perhaps others.   The Bahraini Authorities would seem to include at a minimum, the Central Bank of Bahrain, the Attorney General of Bahrain and various investigative organs of the CID - though it is unclear whether other entities and individuals might be involved.  Nor how high up this goes!  I'd also hasten to add that it's unclear whether all these parties are alleged to have been active co-conspirators.  Or whether some of them may have been unwitting dupes.

According to direct quotes from Mr. Stewart it also seems this conspiracy has sinister undertones of persecution of "Westerners".

It's reports like this that make Abu Arqala wonder when justice will be done, if ever.
 
And finally a hat tip to Rupert Bumfrey, I would have missed this disturbing story if he had not reported it on his blog.  It doesn't seem to have been reported elsewhere yet. And that could, perhaps, be a chilling indication of the extent of this plot.  Or then again perhaps not.

2 comments:

Laocowboy2 said...

Lapse by authorities? or convenient departure of man with embarassing information?

Abu 'Arqala said...

Laocowboy2

I'm guessing lapse by authorities. All it would take is a weekend boating excursion.

As to embarrassing information, not sure why the authorities would care unless there are other parties involved than the ones mentioned in the press. And that these parties have some special significance in the Kingdom.

And if his departure were conveniently arranged by the authorities, one would have expected a quid pro quo in terms of silence.

Now, if the allegations regarding TIBC are true, then the party responsible for the mess at TIBC might have a motive for helping him escape.

Of course, the latter would be based on the assumption that he was guilty of something. We have I believe his word that he was not. So this is all rather perplexing, I suppose.