Former Met chief to overhaul Bahrain police service

FORMER Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner John Yates has been appointed to oversee reform of the police force in Bahrain.

He has been asked to overhaul the controversial service with John Timoney, a former head of the police service in Miami, to ensure its procedures meet international human rights standards, according to reports.

Yates resigned from his job at the Met in July amid questions over his links with an executive at Rupert Murdoch’s media empire in the phone hacking scandal, but was cleared of any misconduct by watchdog the Independent Police Complaints Commission.

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Bahrain announced last week that Timoney would lead a team of American and British advisers training the Gulf kingdom’s forces after criticism of the violent crackdown against pro-reform protesters. In a report by an independent panel appointed by King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa, Bahrain’s police were heavily criticised for using excessive force and torture to crack down on protesters.

After ten months of protests by the predominantly Shia Muslim demonstrators, demanding democracy from the Sunni monarchy, at least 35 people were left dead, including members of the security forces.

In addition at least 3,000 protesters were detained, with hundreds of them appearing before military courts

Yates said he would draw on experience in the Met and from working on community policing programmes with Jamaican police.

“Bahrain’s police have some big challenges ahead, not dissimilar to those the UK itself faced only a couple of decades ago, but I have been impressed that the King (Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa) is doing the right thing by pressing on with big reforms,” he said.

“This is a big challenge which I will undertake with a great reforming police officer like John Timoney.”

Yates added: “I look forward to speaking to Bahrain’s chief police officers, going out with them on the streets to see the challenges they face, seeing what structures they have in place and helping them to deal better with public order, arrest and detention issues.”

Bahrain has said it will comply with the findings of the earlier inquiry and plans to develop a code of conduct for police.

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It is under pressure from its ally the United States to improve its rights record in order to secure an arms sale.

Rights activists have said senior figures should be sacked over the abuses listed in the inquiry’s report, which appeared to be more hard-hitting than some in government had expected.

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