Sir, – I must respond to the claims of Prof Damian McCormack, paediatric surgeon at the Children’s University Hospital, Dublin (September 6th), concerning the allegations of the killing of a 14-year-old boy by the Bahrain police.
He alleges that the boy was killed by a bomb thrown by the police. However, the autopsy, performed in the presence of members of the Independent International Inquiry Commission established through the office of the UN Commissioner for Human rights, clearly shows that the injuries do not match any form of explosive or tear-gas device. There is still some evidence of criminal involvement in the death, but Prof McCormack, as a researcher and university professor, should wait for the official results of the autopsy before publishing statements which seem to me to be designed only to defame the Bahrain government. – Yours, etc,