Report from #EUArms project shows despite laws prohibiting export of weapons to countries guilty of human rights abuses, Italian govt continued to allow sale of shotgun parts to #Bahrain used to lethally suppress protestors @LHreports @bellingcat 📽️: 👇/1
The law states a clear prohibition of exports of military goods to countries "whose governments are responsible of serious violations of international conventions on human rights verified by competent organisations of the UN or EU Council". /2
We analysed hours of footage of the 2015 protests in #Bahrain to identify where the violations were taking place, when it happened, who was doing it, and what weapons they used. /3
During the protests, we were able to find volumes of open-source evidence, namely on @YouTube, of the Benelli M4 shotgun being used against protestors. For instance, in this video you can see a member of the riot police using an M4 Benelli with live rounds against protestors. /4
We know this is a M4 Benelli (Super 90 semi-auto) by looking at clues in the video, such as the M4's rate of fire & its features. We also know this weapon is firing live ammunition & not protest rounds because of the colour of the shells we cross-referenced with other images. /5
We also know that this video happened in the city of Sitra, Bahrain on March 13, 2015, through #geolocation and #chronolocation. h/t to @Sector035 for the assistance with the shadow calculation and keeping the open source crowdsource community strong 💪 @bellingcat /6
In another video we found further evidence of the excessive use of force where a police officer shot a man in close range with a Benelli M4 shotgun. #ItalianArms #EUArms @LHreports /7
We found reports from #Bahrain internal investigations unit (on @instagram) that the officer that fired the shotgun was charged. It confirms that officer was a member of the brigade that were armed with Benelli M4 weapons. #EUArms #ItalianArms /8
Art 2(2)(a) of The EU Common Position on Arms Export Controls provides: Member states should "deny an export licence if there is a clear risk that the military technology or equipment to be exported might
be used for internal repression" eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/Lex…. #EUArms /9
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