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Bahrain: 2 Face Execution despite Torture Accusations

Bahrain: 2 Face Execution despite Torture Accusations
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Two Bahrainis appear to be at imminent risk of execution despite the authorities' failure to properly investigate their allegations of torture, Human Rights Watch said Monday. Both Mohamed Ramadan and Husain Ali Moosa disavowed confessions that they stressed were the result of torture and that were used as evidence in a trial that violated international due process standards.

Bahrain: 2 Face Execution despite Torture Accusations

The January 15, 2017 executions of three other Bahrainis in a similar case raised concerns that King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa will approve the executions of Ramadan and Moosa, who face the death penalty for a February 2014 bombing that resulted in the death of a policeman.

Human Rights Watch analysis of their trial and appeal judgments found that their convictions were based almost exclusively on their confessions, which both men retracted.

"Bahrain should not under any circumstances execute two more young men, especially where there is credible evidence of confessions obtained through torture and unsound convictions," said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch.

On December 29, 2014, Bahrain's fourth superior criminal court convicted Ramadan and Moosa of the premeditated murder of `Abd al-Wahid Sayyid Muhammad Faqir, a policeman who died from injuries caused by an improvised explosive device in Muharraq on February 14, 2014. The court convicted 10 other Bahrainis of involvement in the bombing and sentenced them to between six years and life in prison.

Ramadan and Moosa's lawyer, Mohamed al-Tajer, told Human Rights Watch that he was unable to speak with his clients during pretrial detention. The first time he was able to speak with them was on the first day of their trial on July 24, 2014, he said.

An examination of the trial record indicates that the key evidence used to convict Ramadan and Moosa was their confessions, which their lawyer argued in court should have been inadmissible because the court did not thoroughly investigate the men's torture allegations. The trial court dismissed this argument, stating that "the defendant's [Moosa's] confession is overall consistent, which confirms and proves that his confession is consistent with the truth and facts of the case."

On April 11, 2016, Tobias Ellwood, UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office minister for the Middle East and Africa, wrote in response to a question by UK Member of Parliament Tom Brake about Ramadan's alleged torture that UK embassy officials had been in contact with Bahrain's Interior Ministry ombudsman over the case, adding that the ombudsman's office had said that, "whilst there have been a number of complaints raised with his office in the case of Mr. Ramadan, there have been no allegations of mistreatment or torture."

On July 14, 2016, Ellwood acknowledged in a letter to Reprieve that this was incorrect and that there had been "some confusion over the nature of the complaints made to the Ombudsman."

"Investigations into torture should be conducted before trials not after them," Joe Stork said. "Similarly, the UK, France, Germany, and the EU should publicly condemn this unfair trial and oppose these sentences before Bahrain assembles its firing squad."

Source: Human Rights Watch, Edited by website team

 

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