Rights Groups to Britain’s Queen: Stop Supporting Hamad, Protest Bahraini Use of Torture, Executions

Local Editor

In a new show of refusal to Britain's support to Al Khalifa's repression against the civilians in Bahrain, the rights groups Reprieve, Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain, Index, ECDHR and Bahrain Institute for Rights & Democracy urged the United Kingdom's Queen to confront the King of Bahrain at the Windsor Horse Show over the "deterioration" of human rights in Bahrain.

In a letter to The Queen, the rights groups said: "King Hamad ... who sponsors four events in the show, is directly involved in the serious deterioration in the human rights situation in Bahrain that has taken place in the last year.

"Bahrain uses the prestige of the Royal Windsor Show to whitewash its human rights abuses, and the close relations they enjoy with the horse show and the royal family are a source of considerable reputational risk," they added.

A spokesperson for Reprieve said in a statement: "Make no mistake, visits like [the Windsor Horse Show] gift the Bahraini government a royal cloak of acceptability, while the Kingdom mercilessly executes political prisoners and uses torture to extract ‘confessions.'

"Instead of drafting in the Queen to cozy up to King Hamad, the UK must urgently protest Bahrain's use of torture and executions to silence opponents."

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team