French MPs Urge Bahrain To Drop Death Sentences for Two Detainees

By Staff, Agencies

Dozens of French legislators expressed concern over the breaches of fair trial proceedings and various forms of torture that two imprisoned Bahraini men have been subjected to, urging authorities in the Persian Gulf kingdom to abolish death sentences handed down to them.

The 39 parliamentarians, in a letter drafted by Jacques Maire of La République En Marche! [LREM] political party, joined calls by their British, European, Italian and US counterparts, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights [UNHCR], Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch [HRW] and Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain [ADHRB] to demand the immediate cessation of the executions of Mohamed Ramadhan and Husain Moosa.

On July 13, Bahrain’s Court of Cassation sentenced the two men to death after purportedly finding them guilty of “killing of a police officer and attempt to kill other members of the force in a premeditated ambush using an explosive device on February 14, 2014” in al-Dair village, which lies northeast of Manama. Ten other people with them were also handed down jail terms.

The French legislators further pointed to the European Parliament’s worries over Bahrain’s violation of fair trial standards, and highlighted that the two men have been subjected to torture in the process of coercing confessions.

They then called on Bahraini officials to halt the use of torture in judicial and penal systems, which had earlier been echoed by a joint letter by 16 international and Bahraini rights groups to King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa.

When the ruling was issued, Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei, advocacy director of the London-based Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy [BIRD], condemned the sentences as “yet another dark stain in the struggle for human rights in Bahrain”

He had previously stated that the initial trial was tainted by irregularities.

In turn, Amnesty International, HRW and BIRD have said both Ramadhan and Moosa were tortured and forced to confess to fabricated charges. They were also subjected to physical assault, beatings, sleep deprivation and other abuses.

Bahrain has seen anti-regime protests over the past nine years. The major demand has been the ouster of the Al Khalifah regime and establishment of a just and conclusive system representing all Bahraini nationals.

The Manama regime, in return, has ignored the calls and is pressing ahead with its heavy-handed crackdown and persecution of human rights campaigners and political dissidents.

Bahrain’s parliament approved the trial of civilians at military tribunals on March 5, 2017. The move drew widespread condemnation from human rights bodies and activists, and was described as imposition of an undeclared martial law across the country.

Bahrain’s monarch rubber-stamped the constitutional amendment on April 3 that year.