Bahrain executes three people, despite human rights outcry

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jul/27/bahrain-executes-three-people-despite-human-rights-outcry

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Bahrain has executed three people convicted in two separate cases, one a case of “terrorism” and killing a police officer, and the second related to the killing of a mosque imam, the public prosecutor has said.

Human rights groups had been warning against the execution of two men, Ali Mohamed Hakeem al-Arab and Ahmed Isa Ahmed Isa al-Malali.

Malali and Arab were convicted in a mass trial involving 60 people in January 2018. Both had exhausted all possible judicial appeals.

A last-minute appeal to stop their imminent execution was also issued by the UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial killings, Agnès Callamard.

Callamard said in a statement the men were allegedly tortured, prevented from attending their trial and sentenced to death in absentia.

Bahrain urged to halt imminent execution of two men

Amnesty International Middle East research director, Lynn Maalouf, also warned the executions were “an utterly shameful show of contempt for human rights”.

“The death penalty is an abhorrent assault on the right to life and the utmost cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment. Its use is appalling in all circumstances, but it is all the more shocking when it is imposed after an unfair trial in which the defendants were tortured to ‘confess’,” she said.

The small Gulf state, a key US ally located between rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran, has been gripped by bouts of unrest since 2011, when authorities cracked down on Shia-led protests demanding political reform. The UK advises Bahrain on training its police and independent complaints procedures.