The Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR) condemns the Bahraini authorities’ use of capital punishment in politically motivated cases amid concerns that charges are based on confessions extracted by means of torture and as a result of unfair trials.
On 29 April 2015, a Bahraini court convicted 12 men in the case of killing the policeman Mahmoud Fareed and sentenced yet another person, Salman Isa, to death, while others were handed down imprisonment sentences ranging between life to 10 years, and all have had their citizenship revoked.
Salman Isa, 30 years old, who is the most recent of 8 cases of death penalty, was first arrested on 27 December 2014, following houseraid in the village of Aker by security men in civilian clothes at around 23:00 pm. Eyewitnesses said Salman was beaten at time of arrest by the security men.
Salman was taken to the Criminal Investigation Directorate (CID) where he was detained for 14 days without being allowed to contact his family or lawyer. He was allegedly subjected to physical and psychological torture, including electric shocks all over his body, sexual assaults and threats of further assaults if he spoke of it, being kept in a very cold temperature for 6 hours. As a result of torture, Salman suffers from hearing impairment and a broken nose. The BCHR received reports that Salman was tortured at the hands of the infamous torturer Turki Al-Majed.
Therefore, the BCHR believes that the authorities did not provide Salman and other defendants in the case with due processes and their trial lacked the basics standards of fair trials. The case of Salman is an example of the unjust judiciary system in Bahrain that orders capital punishment in unfair trials and base conviction on confessions extracted under duress. The BCHR has previously documented cases similar cases of death sentences that have been based on confessions extracted through the means of torture, including the cases of Mohammed Ramadan and Husain Ali Moosa, Maher AlKhabbaz, Abbas Alsalmea, Sami Mushaima and Ali Abdulshaheed Al-Singace.
Based on the aforementioned, the BCHR calls on the United States, the European Union, and other national and international bodies to actively engage the Government of Bahrain to:
Vacate the use of death penalty;
Put an end to the use of torture in detention centres and hold accountable anyone responsible in all torture cases carried out in Bahrain
- Request the Government of Bahrain to comply with UPR recommendations, adopt the Optional Protocol to the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights, and abolish the death penalty