Source: The Guardian
UK urged to loosen ties with Gulf nation as protesters claim confession was extracted under torture and men’s trial was sham
Britain is facing calls to loosen its ties with Bahrain after three Shia Muslim men convicted of killing an Emirati police officer and two Bahraini police officers in a 2014 bomb attack were executed.
There were street protests in Bahrain following the executions, the first of Bahrainis since 1996, and it remains to be seen how the UK Foreign Office reacts. Britain opposes the death penalty and says it has been working to improve Bahrain’s human rights record.
Maya Foa, the director of the death penalty team at Reprieve, said: “It is nothing short of an outrage and a disgraceful breach of international law that Bahrain has gone ahead with these executions. The confessions were extracted through torture and the trial was an utter sham.
Categories: Human Rights, Middle East, The Muslim Times, UK