Human Rights Watch: Execution in Bahrain, pattern of injustice

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Human Rights Watch and the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy demanded, on Monday, that the Bahraini King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa commute the death sentences issued against 26 people in Bahrain.

The report read that "The 26 men now on death row can be executed once King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa ratifies their sentences." Building on that, the report stated that “King Hamad should commute all outstanding death sentences, starting with defendants convicted on the basis of allegedly coerced confessions and those who have been sentenced to death for other than the most serious crimes."

The report further stressed that Bahrain must "officially reinstate the de facto moratorium on judicial executions and take steps to formally end the application of the death penalty in all circumstances."

According to Michael Page, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch, “Bahraini officials routinely proclaim that the government respects fundamental human rights, but in case after case, courts relied on coerced confessions despite defendants’ credible claims of torture and ill-treatment.”

Page also added that "The many human rights violations that underlie these death sentences reflect not a justice system but a pattern of injustice.”

Earlier in September, the Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR) warned about the 'inhumane' conditions under which political prisoners are kept at Bahrain’s ill-famed Jau Prison, located in the South of Manama, adding that the Bahraini authorities have stepped up repressive measures against them.

The rights group noted and condemned the extensive and systematic use of physical and mental methods of torture that prisoners are enduring in detention.

According to the organization, prison officials have recently reinforced their repressive measures on political inmates, including human rights advocate Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja.

Read more: NGO reports on increased abuse on political prisoners in Bahrain jail