16 February 2017 – The European Parliament has voted through a Resolution on Executions in Kuwait and Bahrain condemning the recent executions in these countries. We, the undersigned, welcome the resolution and call on Bahrain to listen to the European Parliament’s calls and halt imminent executions and respect the rights and freedoms of the Bahraini people.

Read the resolution here.

The European Parliament also voted through amendments: amendment 1, calls for a national dialogue in Bahrain, amendment 2 calls on Bahrain’s police to refrain violence and human rights violations, noting the sixth anniversary of the 2011 uprising. Amendment 7 calls for the release of imprisoned human rights defenders Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja abd Khalil Al-Halwachi, and the final amendment passed, amendment 8, highlighted the vulnerability of domestic workers in Kuwait.

Amendments 1 and 2 are available here. Amendments 7 and 8 are available here. The amendments were incorporated into the final text of the resolution (linked above).

The resolution condemns the use of the death penalty, echoing the condemnation of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Killings. It calls on Bahrain to halt the execution of Mohammad Ramadan and Husain Moosa, two torture victims at risk of imminent execution in Bahrain. The resolution urges Bahrain and Kuwait to issue immediate invitations for the visit of the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, who has been denied entry to Bahrain multiple times since 2011. It further calls for the release of Nabeel Rajab, and an end to excessive use of force and the arbitrary stripping of citizenships. The resolution calls for the EU to adopt stronger human rights initiatives with regards to Bahrain and Kuwait.

Throughout the debate prior to the vote, MEPs also expressed criticisms of the arbitrary deprivation of nationality, continued arbitrary arrest and torture, and the imprisonment of human rights defenders.

Julie Ward MEP said: “Mohammad Raman and Husain Moosa must not be executed and the death penalty must be abolished.” She turned her attention to the case of human rights defender Nabeel Rajab: “Instead of putting Nabeel Rajab through yet another hearing on 21 February, release him.” She called on all countries, in particular the UK, to hold human rights in their foreign policy over arms. Rajab, a leading human rights defender in the Gulf, currently facing up to 17 years in prison for exercising his freedom of expression. His next trial date is 21 February.

This is not the first EUP resolution on Bahrain. In 2016, the European Parliament passed resolutions on the case of Mohammad Ramadan and on Bahrain generally. In 2015, the EUP adopted a resolution on the case of Nabeel Rajab.

Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei, Director of Advocacy, Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy: “This is a landmark which must be noted. Bahrain must listen to the voices of the international community and halt the executions of Mohammad Ramadan and Husain Moosa, who were tortured and unfairly tried in court.”

Husain Abdulla, Executive Director, Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain: “The brutality of the death penalty has been condemned now by the UN, the EU and the European Parliament. Human rights violations do not go unnoticed. All executions in Bahrain must be immediately halted. Rather than persecuting innocents and victims, Bahrain should hold its police force accountable for abuse and torture.”

Pavle Licina, Advocacy Associate, European Centre for Democracy and Human Rights: “By strongly condemning the recent executions in Bahrain and Kuwait, the European Parliament once again stood up for the respect of human rights and dignity and sent a clear message to both EU member states and governments in the Gulf that capital punishment, but above all torture and unfair trials leading up to it, must not be tolerated.”

In January 2017, Bahrain executed three torture victims, Ali Al-Singace, Abbas Al-Samea and Sami Mushaima. Convicted on capital offences following unfair trials, they were unlawfully killed by firing squad. Al-Singace, Al-Samea and Mushaima were all arbitrarily arrested, tortured to confess, and deprived of access to legal council. The courts dismissed the defence’s arguments out of hand, and the torture allegations of the three were not properly investigated. They were sentenced to death in 2015; in January 2017, the highest court of appeal upheld their sentence, and they were executed less than a week later. Neither the condemned nor their families were informed of their impending executions. Kuwait has also recently carried out the executions of seven individuals. The executions were the first in several years in both countries, ending their respective moratoriums. In Bahrain, it was the first execution since 2010.

Signed,

European Centre for Democracy and Human Rights

Bahrain Center for Human Rights

Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy

Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain

On 31 December 2015, Bahrain’s Fourth Criminal Court sentenced a man to death and 22 others to life imprisonment, bringing the total number of persons on death row in the country to ten. The government additionally revoked the nationalities of all the defendants, raising the number of denaturalizations in the country to over 200 in 2015 alone. On the same day, death row inmate Salman Isa’s first appeal was rejected.

The criminal court sentenced 12 of the 23 defendants in absentia, including Hussein Abdullah Khalil Ebrahim, 27, who was sentenced to death. The court found him and defendant Ahmed Isa Abdulhussein Hussein guilty of forming a terrorist organization, recruiting agents, engaging in rioting and planting explosives to disturb the peace and targeting police officers, and killing a police officer in 2014 with the aim of the violent overthrow of the regime. However, only Hussein Ebrahim was sentenced to death.

Eleven of the defendants, including two juveniles aged 16 and 17, were arrested in December 2014 in connection with the death of a police officer killed in an explosion in Demistan village on 8 December 2014. Police subjected most of the arrested defendants to enforced disappearance for over ten days and denied them access to their lawyers during interrogation. The defendants have reported that government agents tortured them during their disappearances.  The court found all 23 defendants guilty of terrorism and killing a police officer. Two defendants were additionally fined 200,000 Bahraini Dinars (USD $530,000).

Mohsen Ebrahim Hasan al-Majed is one of defendants who was subjected to severe torture following his overnight arrest on 14 December 2014. Following his arrest, the government transferred al-Majed to the Criminal Investigation Directorate (CID) for interrogation. While there, officers physically beat al-Majed, focusing on his head and genitals, and subjected him to electrocution. Al-Majed told his family that officers beat him with a wooden plank with nails. Officers insulted his faith and subjected him to sexual assault. After three days of sustained torture, al-Majed confessed to the charges. Despite this, he continued to receive beatings. Police then transferred al-Majed to the Public Prosecution, who threatened physical violence if he recanted. Al-Majed was sentenced to life and fined BD 200,000.

Bahrain has seen a rise in the use of the death penalty and denaturalization in 2015. Bahraini courts passed seven new death sentences last year. On the same day Hussein Ebrahim received the death sentence, the First High Appeals Court rejected the case of Salman Isa Ali, who in April 2015 the Fourth Criminal Court sentenced to death in a bombing case.

In November 2015, the Court of Cassation, Bahrain’s highest court of appeal, rejected the appeal of death row inmates Mohammad Ramadan and Husain Moosa. Ramadan and Moosa are the first people since 2010 to have exhausted all legal avenues of appeal, and stand at risk of imminent execution. Human rights activists on the ground fear that this risk has heightened following Saudi Arabia’s execution of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr and 46 others inflamed tensions last week.

Meanwhile, an independent Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (BIRD) investigation found that the government had stripped the citizenship of 208 persons in 2015 after amendments in the law empowered courts to denaturalise defendants found guilty of terrorism charges. The majority of such individuals were subjected to unfair trials, tortured, and left stateless.

The documented unfair trials, use of torture and death sentences Bahrain has carried out may be in breach of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which Bahrain acceded to in 2006, in particular article 6, which protects the right to life; article 7, which protects the right to not be tortured; and article 14, which protects the right to a fair trial. Bahrain may also have breached article 15.1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which states that “everyone has the right to a nationality.”

We the undersigned organizations strongly condemn the use of the death penalty in Bahrain, especially in light of the unfair trials and use of torture which many death row inmates have been subjected to. In light of this, we call on the Government of Bahrain:

• To commute all death sentences.
• To establish a moratorium on the death penalty with a view to abolition.
• To investigate and prosecute all acts of torture, mistreatment, enforced disappearance.
• Establish procedures to ensure the fairness of all criminal trials and appeals.

Signed:

• •    Action des chrétiens pour l’abolition de la torture (ACAT)
• •    Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain (ADHRB)
• •    Bahrain Centre for Human Rights (BCHR)
• •    Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (BIRD)
• •    European Centre for Democracy and Human Rights (ECDHR)
• •    International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH)
• •    Redress
•     Reprieve

 Click here to read the statement (pdf)

27 May 2015 – The Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (BIRD) strongly condemn the death sentences upheld by a Bahrain Appeal Court today. Mohammad Ramadan and Husain Ali Moosa were sentenced to death in December 2014 for their supposed involvement in a bombing incident that resulted in the death of a policeman. They took the judgement to the Appeals Court, on the grounds that they were falsely accused, tortured and coerced to confess to the crime.

Five UN experts, including the Special Rapporteur on Torture Juan Mendez, expressed “serious concern … regarding, among others, the physical and mental integrity” of the convicted individuals. Mohammad Ramadan and Husain Moosa both state that they were tortured to confess to the crime. Mr Ramadan has previously stated that he received a phone call from an unknown person who admitted that the Bahrain government knew he was innocent, but that his participation in protest marches made him a traitor. Mr Moosa also states he was subjected to physical torture, including suspension from the ceiling, and that police threatened to fabricate cases against his relatives and rape his sisters unless he confessed.

We are talking about people who were tortured to confess to murdering policemen, then sentenced to death, then tortured by police in acts of revenge for a crime they didn’t commit. This is a tragic farce, one which the European Union must criticise in the harshest terms.
Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei, Director of Advocacy, BIRD

The European Union is committed to the end of the death penalty. Stavros Lambrinidis, the EU’s Special Representative for Human Rights, is currently in Bahrain on a human rights visit.

Bahrain courts have sentenced at least 8 individuals to death since 2011 on political charges, four of whom were sentenced to death in 2015 alone. Allegations of torture surround all these cases. Individuals sentenced to death are subjected to harsh prison standards. Abbas Al-Samea, sentenced to death in February 2015 in relation to the death of three policemen, was subjected to severe physical beatings to his face in March and April in prison. Reports state that he has swollen gums, teeth missing, a broken nose and suffers internal bleeding as a result of these beatings.

Ali Al-Taweel, who was sentenced to death in 2011, has been in solitary confinement in the four years since his sentence. Mr Al-Taweel has attempted to commit suicide twice and in January 2015 was transferred to a psychiatric hospital following a psychological breakdown caused by his mistreatment. He has received no sufficient psychological or medical help.

The last execution in Bahrain was in 2010, but the threat of execution remains ever-present for Mr Ramadan and Mr Moosa.