Petition urging the Bahraini Government to Stop Executing Dissidents
Americans for Democracy and Human Rights in Bahrain, in cooperation with the International Peace Bureau, has created a petition on the death penalty in Bahrain. The petition aims to urge the Bahraini King, Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, to commute or pardon the death sentences of the twelve individuals who are at imminent risk of execution. Please click on this link to sign the petition.
Bahrain has ended a 7-year-long de facto moratorium on the use of the death penalty in 2017 when three individuals were executed by a firing squad. Since then, six people have been executed in cases of a political nature. As of now, there are twelve individuals at imminent risk of execution, having exhausted all their legal remedies. The death sentences involve several common traits that violate international human rights standards. The death penalty sentences usually are enacted against dissidents in Bahrain, additionally, they involve confessions coerced via torture and lastly, they are all ordered following unfair trials. The fate of these individuals is in the hands of the Bahraini King, who is responsible for giving his signature as symbolic ratification to carry out executions. Based on past experiences, the Bahraini authorities have carried out executions on dates of Western holidays, such as Christmas, New Years’ eve, or Summer holidays. Therefore, we must now push for international pressure on the King of Bahrain and stop the execution of these persons.
Read the full article here.
Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade Simon Coveney TD Addresses TD’s Concerns regarding the Threat of Imminent Execution of Mohamed Ramadhan and Hussain Moosa
Members of the Dáil Éireann engaged in a set of Parliamentary Questions, posing oral questions to the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Simon Coveney (Fine Gael – Cork South-Central). Over the course of these questions, several TDs challenged the Foreign Minister on the human rights situation in Bahrain, and specifically on the cases of Bahrainis at imminent risk of execution including Husain Moosa and Mohammed Ramadhan.
On July 13 2020, Bahrain’s Court of Cassation reinstated the death sentence against Mohamed Ramadhan and Husain Moosa. They now face imminent execution as a result of a trial internationally recognized as unfair. Both men were arrested in February of 2014. Both were threatened and beaten by law officers during interrogation. When Mr. Moosa was tortured until he signed a pre-prepared confession, that confession was used to charge both men with planting a bomb that killed a police officer. They were sentenced to death without physical evidence linking them to the crime or access to legal representation. Mr. Ramadhan states that his interrogators told him they knew he was innocent of any crime, but that he was a traitor so they were waiting until they found a crime to charge him with.
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