Comment by UN Human Rights Office spokesperson Liz Throssell on the decision of Bahrain’s Court of Cassation to uphold the death sentence against two men

العربية

Geneva, 14 July 2020

“We are deeply concerned that Bahrain’s highest court, the Court of Cassation, has upheld the death penalty against two Bahraini men whose confessions were allegedly extracted under torture.

Mohamed Ramadan and Husain Moosa Ali Moosa Mohamed were reportedly arrested without a warrant and arbitrarily detained for a bomb attack in February 2014 in which a police officer was killed. They were convicted in December 2014 and sentenced to death.

We note that in 2018 the Court of Cassation quashed their convictions in light of concerns indicating they had been tortured and referred their case back to the Court of Appeal, which re-sentenced them to death.

The use of confessions extracted under torture in a trial that results in a death sentence violates both the absolute prohibition of torture as well as fair trial guarantees, rendering the sentence arbitrary in nature and a violation of the right to life as set out in Article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
It is therefore of great concern that the Court of Cassation on Monday 13 July decided to uphold the death penalty against the two men.

We urge the Bahraini authorities to halt immediately any plans to execute them, quash their convictions and ensure they are retried in accordance with international human rights norms and standards.

We further urge Bahrain to ensure its domestic laws are brought into line with international human rights law, to investigate all allegations of arbitrary arrest and detention, torture and the use of forced confessions. It is essential those responsible are held to account and the recurrence of such acts is prevented.

We also repeat our call to the Bahraini authorities to establish an official moratorium on all executions with a view to abolishing the death penalty.”

ENDS

For more information and media requests, please contact: Rupert Colville - + 41 22 917 9767 / rcolville@ohchr.orgor Jeremy Laurence - + 41 22 917 9383 / jlaurence@ohchr.orgor Liz Throssell- + 41 22 917 9296 / ethrossell@ohchr.org or Marta Hurtado - + 41 22 917 9466 / mhurtado@ohchr.org

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