Bahrain Mirror: Human Rights Watch said on Wednesday (May 15, 2019) that the Bahrain Court of Cassation, the country's court of last resort, upheld the death sentence against two men on May 6, 2019. A court convicted the men, Ali Al-Arab and Ahmad Al-Malali, of terror offenses in a mass trial on January 31, 2018.

"Despite its rhetoric on reform, Bahrain is moving in the wrong direction by reinstating the death penalty," said Lama Fakih, acting Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. "This irreversible punishment is cruel in all cases, but all the more so here amid evidence that the accused were tortured and denied fair trials."

Al-Arab did not have access to lawyer during his interrogation and saw his lawyer for the first time during his first court hearing, family members said. When Al-Arab's family saw him for the first time at the Dry Dock prison, the 25-year-old man was brought out in a wheelchair due, they believed, to beatings on his legs.

However, Al-Arab's family told Human Rights Watch that they had submitted two complaints to the Ombudsman. Further, court records Human Rights Watch reviewed indicate that al-Arab's defense stated that his confession was obtained under torture.

On December 11, 2018, three UN human rights experts sent another letter to the Bahraini government expressing extreme concern about the imposition of the death penalty on several defendants, including Al-Arab and Al-Malali, amid allegations that their confessions were obtained under torture. The letter said that Al-Malali, 24, was shot during his arrest, but that doctors did not remove the bullets until 23 days later. The experts also said that Al-Malali was prevented from meeting with a lawyer and allegedly tortured at the Criminal Investigations Directorate, then forced to sign a confession.

The court documents reviewed state that a forensic examination report found injuries on Al-Malali's right wrist as a result of being hit by shrapnel during his arrest.

Human Rights Watch has previously documented torture in the Criminal Investigations Directorate, including the use of electric shocks, suspension in painful positions, severe beatings, threats to rape and kill, and sexual abuse. Many of the detainees interviewed said that interrogators boasted of their reputation for torturing detainees. Many of those abused at the facility reported signing forced confessions.

The organization said Bahrain should join the many countries already committed to the UN General Assembly's December 18, 2007 resolution calling for a moratorium on executions, a move by UN member countries toward abolition of the death penalty. King Hamad should exercise his authority in this case to halt the executions and move to abolish capital punishment outright.

Bahrain's European allies should use their leverage to press Bahrain to abolish the death penalty, or at the very least, to reinstate the moratorium on executions.

"The death sentence is irreversible, and any doubt that is cast on the fairness of the trial should be grounds to commute the sentence," Fakih said. "The death penalty is an archaic punishment that should be halted immediately."

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