WORLD / ASIA-PACIFIC
Bahrain rejects call to free two men
Published: Jun 21, 2021 05:38 PM
A police officer keeps people away from the scene on Sunday. Photo: VCG

A police officer keeps people away from the scene on Sunday. Photo: VCG

Bahrain on Sunday rejected a UN report calling for the release of two men facing the death penalty, which cited claims that their murder convictions were based on confessions extracted by torture.

In July 2020, Bahrain's top court upheld a death sentence against Mohamed Ramadhan and Hussain Moosa, convicted of killing a police officer in a 2014 bomb attack. 

In a report on Thursday, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention cited allegations that the two men had been "tortured during their interrogations and forced to sign confessions."

"The appropriate remedy would be to release both men immediately and accord them an enforceable right to compensation and other reparations," it said.

But a Bahraini government spokesperson told AFP in a written statement that Ramadhan and Moosa were convicted of serious criminal offenses.

Noting that Bahraini authorities said it was "disappointing ...  that [the working group] saw fit to publish such a one-sided and misinformed report."

The men "received fair trials with full access to an appeals process, which they have now exhausted," the spokesperson added.

The two accused were first sentenced in late 2014.