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Bahrain to execute two men despite UN calls for their release

Amnesty International raised concerns that the trial relied on confessions extracted through torture

BAHRAIN is set to press ahead with the execution of two men who say their murder convictions were based on confessions extracted by torture.

The Gulf monarchy’s government insists that they had a fair trial.

Last week the United Nations called for the immediate release of Mohamed Ramadhan and Hussain Moosa, convicted of killing a police officer in a 2014 bomb attack.

Their death sentences were confirmed by Bahrain’s top court in July last year but the UN’s 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.

Human rights group Amnesty International has also raised concerns that the trial relied on confessions extracted through torture.

But a Bahraini government spokesman told the Morning Star that it was disappointed with the UN request and accused it of publishing “a one-sided and misinformed report.”

The spokesman said the pair were convicted of a serious crime and had been granted a fair trial, while exhausting the country’s appeal process through the courts over a six-year period.

The country’s laws “are consistent with international law and the principles of human rights adopted by the United Nations,” the spokesman claimed.

The island state consistently accuses Iran of stoking anti-government sentiment and has claimed in the past that Tehran has trained dissidents and backed protests aimed at toppling the regime.

It has violently put down demonstrations, incarcerating political opponents in mass trials and shut down opposition parties and newspapers.

Mr Ramadhan and Mr Moosa are both members of Bahrain’s Shia Muslim community, which the Sunni-led government is accused of targeting in its clampdown on democracy.

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