ROME, July 31 (NNN-ANSAMed) — Two young men executed in recent days in Bahrain after being found guilty of terrorism lacked a fair trial and had confessed under torture, the UN has said.
Ali Mohamed Hakeem Al-Arab, 25, and Ahmed Isa Al-Malali, 24, were executed despite concerns voiced by the UN and public statements made by UN human rights experts both in May and in July in which they had asked that the death sentences be suspended.
The two were arrested separately in February 2017 and went on trial during a collective hearing with 58 other defendants and sentenced to death in January 2018.
In May, Bahrain’s highest court upheld the death sentences even after the two said that they had been tortured until they confessed to crimes they had not committed.
Both were interrogated and went on trial without defense lawyers.
The UN, which has expressed concern over what may happen to the other detainees on death row in Bahrain who may soon be executed, has called on the Bahraini government to suspend capital punishment and bring in a moratorium ahead of abolishing the death sentence entirely.
–NNN-ANSAMed.
