Dear Foreign Secretary James Cleverly,
This month marks three years since Mohammed Ramadhan and Husain Moosa’s death sentences were upheld by Bahrain’s highest court, the Court of Cassation. Their unfair trials were based on so-called “confessions” obtained under torture.
You said in Parliament that if “the death penalties are upheld through the Court of Cassation process, the UK will publicly and loudly remind Bahrain of our opposition to the death penalty.” [1]
Yet, three years on, the UK government has failed to do so. You have failed to do so.
Instead, of speaking out and taking a moral stand, this Government has got mixed up in torture and the death penalty. It has:
- Used UK taxpayer money to increase support for Bahraini institutions in 2022 from £710,028 to £1.8m via the Gulf Strategy Fund – in which it was disclosed that funding was used for a Bahraini body which has whitewashed the torture of political detainees on death row.
- Signed a new Strategic Investment and Collaboration Partnership earlier this month with Bahrain aiming to facilitate additional investment of more than £1 billion into the UK
- You shook hands and smiled for a photo with the Prime Minister of Bahrain who oversees the detention of Mohammed and Husain (photo above).
There has been no “loud or public” effort on Mohammed and Husain’s behalf, which you claimed you would do. Instead, this Government has only show Bahraini authorities that they can oversee torture and death and we will still back the very bodies implicated in these abuses.
Their lives are at risk. Only last month, the prison in which Mohammed and Husain are imprisoned was subject to a brutal crackdown – Mohammed suffered even more torture and was placed in solitary confinement.
Will you – three years on – honour your word and speak up and help save the lives of Mohammed, Husain, and death row inmates like them in Bahrain?
[1] https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2020-07-09/debates/D560BD01-121A-46D7-BC92-E619171CEFF2/BahrainPrisonersUnderSentenceOfDeath#contribution-A0CCF281-802E-4C88-8323-8DA7AE26EE91
Photo credit: HRH Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa