The 61-page report, “‘The Court is Satisfied with the Confession’: Bahrain Death Sentences Follow Torture, Sham Trials,” based primarily on court records and other official documents, found serious and persistent human rights violations underlying the convictions and death sentences of cases of eight men examined for the report. The men are among 26 who are currently on death row, their appeals exhausted. Trial and appeal courts cavalierly dismissed credible allegations of torture and ill-treatment during interrogation instead of investigating them, as required by international and Bahraini law. The courts routinely violated defendants’ rights to fair trials, including the right to legal counsel during interrogation, the right to cross-examine prosecution witnesses, and through reliance on secretly sourced reports.
The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com
The First High Criminal Court has sentenced two men to 10 years in prison each for human trafficking charges.
The court also fined each defendant BD2,000 and ordered them to bear the repatriation expenses of the victims. Case details show that the defendants detained five women and forced them to practice prostitution.
In a statement, Public Prosecution, Trafficking in Persons Prosecution Chief Prosecutor Nasser Al Sheeb explained that the victims were tricked into coming to Bahrain through phony advertisements online promising them jobs with good pay.
Investigations indicated that the women were immediately detained by the defendants upon their arrival in Bahrain and they were forced to practise prostitution, while the defendants collected the money from customers.