(Beirut) – Pope Francis deserves to put pressure on Bahrain to end its human rights violations on its stopover in the country from November 3 to 6, 2022, nine human rights organizations said today. While in Bahrain, he plans to deal with the Bahrain Forum. For Dialogue, a government-run interfaith forum, will meet with devout leaders and celebrate a public papal Mass. On November 3, he will meet with Bahrain’s King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa and other Bahraini government officials.
In light of this historic journey, King Hamad and the Bahraini government deserve to publicly and privately call on all death row inmates in the country and to impose a moratorium on death sentences and executions. Bahraini officials should also be urged to draft a decree reiterating the prohibition in Bahrain’s charter and legislation of any bureaucracy on torture and ill-treatment.
In addition, Pope Francis pressured King Hamad to release all those imprisoned for exercising their rights to freedom of association, assembly and nonviolent expression, adding rights advocates, opposition activists and journalists. He pressured the Bahraini government to end abuses against migrants. workers
Bahrain has executed six more people since 2017, when it ended a de facto seven-year moratorium on the death penalty. Another 26 people are recently on death row in Bahrain and could be executed once King Hamad upholds his sentence.
Bahraini courts convicted and sentenced to death the defendants in grossly unfair trials, solely or mainly on the basis of confessions allegedly extracted through torture and ill-treatment. domestic violence. A recent report documented the cases of those 8 men: Maher Abbas al-Khabbaz, Sayed Ahmed al-Abar, Husain Ali Mehdi, Husain Ebrahim Ali Husain Marzooq, Salman Isa Ali Salman, Zuhair Ebrahim Jasim Abdullah, Mohamed Ramadhan and Husain Musa.
The prosecution and courts failed to investigate those allegations, which in some cases were supported by doctors’ findings. However, the courts summarily concluded that no mistreatment or abuse occurred in the abstract, full of inconsistencies and, in some cases, contradicted through indisputable evidence.
The Catholic Church has declared that “the death penalty is inadmissible because it violates the inviolability and dignity of the person” and the Church “works with determination for its abolition in the world. “
On August 31, Pope Francis reiterated that “the death penalty is unacceptable” and called on “all other people of intelligent will to mobilize for the abolition of the death penalty in the world. “
Pope Francis heeds his own call and publicly calls for Bahrain to halt all executions, abolish the death penalty and seriously investigate allegations of torture and violations of the right to a fair trial, the organizations said.
Prominent Bahraini opposition leaders have languished in crime for more than a decade for their role in the 2011 pro-democracy protests. These include Hassan Mushaima, the leader of the unauthorized opposition organization Al-Haq; Abdulwahab Hussain, leader of the opposition; Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, prominent human rights defender; Abdel-Khalil al-Singace, spokesman for Al-Haq; and activist Sayed Nizar Alwadaei.
The Pope calls on the Bahraini government to unconditionally release all those convicted for their political ideals for unfair fees or unfair trials.
Signatories:
1. Human rights monitoring
2. Salam for democracy and human rights
3. Rights Enforcement Center
4. Americans for Democracy and Human Rights in Bahrain (ADHRB)
5. European Centre for Democracy and Human Rights (ECDHR)
6. Gulf Institute for Democracy and Human Rights (GIDHR)
7. Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (IBRD)
8. Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS)
9. ECPM (Together the death penalty)