The British-backed Bahraini security forces have been accused of “severe and persistent” violations of human rights.
A report by Human Rights Watch indicates that individuals were tortured at Bahrain’s interior ministry.
Freedom of Information requests reveals that this year, the Foreign Office is providing this ministry and other security agencies in the country with £1.8 million in funding.
The Bahrain embassy in London stated that the government had “zero tolerance for any maltreatment.
The British Foreign Office has stated that it raises human rights concerns and that withdrawing financing would be “counterproductive.
Human Rights Watch’s 61-page study details the alleged torture of eight prisoners at the criminal investigation directorate of the Bahraini interior ministry.
The human rights group also claims that the interior ministry’s special investigation unit and the ombudsman failed to adequately investigate the complaints of abuse, as they were required to do.
MPs have criticized the lack of openness in the Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office’s Gulf Strategy Fund, which provides Bahrain with help from British taxpayers.
According to the FCDO, the fund is intended to assist Bahrain in “delivering long-term security” through “supporting the implementation of juvenile justice law, criminal justice reform, and capacity building of Bahrain’s independent monitoring authorities.”
It even supports a training program on human rights and diplomacy.
Freedom of Information requests to the FCDO reveals that the Gulf Strategy Fund granted Bahrain £710,028 in the fiscal year 2021-2022, more than doubling to £1,800,000 in the current year.
“My blood will be on the hands of the UK”
In the eight cases detailed in the paper, the defendants were convicted of murder and sentenced to death row in Bahrain.
All the men claim they were tortured into confessing to crimes they did not commit during interrogation. They further claim that attorneys were not permitted to be present during their interrogation.
Mohamed Ramadhan, one of the convicted prisoners who claims he was tortured, has written to Foreign Secretary James Cleverly to criticize him for failing to raise his issue when he visited Bahrain last year, as he had promised to do during a House of Commons discussion in 2020.
Mr. Ramadhan added, “The United Kingdom has continued to fund and train those responsible for the torture I was exposed to, covering it up and paving the path for Bahrain’s courts to convict me based on a false confession made under torture.”
He said, “If my execution is carried out, the British government will be responsible for my blood.”
The report, published by Human Rights Watch and another advocacy organization, the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy, is predominately based on court documents and other official materials.
It describes charges of beatings, sleep deprivation, attempted rape, and electrical shocks, as well as repeated violations of the defendant’s constitutional rights to a fair trial.
A man named Zuhair Ebrahim Jasim Abdullah was detained for alleged involvement in the murder of a police officer in one of the cases.
He said that his interrogators attempted to rape him and used electric shocks to coerce a confession from him.
The investigation stated that all cases featured “credible claims of confessions extracted through torture and ill-treatment,” which were frequently substantiated by government medical examinations.
It was stated that the prosecution and courts “failed to conduct thorough investigations into the alleged torture and ill-treatment or to accept the conclusions of those investigations.”
It was “impossible to ignore” the conclusion that Bahrain breached the prohibition on torture and ill-treatment in these instances, and that courts violated their duty under international and local law to investigate such violations and provide a fair trial.
Bahrain, which is headed by a king whose family holds the top political and military positions, has been criticized in the past for grave violations of human rights.
In a statement, the Bahrain embassy in London stated that the country has “zero tolerance for any form of mistreatment” and has implemented “human rights safeguards and checks and balances” to prevent such transgressions.
It acknowledged that “individual examples of misbehavior” had occurred inside the police in the past, but stated that “these situations were investigated and dealt with appropriately.”
The embassy asserted that the specific claims against the eight personnel identified in the report had been reviewed by independent agencies and that the defendants had had a fair trial, including access to counsel.
In addition, the guys were found guilty of “terrorist actions” and were responsible for the deaths of nine police officers and one civilian.
Yasmine Ahmed, director of Human Rights Watch in the United Kingdom, stated that it is “disgraceful” that the British government supports institutions accused of major human rights violations.
“We are asking the government to promptly disclose any human rights assessments conducted before funding, and to immediately freeze all funding,” she added.
The Foreign Office stated that it sponsored programs in Bahrain to help the reform of the country’s justice system and constantly discussed concerns about human rights, including the case of Mr. Ramadhan, with the government.
A spokesman stated that all justice and security projects with international partners are subject to rigorous risk assessments to meet our human rights standards.
While we acknowledge that obstacles persist, abandoning support for changes would be harmful.
