‘Bahrain executions according to law’

Bahrain has rejected a statement by a spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights regarding the execution of three people.

They were convicted by three courts for killing three officers, including UAE army officer First Lieutenant Tariq Al Shehi.

“We are appalled at the execution by firing squad of three men in Bahrain on Sunday,” the spokesperson said.

“The men had been convicted of a bombing in Manama in 2014 that killed three police officers. They were found guilty after being allegedly tortured into making false confessions and their lawyers were not given access to all the evidence against them.”

However, Yousuf Abdul Kareem Bucheeri, Bahrain’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Office in Geneva, expressed his “strong condemnation and utter rejection” of the allegations in the January 15 press release.

“The ruling was based on cogent evidence that the suspects committed the crimes. The evidence included accounts by eyewitnesses, the suspects’ confessions, the tools and communication devices seized from the convicts and other people and technical reports,” he said.

Trial was fair

“The ruling met all the internationally recognised legal guarantees and conditions for a fair trial that provided the suspects with the necessary guarantees for defence throughout all the stages of investigation and trial conducted in accordance with the law that prohibits physical and moral harm and in the presence of their lawyers who defended them, with their consent, in a transparent public trial.”

The trial was held by competent, independent and impartial courts and went through various judicial degrees during which the lawyers submitted their oral and written pleadings as per relevant norms, Bucheeri said.