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October 14, 2022

Eight men on death row in Bahrain following sham trials. © Private Torture, Sham Trials, and Death Row in Bahrain Imagine being sentenced to death for a crime you did not commit. Now imagine the “confession” that sealed your fate was coerced out of you through torture. There are men right now, on death row in Bahrain, that don’t have to imagine this grim scenario – they’re living it. Courts in Bahrain are convicting and sentencing defendants to death in unfair trials based mostly on confessions allegedly coerced through torture and ill-treatment. A new report, based on court records and other official documents, examines the cases of eight men who are among 26 people on death row in Bahrain. Their appeals have been exhausted, as one court after another cavalierly dismissed credible allegations of torture and ill-treatment during interrogation instead of investigating them. Human Rights Watch released this report together with Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy. The courts routinely violated defendants’ rights to fair trials, including the right to legal counsel during interrogation, the right to cross-examine witnesses, and through reliance on secret sources. In one case, the court did not even allow the defense to produce witnesses. In another case, police arrested Zuhair Ebrahim Jasim Abdullah allegedly for his involvement in the murder of a police officer. Abdullah alleged that interrogators removed his clothes and threatened to rape him and his wife. He alleged that officers used electric shocks on his chest and genitals. Eventually, Abdullah confessed falsely. He reported the alleged coercion and torture, but his claims were dismissed. He was sentenced to death based on his “confession.” Bahrain ended a short-lived moratorium on the death penalty in 2017 and authorities have since executed six people. Unfortunately for those on death row, this is not a justice system. Instead, Bahraini courts are sentencing people to death using a system of injustice riddled with human rights violations. Read More Time is Running Out to Address World Cup Abuses in Qatar Photo © Human Rights Watch We are now less than 40 days from the kick-off of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, and momentum is building to press FIFA and Qatar to compensate migrant workers who have suffered immensely while building the infrastructure around the tournament. This week, politicians in the US and France called on FIFA’s President Gianni Infantino to support compensation for migrant workers who have experienced wage theft, been injured, or even died while building the games in Qatar. They join a growing list of people and organizations supporting the #PayUpFIFA campaign ahead of the World Cup in November. You can be among them. Act Now In Other News Schoolgirls Leading Iran’s Protests for Freedom Dozens of videos posted online since Mahsa Amini’s death in Tehran on September 16 show girls protesting in their schools and in the streets, chanting, waving, and burning their head coverings. Read More Third Term for Xi a Threat to Rights In the 10 years since China’s President Xi Jinping came to power, authorities have decimated civil society, imprisoned numerous government critics, restricted freedom of speech, and deployed mass surveillance technology. Read More Resistance in Afghanistan Means Women Since the Taliban took power in August 2021, Afghan women have been at the front line of resistance to Taliban oppression, even as they face some of its most severe threats. Read More Something We Like US Releases Promising Human Rights Reporting Tool The US Department of State is empowering ordinary people around the world to report human rights abuses by foreign security forces. The Human Rights Reporting Gateway gives the public a way to alert the US government of human rights violations. This new system is intended to prevent some US security assistance from ending up in the hands of abusive military units. Read More We Want to Hear from You Since relaunching the Week in Rights, we’ve been focused on bringing you our top human rights news. But now we’re asking again to hear from you. What topics interest you? Any suggestions for us? Write us at WeekInRights@hrw.org and let us know! And thanks as always for your support.

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