Bahrain executes three Shia men over murder charges
Bahrain has executed three Shia men who were convicted of killing three police officers in a bomb attack in March 2014, the authorities say, wrote the BBC.
They were killed by a firing squad on Sunday, state news agency BNA reports.
Human rights officials say there are serious concerns that evidence may have been obtained under torture, the BBC added.
But the Bahraini government, which rarely carries out executions, has said the decision was taken “in accordance with international law”.
According to the BBC, the executions of the three men, who Bahraini officials say were part of the listed terrorist group Saraya al-Ashtar, are the first since a 2011 uprising, led by the Shia majority, calling for greater political rights.
The Sunni-ruled kingdom has escalated a crackdown on its Shia critics over the past year, including revoking the citizenship of the country’s most prominent Shia Muslim cleric, the BBC indicated.
The UN’s special rapporteur on extra-judicial killings, Agnes Callamard, condemned the executions in a tweet saying: “Torture, unfair trial + flimsy evidence: these are extrajudicial killings.”
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