Bahrain Mirror (Exclusive): The authorities in Bahrain executed three Bahraini dissidents over their alleged role in the killing of an Emirati officer and two other policemen in a political trial that based its convictions on confessions extracted under torture.

The regime in Manama carried out the death penalty against the political detainees, who were arrested in 2014 over a bombing in Daih, this morning on Sunday (January 15, 2017). They are the first death sentences to be implemented since the eruption of the February 14 uprising in 2011.

The Public Prosecution announced that the execution of 27-year-old Abbas Al-Samee', 42-year-old Sami Mushaima' and 21-year-old Ali Al-Singace was carried out by a firing squad, after the Court of Cassation rejected the appeals of the defendants and upheld their death sentences, claiming that "the legally prescribed measures were taken and the Public Prosecutor requested the implementation of the verdict."

In the first reactions to the move, the UN Special Rapporteur on Extra-Judicial Executions Dr. Agnes Callamard deemed the executions of Al-Samee', Mushaima' and Al-Singace extrajudicial killings.

A photo circulated by activists on social media showed a security convoy including a military ambulance said to be heading to Al-Mahour cemetery to bury the bodies of the three executed political detainees. The activists further reported that the families of the three slain Bahrainis received a phone call from the authorities informing them that they will be buried in Al-Mahour cemetery.

A video also showed heavy presence of security forces in the Mahour cemetery. The authorities refused to hand over the bodies of the executed political prisoners to their families to be buried in their hometown Sanabes and did not allow a funeral procession to take place.

On its official Instagram account, the Public Prosecution said that "the execution took place in the presence of a judge, Public Prosecution representatives, prison commandant, a physician and preacher as stipulated by the law."

Arabic Version