Bahrain Mirror: Peers called on the government yesterday to intervene to save the lives of two Bahraini torture victims, and questioned British "security assistance" of at least £5 million to Bahrain since 2012.

Baroness Ramsay said: "Why can't [the Foreign and Commonwealth Office] put its mouth where British money is going and very vigorously obtain for these two men, at least now, a delay of execution, and a fair trial?"

For the government, Lord Ahmad said "it is for the Court of Cassation to make the final decision."

He added that after the decision the government "will review whether there is any exemption or clemency that remains an avenue to the King."

Reprieve director Maya Foa said: "The time for monitoring is long past: it is time to intervene, to save these men's lives."

Democracy campaigners Mohammed Ramadan and Husain Mousa's final appeal against murder convictions is scheduled to take place on Monday at Bahrain's Court of Cassation.

Their death sentences, for a 2011 bombing in which a polce officer was killed, are likely to be upheld, according to the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy. The original death sentences were overturned after the victims said they were tortured and forced to sign false confessions.

But in January, Bahrain's high court reimposed the death sentences, asserting that the country's British-trained Special Investigations Unit had established that the confessions were not obtained through torture.

Arabic Version