The Kingdom of Bahrain witnessed a series of protests in mid-February 2011 demanding the release of political detainees and achieve political freedoms and social and economic justice in addition to ending the monarchy system. The protests began with calls from Bahraini activists on social media on 14 February 2011 to peacefully protest against the status quo in the country.
On the first day of the protests, more than 6,000 people participated in 55 marches at 25 points across the kingdom. Military aircrafts appeared flying over these areas along with intense presence of the security forces in several major areas such as the Central business district, shopping malls, Bab Al Bahrain and the Pearl Roundabout to prevent the protests from escalation.
A report issued by the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry on November 23, 2011 said that the Bahraini security forces used excessive force to stop the protests, resulting in the death of 46 people. The report documented about 560 cases of torture of detainees on the background of participating in the protests and confirmed the government's systematic use of torture and other forms of physical and psychological abuse against detainees, as well as the existence of many other serious violations of international human rights law.
Since 2014, the Bahraini state began to tighten its grip and escalate its actions by dissolving opposition parties and independent media outlets; pursuing opponents, journalists, human rights defenders and activists and placing them in prisons. This included pursuing anyone who criticizes domestic or foreign policy on social media. Moreover, the Bahraini judiciary, since the start of the popular movement, issued death sentences against political opponents and civil society activists. These rulings were issued by the National Safety Courts (which has a military nature), the military judiciary, and the civil courts, which started to escalate year after another. According to the Bahrain Forum for Human Rights, since the beginning of the protests in 2011, cases of arbitrary detention amounted to about 934, including more than 140 children.
Cases of torture reached more than 790, including 33 children and 40 women. As for judicial rulings, the report monitored the issuance of more than 1,100 political judicial decisions by Bahraini courts, as these rulings included 30 death sentences and 130 life sentences, and the state revoked the nationality of more than 300 Bahraini citizens. In this brief report, the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor sheds light on Bahraini detainees sentenced to death, and the violations that they are subjected to in prisons that lack the lowest standards of humanity and healthcare based on the Bahraini national law and the international law.
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