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Verbatim report of proceedings
Thursday, 16 February 2017 - Strasbourg Revised edition

Executions in Kuwait and Bahrain
MPphoto
 

  Marietje Schaake, author. – Mr President, we are deeply disturbed by the executions in Bahrain and Kuwait in January. The EU is against the death penalty, no matter in which country it is performed, no matter for what crime; 160 UN member states have abolished the death penalty or do not practise it, and that list should grow. In Kuwait on 25 January 25 people were executed, 5 of them were actually foreign citizens and there are serious concerns about whether they had a fair trial under the current system in Kuwait. But in Bahrain on 15 January three people were executed by a firing squad, and we are well aware of the lack of fair trial standards as well as allegations of forced confessions under torture, which adds to the concern that we already have about the death penalty, also regarding the circumstances in these cases. The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights of the UN said it was appalled, and shares our concern about the lack of a fair trial. We ask the Kuwaiti and Bahraini authorities to become the leaders that they can be in the Middle East and adopt a moratorium on the death penalty. We particularly call on His Majesty Sheikh Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa of Bahrain to halt the executions of two prisoners on death row, Mohammed Ramadan and Hussein Moussa. We call on both the Kuwaiti and Bahraini authorities to invite the UN Special Rapporteur on torture and inhumane treatment, and to grant him full access to detention facilities to investigate the circumstances.

There is an urgent need in both these countries for upholding human rights and respecting them, including fair trial standards, and in Bahrain we see specifically that revoking citizenship puts people in a terrible situation; this is illegal and it must stop. We have also called urgently and repeatedly for the recommendations of the BiCi report to be implemented, and we repeat this call again today.

 
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