Bahrain Top Court Upholds 2 Death Sentences

Bahrain’s top court on Monday upheld death sentences against two men convicted of murdering a police officer after hearing the case for the second time following allegations of torture in custody. The two accused – Mohamed Ramadhan and Hussain Moosa, who are members of Muslim Sunni-ruled Bahrain’s minority Shi’ite community – were first sentenced in late 2014. The Court of Cassation, the kingdom’s highest court, in 2015 confirmed the death sentences but then overturned them after the emergence of a previously undisclosed medical report by the Interior Ministry. According to the group Human Rights Watch, the report appeared to corroborate claims that the detainees had been tortured to force them to confess to fabricated charges.