British taxpayers are paying millions to fund a police watchdog in Bahrain that has failed to investigate torture claims in the case of a man who has been sentenced to death.
The ombudsman receives the funds as part of a £2.1m package to improve the criminal justice system in the Gulf state, which is a key ally of the UK. Tobias Ellwood, the junior Foreign Office minister, told MPs last month that “we encourage all those with concerns [in Bahrain] about their treatment in detention to report these directly to the ombudsman”.
But despite a formal complaint from the family of Mohammed Ramadan, a 32-year-old airport guard, the ombudsman has failed to investigate. Ramadan’s wife, Zaynab Ebrahim, has called on UK ministers to use their influence to halt his execution and demand a retrial. She said: “His hands were cuffed from behind and they beat him severely with the use of wires and punches and kicking in a random and sustained manner to coerce his confession.
“[The jailers] also detained him in a very cold room and they refused to let him sit, and whenever he tried to sit he was beaten and humiliated. When he told them he cannot stand for long due to a back problem, they increased the pressure on him [to stand].”
Ebrahim said the prosecution was “revenge against him for his peaceful political and social activities”.
Ramadan says he has been kept in solitary confinement and beaten around the genitals, where he previously had surgery. The former security guard was arrested – allegedly without a warrant – in February 2014. He was later convicted of taking part in a bombing that killed a policeman.
Ramadan did not confess under torture, but the court accepted the confession of another defendant, Husain Moosa, who was also sentenced to death. It is claimed that he was beaten until he admitted to the involvement of others. Ramadan’s death sentence was upheld last November by Bahrain’s top appeals court.
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