Following the international outcry over the sentencing of 20 medical professionals to sentences ranging from 5 to 15 years the Attorney General of Bahrain has announced that the medics will now have a new trial before a civilian court.
Further Information
Front Line Defenders welcomes this positive news while treating it with due caution given the failure of the Bahraini Government to honour previous commitments to transfer all outstanding cases to civilian courts and to reinstate those people who had been dismissed from their jobs because of their alleged participation in the pro-democracy demonstrations.
This announcement does nothing to address the fact that human rights defenders, political activists, health professionals and trade unionists have been subjected to summary justice, arrested on trumped up charges, held incommunicado, tortured and denied access to their lawyers and families.
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