Navi Pillay, United Nations High Commissioner for Human
Rights, is writing to King Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa to press her concerns at
the harsh sentences laid down on very broad charges, her spokeswoman Ravina
Shamdasani said.
“There are serious concerns that the due process rights of
the defendants, many of whom are well-known human rights defenders, were not
respected, and the trials appear to bear the marks of political persecution,”
Shamdasani told a news briefing in Geneva.
Bahrain sentenced eight prominent political activists and
opposition leaders to life in prison on Wednesday on charges of plotting a coup
during protests in the kingdom earlier this year.
In all, 21 defendants, six of them tried in absentia, were
charged with plotting to overthrow the government by force in collusion with a
“terrorist organization” working for a foreign country. They can appeal the
sentences.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the US State Department
have also voiced alarm at the harsh sentences.
The protests demanded political reforms and an end to
discrimination.
A Bahrain military court last week postponed the trial of 48
doctors arrested during the crackdown on dissent, after their lawyers said they
had been tortured in custody.
“We understand that the trial of these medical professionals
is to be held next week,” Pillay’s spokeswoman said.
Pillay, a former UN war crimes judge, is concerned at the
continuing work of the Lower National Safety Court, as the king lifted a state
of emergency on June 1, Shamdasani said.
The court has convicted more than 100 people since March
this year, mostly for crimes they were accused of committing during the
protests, she said. “We understand that in total, up to 1,000 people reportedly
remain in prison,” she said.
“We call for an immediate cessation of trials of civilians
in the court of national safety and an immediate release of peaceful
demonstrators who were arrested in the context of the protest movement in
February,” Shamdasani added.
Pillay’s office had cited worrying reports of mistreatment
of detainees, including severe beatings of some of the defendants just
sentenced, according to her spokeswoman.
“The government must urgently conduct an independent
investigation into these allegations,” Shamdasani said.
Failing a credible independent national investigation, then
an international probe should be conducted, she added.
