The regime in Bahrain has executed two Shiites despite appeals by human rights groups to stop their execution.

Al-Wefaq, a prominent opposition group, announced martyrdom of Ali Mohamed Hakeem al-Arab and Ahmed Isa Ahmed Isa al-Malali, both were convicted of so-called ‘terror’ charges.

Malali and Arab were convicted in a mass trial involving 60 people in January 2018. Both had exhausted all possible judicial appeals.

A last-minute appeal to stop their imminent execution was issued by the UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial killings, Agnès Callamard.

Callamard said in a statement the men were tortured, prevented from attending their trial and sentenced to death in absentia.

Amnesty International Middle East research director, Lynn Maalouf, also warned the executions were “an utterly shameful show of contempt for human rights”.

“The death penalty is an abhorrent assault on the right to life and the utmost cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment. Its use is appalling in all circumstances, but it is all the more shocking when it is imposed after an unfair trial in which the defendants were tortured to ‘confess’,” she said.

Source: Agencies