DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Bahraini authorities on Sunday put to death three men found guilty of a deadly bomb attack on police, the kingdom’s first executions since an Arab Spring-inspired uprising rocked the country in 2011. The men were killed by a firing squad Sunday morning in the presence of a judge, physician and a Muslim cleric, State news agency BNA reported, quoting the head of the Terrorist Crimes Prosecution, Ahmed El-Hamady. “It would be shameful if the UK continued to support Bahrain’s security apparatus and interior ministry in the face of such terrible abuses.”

Agnes Callamard, the UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions, tweeted:

Dr Agnes Callamard (@AgnesCallamard) #Bahrain executed Abbas al-Samea, Ali al-Singace, Sami Mushaima. The executions came less than a week after Bahrain's highest court upheld their death sentences over a bomb attack in March 2014, the agency said. Government forces crushed the 2011 uprising with help from allies Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, but the country continues to face low-level unrest led by a majority Shiite population that feels marginalized by the Sunni monarchy. "These executions, the first to be carried out since 2010, are a deeply regressive step for a country whose authorities' have repeatedly trumpeted their commitment to human rights." UK urged to loosen ties with Gulf nation as protesters claim confession was extracted under torture and men’s trial was sham

Britain is facing calls to loosen its ties with Bahrain after three Shia Muslim men convicted of killing an Emirati police officer and two Bahraini police officers in a 2014 bomb attack were executed. “The death sentences handed to Ali, Sami and Abbas were based on ‘confessions’ extracted through torture, and the trial an utter sham.”

Government officials did not respond to a request for comment Sunday on allegations that torture was used against the men.
Bahrain executes three people for their alleged involvement in a bombing that killed three police officers in 2014, the first executions in the country since 2010.