UK concern is not enough, the people of Bahrain need protection and they need real justice brought to the criminal state of al Khalifa

UK Parliamentarians express concern for Bahrain activists

23rd June, 2011

Politicians in the UK have been speaking out against the showtrials of opposition leaders in Bahrain. Lord Avebury, a long-time human rights activist who has been supporting the pro-democracy movement in Bahrain since the mid-1990s, wrote to Foreign Secretary William Hague, saying:

“We should have realised long ago that you can’t hold a dialogue with a man whose foot is on your neck, and I suggest that we ask the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to visit Bahrain and report to the world on the human rights situation, and particularly on the state of health of the people convicted, most if not all of whom have apparently been tortured. May I also ask you to protest to the authorities about the trial and life sentence passed on the British citizen Saeed Al-Shehabi, who wasn’t notified of the charges against him, let alone represented by a lawyer of his choice. This was a grossly irregular process, and one that I hope you will publicly condemn.”

Foreign Office minister for the Middle East, Alistair Burt also reiterated that the government is ‘concerned’ about the situation in Bahrain[1]. However, the UK government has been expressing concern for some time now, and even the addition of Bahrain to the US list of human rights abusers[2] has not proved embarrassing enough for the authorities to change their hard-line stance. Lord Avebury told BCHR that ‘action needs to be taken at the level of the Secretary of State [William Hague]’, and that the UK needs to do more than just continually express ‘concern’ about the situation. http://www.bahrainrights.org/en/node/4306