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Bangladesh In Furor Over Bahrain Pardons
WASHINGTON & DAKKAH, Feb 12 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Issa al-Khalifa pardoned eight Bahraini Shiite Muslims who were jailed for the murder of seven Bangladeshis during a wave of anti-government unrest in 1996, the official GNA agency said Sunday.
The state security court, whose verdicts cannot be appealed, had handed three death sentences, four life prison terms and one 15-year jail term to the eight in 1996 for having caused the death of seven Bangladeshis in an arson attack in a Bahrain restaurant in south Manama.
The seven Bangladeshis were all Sunni Muslim migrant workers.
The defendants' lawyers had denounced the verdicts, saying there was no proof of their guilt.
On December 26th, Bahrain's emir commuted the death sentences to life imprisonment.
Around 100 people are still in detention without trial for their role in Shiite-led unrest that rocked the archipelago between 1994 and 1999, according to diplomats.
Khalifa launched a liberalization process after he succeeded his father in March 1999 and, according to the opposition, at least 900 political prisoners have since been freed.
On February 5th, Khalifa granted amnesty to hundreds of prisoners and allowed exiled Bahrainis to return.
It was one of the opposition's key demands ahead of the referendum to be held Wednesday and Thursday on the restoration of parliament.
In an effort to gain support for his reforms Khalifa has been touring the country, which included a visit to Sitra, the hometown of the eight pardoned men.
Human rights activists in Bangladesh, however, sharply criticized the amnesty of the eight, with the Bangladesh Legal Aid Services Trust calling the pardon an outrage for the families of the dead.
Except for Amnesty International, who welcomed the amnesty, various human rights organizations have criticized the move, accusing the government of mistreating foreign laborers.
Amnesty said: "We hope this will be followed by more positive steps, such as the amendment of the country's legislation to bring it into harmony with international human rights standards."
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