Bahrain Mirror: The United Kingdom expressed its concern at the 4-year-jail term handed down to Bahrain's opposition leader, Sheikh Ali Salman. The UK Foreign Office Minister for the Middle East and North Africa, Tobias Ellwood, said: "I am concerned by the verdict and the sentence handed down to Sheikh Ali Salman and I raised this case with the Bahraini authorities during my visit last weekend. I understand that Sheikh Ali Salman can still choose to appeal the court's decision."

The British minister; however, did not fail to recall in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office's statement issued late on Tuesday, June 16, 2015, that the British Government is supporting the Government of Bahrain "in its reform program, aimed at strengthening human rights and the rule of law, by providing technical assistance in judicial, policing and political reforms. Bahrain has made progress in its reforms, but we are clear more needs to be done, and the UK remains committed to supporting Bahrain in that process."

For his part, Ali Al-Aswad, a former retired Al-Wefaq MP, wondered about "the kind of training the judges and public prosecution representatives receive in Bahrain that leads to arresting politicians and human rights defenders, and about the programs used in training the police, for they have not stopped committing violations even after the report of the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI)".

Commenting on the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office's tweet, Al-Aswad posted via his personal Twitter account that the people of Bahrain are also asking about "the content of the training courses that lead to confessions under torture and accusations that contradict with the International Law."

@FCOArabic كما أنّ هناك سؤال لأبناء #البحرين عن محتوى الدورات التدريبية التي تقود الى إعترافات تحت التعذيب وإتهامات تتناقض مع القانون الدولي

— Ex MP Ali Alaswad (@am_aswad) June 16, 2015

The Arabic Issue