Bahrain Mirror: Bahrain's King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa issued decree 101/2019 on December 15, 2019, remitting the remainder of prison sentences imposed on convicts in some cases.

Apart from the names of three political detainees, the majority of those who benefited from the decree were criminal prisoners.

After examining the 269 names who benefited from the royal decree and that were published in the Official Gazette, it was revealed that more than half of those who benefited from the pardoning decree are foreign criminal prisoners. It was also found that the decree included at least 136 non-Bahrainis and foreigners, and the rest of the names (133) are a mixture of Bahrainis and Arabs who are believed to be serving sentences over criminal cases.

Before issuing the pardoning inmates, the king had directed the public prosecution to expand the application of the alternative penalty law. Meanwhile, the Public Prosecution announced that there are at least 530 prisoners who met the standards of the law.

So far, a number of political detainees have benefited from the expansion of the law, but follow-up human rights figures have said that there has not yet been a major release process commensurate with what the public prosecution has announced.

Arabic Version