Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assessment he has made of the validity of reports that the so-called Bahrain 13 were tortured during 2011.

The Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry acknowledged reports in 2011, at the time these individuals were sentenced, which suggested that some of them had been abused in detention, denied access to legal counsel and coerced into confessing. We publically expressed concern at the decision by the Cassation Court to uphold the life sentences of these individuals, not least because of the reports of mistreatment and lack of due legal process.