Fresh fears over extent of UK links to Bahrain ‘torture prisons’
New documents reveal UK contractors visited Bahrain 28 times in 12 months amid an ongoing rights crackdown.
New documents reveal UK contractors visited Bahrain 28 times in 12 months amid an ongoing rights crackdown.
UK government contractors have spent more than 650 days in Bahrain training prison guards, including officers at the notorious Jaw prison where death-row inmates are held and allegedly tortured, Middle East Eye reveals.
Contractors for the Foreign Office spent a total of 685 days in Bahrain training guards from 2015 to the end of 2016, making 28 visits to the country in 12 months, according to documents obtained by London-based rights group Reprieve.
The contractors are employees of NI-CO, a company owned by the Northern Irish government and appointed by the Foreign Office in Bahrain, which has trained more than 400 prison guards as part of a contract worth the equivalent of $1.2m.
