CAT/C/BHR/CO/2-3 (b) Strengthen measures to prevent acts of torture and ill-treatment in all places where persons are deprived of their liberty; (c) Take vigorous measures to eliminate impunity for acts of torture by holding alleged perpetrators accountable for such acts; (d) Establish a plan for the implementation of the recommendations of the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry. Military courts and the National Security Agency 10. The Committee is concerned about: (a) The amendment made in March 2017 to article 105 (b) of the Constitution and the amendments made in April 2017 to the Military Justice Code allowing for civilians to be tried in military courts for cases concerning a threat to national security, which appears to be contrary to recommendation No. 1720 of the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry; (b) Allegations that trials that took place in military courts during the state of national safety were unfair and that the judgments reached were often based on coerced confessions; (c) The restoration of law enforcement and arrest functions to the National Security Agency (arts. 2, 11-13 and 15-16). 11. The Committee recommends that the State party: (a) Consider repealing the legislative provisions concerning the trial of civilians by military courts and repeal the recent amendments to the Military Justice Code; (b) Implement recommendation No. 1720 of the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry and make subject to full review in the ordinary courts all convictions and sentences rendered by the National Safety Courts in which the fundamental principles of a fair trial, including prompt and full access to legal counsel and inadmissibility of coerced testimony, were not respected; (c) Implement recommendation No. 1718 of the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry and ensure that the National Security Agency is an intelligence gathering agency without law enforcement and arrest authorities. Resumption of the application of the death penalty 12. The Committee is gravely concerned about: (a) The interruption by the State party of the de facto moratorium that had been in place since 2010 on the application of the death penalty, which led to the execution by firing squad on 15 January 2017 of Abbas al-Samea, Sami Mushaima and Ali al-Singace; (b) Reports that the trials of the three men convicted of killing three police officers in 2014 were based on confessions obtained under torture, and the fact that the reports were not properly investigated by the competent authorities; (c) The situation of Mohammed Ramadhan and Hussain Ali Moosa, who face the death penalty and are said to have been convicted on the basis of confessions extracted under torture (arts. 2, 11-13 and 15-16). 13. The State party should: (a) Consider the prompt re-establishment of a moratorium on the use of the death penalty; (b) Consider, in that context, pardoning and reprieving all inmates currently on death row and commuting their sentences; (c) Ensure that allegations by defendants that their confessions have been obtained under torture are properly investigated by competent bodies. No court 3

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