Six years are about to elapse with the anniversary of the Bahraini uprising coming up on the 14 February. Over the breadth of that period, the Bahraini regime have attempted to stifle the Bahraini uprising through all and any means: militarily, economically, and politically. Yet, astoundingly the Bahraini people have not stopped, continuing to call by all legal means for all their internationally enshrined freedoms and rights, from democracy and human rights to a right to self-determination (for the whole political system) and national wealth, and a complete end to Al-Khalifa tyrannical rule.  

The regime cowardly thwarted the country's sovereignty  in 2011 by inviting over Saudi troops from the so-called GCC Shield to crackdown on hundreds of thousands of peaceful protesters, and  to destroy the Pearl Roundabout. Despite this, Bahrainis swarm peacefully around villages, towns, and cities peacefully protesting in the same strong fashion seen in 2011 everyday. 

Bahrain's prisons, namely Jau and Drydocks, have been ram-packed with atleast 4000 political prisoners, yet more peacefully sprout in the cities, towns, and villages in Bahrain, where now execution is the final modus operandi for Al-Khalifa to deal with dissent. Torture, false confessions, and ultra vires killings have not dwarfed the passion of the Bahraini people.

In spite of this, following especially from the commencement of trials against Sheikh Isa Qassim, the highest Shia religious authority in Bahrain, thousands of Bahrainis, from various cities and towns come out, showing full support and backing of the Sheikh in all circumstances. Many, you would observe, wear the Islamic death shroud, illustrating their willingness to defend Sheikh Isa Qassim under any circumstance, and continue the peaceful Bahraini uprising movement. 

The lesson here is for the Al-Khalifa regime itself; it must understand that it is only entering a phase with the Bahraini people where any reaction would be devastating for their illegitimate rule as well as the security of the country and region. Bahrain Campaign thoroughly believes that Bahrain's Western allies must see that the leadership of the Al-Khalifa family will continually endanger the security of the country and region. At the current trajectory, Bahrain, day-by-day, year-by-year, will not improve, and will never be stable or peaceful. The end product and the true solution has always been the same, as chanted by the Bahraini people six years ago: the regime must end.      

                              

In January, three men were executed – three men whose fate I had grown to care about from the shelter of a media centre in North London. Almost a year ago to the day, I began researching and producing a documentary that investigated three men on Bahrain’s death row: 21 year old Ali al-Singace, Abbas al-Samea, 27, and Sami Mushaima, 42. They were at the heart of a story that cried for diplomatic intervention, with overwhelming evidence that suggested they had been arrested, in reality, not for the killing of three policemen in a bomb blast in March 2014, but for the crime of opposing the nation’s monarchy.

These men alleged they were being targeted by the authorities for being members of well-known, anti-government families, and presented alibis that absolved them of responsibility for the 2014 Daih bombing. Yet these claims were never heard in court or independently investigated. Officials clung to confessions that their lawyers gravely highlighted had been extracted under torture. It was hard not to grimace at the pictures of the wounds allegedly inflicted by the men’s custodians. One of the suspects was reportedly taken to court in a wheelchair because of the severity of his injuries. But the gravity of being denied anything close to a fair trial reached new depths in January, when the men were placed before a firing squad.

The British government is using a multi-million pound aid programme to fund Bahrain's parliament while the Gulf country bans opposition parties, reverses human rights reforms and carries out executions, Middle East Eye can reveal.

Funding for the parliament, which critics say is a "rubber-stamping" body for the kingdom’s ruling family, was revealed in a breakdown provided under the Freedom of Information Act.

The funding, which is part of the Foreign Office's £2m "technical assistance" programme in the country, supports officials in the Council of Representatives despite internal concerns from advisers that it could be used as PR “fig leaf" over human rights concerns.

The revelation that the UK is funding the parliament comes as the Gulf state reverses key rights reforms and carries out executions in the face of international condemnation.