TEHRAN – Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi has railed against the Bahraini government for executing a number of protesters after reportedly torturing them into signing false confessions.

In a statement on Saturday, Mousavi urged the Manama regime to abandon its crackdown on protesters and respect the will of the Bahraini people, according to Tasnim.

“The Bahraini government’s sectarian measure to execute the protesters reveals that it still insists on its wrong policy of suppression of protesters instead of choosing the path of rationality and trying to resolve the self-inflicted crisis through reconciliation with the people,” he stated.

The spokesman also highlighted the Bahraini government’s record in employing extremist groups and the terrorist members of al-Qaeda for eliminating opposition figures.

“Execution of protesters on various pretexts is a continuation of the same previous approach, with the difference being that this time, the government has personally undertaken to carry out the policy of elimination of protesters instead of cooperating with terrorist groups,” Mousavi said.

“Intensification of security-policing approaches would not help settle the crisis in Bahrain,” he added.

It came a day after Bahrain executed three people, including two prominent Shia activists, despite objections raised by governments and rights groups around the world.

Ahmad al-Malali, 24, and Ali Hakim al-Arab, 25, were executed at Jaw prison, south of the capital Manama, on Friday after private meetings with their families.

The Human Rights Watch (HRW) had called on the Bahraini king to revoke the executions and spare the two young men from “such a cruel death.”

Amnesty International said earlier this week that al-Malali and al-Arab had been tortured in custody through electric shocks and beatings.

MH/PA