signing confessions. Witnesses called by the prosecution also said that they had been threatened by police into incriminating MUM defendants. The forced testimonies were admitted by court and used by the prosecution throughout the trial. Elgiz Garhaman, a NIDA Youth movement activist, was sentenced to five and a half years in prison on fabricated drug-related charges following an unfair trial. He was denied access to lawyers of his choice, and kept incommunicado for a week following his detention. During the trial, he told the judge the police had beaten, threatened and humiliated him into signing a confession. The judge refused to order an investigation into his allegations, dismissing them as groundless. On 1 December, the amendments to the Code of Civil and Administrative Procedure excluded lawyers without Bar Association (Collegium of Lawyers) membership from court proceedings. DEATHS IN CUSTODY The authorities repeatedly failed to promptly and effectively investigate reported deaths in custody. On 4 May, the ECtHR ruled that the Azerbaijani government violated the right to life of Mahir Mustafayev for its failure to protect his life while in custody and to conduct an effective investigation into the circumstances of his death. Mahir Mustafayev died from his burns caused by a fire in his cell in December 2006. On 28 April, activist and blogger Mehman Qalandarov was found hanged in his prison cell in Kurdakhani. Police arrested him on drug-related charges for his Facebook posts in support of two other activists who had been arrested for spraying political graffiti. According to local human rights defenders, Mehman Qalandarov had been tortured and was buried in secret to conceal the evidence. The prison administration announced his death on 29 April, and an investigation was ongoing at the end of the year. 84 BAHRAIN Kingdom of Bahrain Head of state: King Hamad bin Issa al-Khalifa Head of government: Shaikh Khalifa bin Salman alKhalifa The government launched a large-scale campaign to clamp down on all forms of dissent by repressing the rights to freedom of expression and association of human rights defenders and government critics. This campaign was marked by travel bans; the arrest, interrogation and arbitrary detention of human rights defenders; the dissolution of the opposition group Waad and the closure of the newspaper al-Wasat; as well as the continued imprisonment of opposition leaders. Scores of people were sentenced to long prison terms after unfair trials. Authorities stripped at least 150 people of their Bahraini nationality, rendering the majority stateless. Mass protests were met with excessive force, resulting in the deaths of five men and one child and the injury of hundreds. Executions resumed after a hiatus of nearly seven years. BACKGROUND Bahrain joined Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Egypt in severing ties with Qatar. Bahrain remained part of the Saudi Arabia-led coalition engaged in armed conflict in Yemen (see Yemen entry). In January, Decree 1 of 2017 authorized the National Security Agency (NSA) to conduct arrests and interrogations in cases linked to “terrorist crimes”, reversing a Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry recommendation. In April, the King reversed another such recommendation by ratifying a constitutional amendment that re-enabled military courts to try civilians. In December, six men were sentenced to death in the first trial of civilians by a military court, which had begun in October. In June, Bahrain’s lower house approved a decree ending retirement rights and benefits of those who Amnesty International Report 2017/18