Britain Funded Torture Training in Bahrain

A Belfast business owned by the U.K. government has funded training for hundreds of prison guards who have tortured inmates in Bahrain prison, according to a report from Reprieve released on Friday.

The report alleges that the state-owned Northern Ireland Co-operation Overseas Ltd, or NI-CO, received funding from the U.K Foreign Office, which trained Bahraini authorities to torture innocent inmates into false confessions and failed to adequately investigate allegations of torture.

The report, “Belfast to Bahrain: the torture trail,” said that NI-CO, a consultancy company, is deeply involved in Bahrain’s penal and government system where “a victim could be abused by NI-CO trained police, tortured in prison by NI-CO trained guards, and then have their torture allegation investigated and dismissed by the NI-CO trained ombudsman.”