EU's foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton has warned Bahraini authorities that the imminent executions of four Shias could exacerbate tensions in the Gulf state.
Ms Ashton said in a statement she was ‘deeply concerned’ about the fate of four Bahraini nationals sentenced to death by a military court on 28 April for the alleged murder of two police officers during anti-government protests in March.
‘These death sentences risk further exacerbating recent tensions in Bahrain and as such, present an obstacle to national reconciliation,’ she said in a statement.
Earlier, Bahraini authorities said it will charge a number of medical workers with causing the death of two demonstrators, broadening a big crackdown on opposition.
Human rights groups say Sunni-led Bahrain has targeted doctors and medical staff who aided mostly-Shia protesters during anti-government demonstrations it crushed in March.
It brought in troops from Sunni-led Gulf Arab neighbours who feared potential interference from non-Arab Shia power Iran.
Justice Minister Khaled bin Ali al-Khalifa told reporters 47 medical staff would face prosecution charges, including about two dozen doctors.
Not all of them would be prosecuted for causing the protesters deaths, but he did not specify how many would face such charges.
He alleged the two protesters died because staff inflicted additional wounds on them or gave unneeded treatments.
Bahraini forces stormed the Salmaniyya Medical Centre (SMC), the country's largest hospital in mid-March as it set about quelling protests led mostly by the country's Shia majority.
Bahraini officials said at the time that the hospital had become 'overrun by political and sectarian activity'.
Human rights groups have accused Bahrain of targeting hospitals to detain those wounded during the protests.
According to Sheikh Khaled, doctors inflicted additional wounds on a protester who arrived at SMC with a wound on his thigh, causing him to bleed to death.
He said that in another case doctors conducted unnecessary surgery on a protester who was shot in the head, adding that the doctors involved in these two cases would be charged with 'assault that led to death.'
Other doctors and nurses face charges at Bahrain's national safety courts that range from inciting hatred against the political system to possession of weapons and embezzlement of public funds.
At least 13 protesters and four policemen were killed and hundreds injured in clashes during the protests that gripped the country for weeks in February and March.
Bahrain has arrested hundreds since quashing protests, which called for broader political liberties and an end to sectarian discrimination Shias say they face.
A few Shia opposition groups demanded the abolition of the monarchy.
The government says it only targets those who committed crimes during the unrest.
It has said about 400 people detained in the aftermath of the protests will face prosecution.
The US and top oil exporter Saudi Arabia regard Bahrain's ruling family as a bulwark against the regional influence of Iran, with which tensions have risen sharply in the aftermath of the protests.
Bahrain's broad crackdown on those involved in the protests has targeted Shia villages, opposition activists, workers employed at state-owned companies as well as journalists.
Late yesterday, two former parliamentarians from the main Shia opposition group Wefaq were arrested, a source close to the group said.
The group had resigned from parliament, whose powers are limited, in February to protest at police violence.
Bahrain's Al Wasat newspaper, seen as the country's only opposition publication, will stop running as of next week, a source close to the paper told Reuters on Tuesday.
The government temporarily suspended the paper last month until three of its main editors resigned.
It accused the paper of falsifying news about sectarian unrest and the government crackdown and said it posed a threat to the security of Bahrain, a US ally that hosts the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet.
Bahrain has no private broadcasters and other newspapers toe the government line on political and sectarian affairs.
