Hawzah News Agency-A Foreign Office-backed initiative to monitor human rights abuses in Bahrain has been accused of failing to investigate allegations that opponents of the country’s government are being tortured into making confessions.

In two cases it is alleged the confessions resulted in death sentences.

One key measure was the appointment of an ombudsman to investigate claims of human rights abuses. But campaign groups say the watchdog is failing to investigate serious claims of mistreatment and torture, including that of Mohammed Ramadan, an opponent of the government who was sentenced to death.

The Observer has seen evidence that in 2014 the ombudsman was sent a lengthy statement from the civil rights organisation Americans for Democracy and Human Rights (ADHR) in Bahrain, which alleged that Ramadan, a father of three who before his arrest regularly attended protests against the government, had been tortured.

The ADHR said in an email: “The officers took Mohammed to another room and began torturing him. They beat, slapped and kicked him all over his body, focusing on his head and ears. They called him a traitor and accused him of killing an officer. When Mohammed denied these accusations, they beat him more violently. This torture continued for four days.”

It continued: “Mohammed finally agreed to confess because he wanted the torture to end. He said that he would sign or confess to anything but the officers refused to tell him what to say.”

“The Foreign Office has been funding an incompetent ombudsman in Bahrain that has been caught red-handed lying to them about the existence of a torture complaint concerning Mohammed Ramadan,” said Sayed Alwadaei of the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy. “There now remains only one proportionate response to such deception and that is to sever all taxpayer funding to and support for the ombudsman before it inflicts further harm upon victims of human rights abuse in Bahrain.”