The Swiss foreign ministry has expressed “serious” concern that four people in Bahrain have been sentenced to death for participating in anti-government protests.

The ministry has called on the Bahrain government to commute the sentences as part of a review of the decisions.

The four were sentenced on April 28 following a closed hearing by a military tribunal.

“Bahrain has only very rarely pronounced and applied a death penalty in recent years,” the ministry said in a statement.

“The foreign ministry therefore encourages the Bahrain authorities to maintain this moratorium and as a next step, to abolish completely the death penalty.”

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