It has of course taken far too long but the decision of the High Court in London to allow three Kenyans to proceed with a civil claim against the UK Government for torture is very welcome news. Sadly many of the victims that the UK now admits were tortured have not lived long enough to see this significant step towards accountability. The UK Government should now abandon their shameful attempts to deny liability and accept their responsibility.

It was obvious 12 months ago that sentencing human rights defender Abdulhadi Alkhawaja to life in prison after torturing him and subjecting him to a show trial before a military court was a sign of weakness and desperation from the side of Bahrain's rulers. They were frantically trying to construct a conspiracy of foreign subversion even as all the world could see that the truth was bloody repression of peaceful protests. They even detained, tortured and prosecuted medical professionals who had had the affront to tell the truth about those who had been tortured and killed. The attempt at a cover up was a pathetic failure in spite of millions spent on Western PR agencies.