Crime and Justice Death Penalty and the Right to Life
June 2010 Inter Press Service http://www.ipsnews.net/deathpenaltyabolition/june2010.asp
June 2010
IPS, the global news agency, brings you independent news and views on capital punishment. In this newsletter you will Download as PDF find in-depth reports by IPS correspondents from around the world and columns by experts, in addition to special sections for news from international NGOs and a review of the global media for a glimpse of what is happening on the ground. Join us in helping strengthen awareness about the abolition of death penalty – and encourage your friends and colleagues to subscribe to this free monthly newsletter.
DEATH PENALTY: World Moving Towards Abolition By Mehru Jaffer VIENNA, May 20, 2010 (IPS) - Anti-death penalty activists meeting in the Austrian capital to discuss the eighth quinquennial report of the United Nations Secretary-General have hailed a worldwide trend towards total and universal abolition of capital punishment. MORE >>
IRAN: Rights Group Condemns Secret Executions By William Fisher NEW YORK, May 14, 2010 (IPS) - Iran's nuclear ambitions and the bloody disturbances following its elections last year have so dominated media reporting on the country that many equally critical issues have been virtually forgotten. MORE >>
Death Penalty Back on the Agenda in Nigeria By Toluwa Olusegun LAGOS, May 11, 2010 (IPS) - It has been nearly twenty years since an official execution has taken place in Nigeria. State governors have been unwilling to sign the execution warrants of persons on death row. MORE >>
PHILIPPINES: Death Penalty Dashes Migrant Workers’ Hopes By Kara Santos MANILA, May 11, 2010 (IPS) - Every day some 4,500 Filipinos leave their homeland in search of the proverbial green pastures. But some of them end up facing death instead. MORE >>
INDIA: Hanging for Pakistani Sets Back Anti-Death Penalty Campaign By Ranjit Devraj NEW DELHI, May 10, 2010 (IPS) - The death sentence awarded to Pakistani national Mohammed Ajmal Kasab, 22, for his role in the 2008 terror attack on the western port city of Mumbai that killed 166 people is being seen as a setback to a campaign to have the extreme punishment abolished in India. MORE >>
RIGHTS: Gov’t Apathy to Indians on Death Row in UAE Assailed By Sujoy Dhar NEW DELHI, May 4, 2010 (IPS) - Despite the Indian government’s pledge to extend assistance, legal or otherwise, to the 17 Indian migrant workers currently on death row in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), human rights advocates have decried its alleged insensitivity to the prisoners’ plight. MORE >>
WORLD PRESS REVIEW: TAIWAN: EU CONDEMNS RESUMPTION OF EXECUTIONS -- TAIWAN: TIME NOT RIPE FOR DEATH PENALTY REFERENDUM, SAYS JUSTICE MINISTER -- CHINA: NEW RULES ON CONFESSION TO LIMIT DEATH SENTENCES -- CHINA: TOMB ROBBERS SENTENCED TO DEATH -- CHINA: TWO DRUG DEALERS SENTENCED TO DEATH -- INDIA: MUMBAI ATTACKS GUNMAN COULD BE HANGED THIS YEAR -- VIETNAM: DRUG SMUGGLERS SENTENCED TO DEATH -- MALAYSIA: CONTRACTOR TO HANG FOR DRUG TRAFFICKING -- MALAYSIA: LIBERIAN'S DEATH SENTENCE FOR DRUG TRAFFICKING UPHELD -- SINGAPORE JUSTIFIES MANDATORY DEATH PENALTY FOR DRUG TRAFFICKERS -- AFGHANISTAN: OVER 100 DEATH SENTENCES PENDING BEFORE PRESIDENT -- EU: IRAN URGED TO DROP DEATH SENTENCE ON TWO 'MOHAREBS' -- IRAN: FILMMAKER JAFAR PANAHI RELEASED -- KUWAIT: DEATH PENALTY FOR A WOMAN WHO KILLED 57 PEOPLE -- GAZA: HAMAS 'EXECUTES THREE FOR MURDER' -- JORDAN: MAN SENTENCED TO DEATH AFTER KILLING WIFE FOR REFUSING SEX -- LEBANON: COLONEL GETS DEATH PENALTY FOR SPYING FOR ISRAEL -- LIBYA: 18 PEOPLE EXECUTED BY FIRING SQUAD -- MAURITANIA: DEATH SENTENCE FOR AL-QAEDA YOUTHS IN FRENCH KILLINGS -- MAURITANIA: TERROR SUSPECTS FACE DEATH PENALTY -- DRC: REBELS GET DEATH SENTENCES FOR MBANDAKA ATTACK -- DRC: TWO SOLDIERS AND A CIVILIAN GET DEATH -- ZIMBABWE: COURT ACQUITS MUGABE OPPONENT ROY BENNETT -- ALABAMA (USA): MAN EXECUTED FOR 1976 KIDNAPPING, RAPE AND MURDER -- MISSISSIPPI EXECUTES 2ND INMATE IN AS MANY DAYS -- TEXAS (USA): MAN EXECUTED FOR 1998 KILLING
News from International NGOs: PRI at UN Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice session -- Alternative Report Says Kazakh HIV Prevention Measures In Prisons Inadequate -- Human Rights Groups Condemn Two New Belarus Death Sentences -- PRI Launches Programme in Burundi -- Sudanese Man Facing Execution In Saudi Arabia Over ‘Sorcery’ Charges -- Will Need Strong Mandate, Cooperation from Security Services -- At Least 17 More Kurdish Prisoners at Risk of Imminent Execution -- San Francisco hosts World Coalition AGM -- World Coalition Takes Part In UN Death Penalty Report Launch
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DEATH PENALTY World Moving Towards Abolition By Mehru Jaffer
VIENNA, May 20, 2010 (IPS) - Anti-death General's report is an extremely penalty activists meeting in the Austrian important and valuable tool in capital to discuss the eighth reminding the world to abolish capital quinquennial report of the United punishment. The report will keep the Nations Secretary-General have hailed a dialogue and discussion with worldwide trend towards total and governments alive," said Thomas H. universal abolition of capital Speedy Rice of the National Association punishment. of Criminal Defence Lawyers (NACDL) from the United States. The abolitionists are euphoric although several countries, where capital Rice told IPS that in his opinion the punishment remains in force, also report contributed to a continuing and disrespect international norms and more reasoned debate on a very standards on three counts - in limiting emotive subject. He praised the the death penalty to very serious approach of the report and the crimes, excluding juvenile offenders contribution made by both U.N. offices from its scope and guaranteeing fair and non-governmental campaigners trial. such as the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty (WCADP), an alliance of The U.N. report on capital punishment NGOs, bar associations, local bodies and and implementation of the safeguards unions. guaranteeing protection of the rights of those facing the death penalty was Together with WCADP, the NACDL tabled Thursday before the U.N. hosted an ancillary meeting on Thursday Commission on Crime Prevention and that was also attended by Jacqueline Criminal Justice at its 19th session that Macalesher, death penalty project concludes here on May 20. manager for the London-based Penal Reform International (PRI). "The campaign against abolishing the death penalty is a long one requiring Macalesher highlighted PRI's ongoing constant reminders. And the Secretary- programme on the abolition of the
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death penalty and alternatives that its use either in law or in practice. The respect international human rights acceleration of this practice even standards. slightly is extremely positive," said Aurelie Placaise, a campaigner For two years the PRI's death penalty representing WCADP. project will work in 20 countries in five regions to increase safeguards and The report finds that countries that promote greater accountability in retain the death penalty are, with rare criminal justice systems through holistic exceptions, significantly reducing its use policy development and legal reform, in terms of numbers of persons including improved prison management. executed and the crimes for which it may be imposed. The other objective of the project is to challenge governments to consider However, while working towards an carefully whether sanctions intended to international ban on capital punishment replace the death penalty and abolitionists also want those states that treatment of long-term prisoners retain the death penalty not to violate comply with international standards and safeguards and to fully respect existing norms. limitations and restrictions on the use of the death penalty. Macalesher, whose work began early this year, finds the Middle East and Of particular concern to abolitionists is North African regions the most the use of the death penalty against challenging because death penalty is juvenile offenders. The Convention on seen as part and parcel of the culture the Rights of the Child clearly stipulates and religion of populations there. that capital punishment shall not be imposed for offences committed by The project will take on society's persons below 18 years of age. attitudes about the death penalty and support governments to move towards The overwhelming and growing abolition, and transparency in the international consensus that the death application of the death penalty. penalty should not apply to juvenile offenders stems from the recognition "Even states that retain the death that young persons lack maturity and penalty are reported to have abolished judgement and, therefore, cannot be
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expected to be fully responsible for for in legislation but no executions have their actions. take place for at least ten years. (END)
More importantly, it reflects the firm IRAN belief that young persons are more Rights Group Condemns susceptible to change, and thus have a greater potential for rehabilitation than Secret Executions adults. By William Fisher
Placaise said that being the eve of the NEW YORK, May 14, 2010 (IPS) - Iran's U.N. resolution on a moratorium on the nuclear ambitions and the bloody use of death penalty, that faces a vote disturbances following its elections last at the end of the year at the General year have so dominated media Assembly, this is a good time to be reporting on the country that many discussing the issue. equally critical issues have been virtually forgotten. This resolution is seen as the closest
commitment of the international That's the view of Hadi Ghaemi, community to abolish capital executive director of the International punishment in the world. Campaign for Human Rights in Iran (ICHRI), a New York-based not-for-profit According to Placaise more than two- group attempting to raise public thirds of the world's countries have awareness of human rights abuses in already abolished the death penalty in Iran. law or in practice with 95 countries
having abolished the death penalty for In a telephone interview with IPS, all crimes. Ghaemi cited two issues to illustrate his point: last Sunday's secret executions of Nine countries have abolished the death five Iranian political prisoners, and the penalty for all crimes except recent elevation of Iran to the United extraordinary crimes like those Nations Commission on the Status of committed in times of war and 35 Women. countries are de facto abolitionists
where the death penalty is still provided "With the first anniversary of the
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uprising that followed Iran's deeply said, "In recent years, the Iranian flawed election, last Jun. 12, we can government has not only refused to join only expect more repression and more the Convention on the Elimination of All brutality as the authorities continue Forms of Discrimination against Women their relentless campaign to silence any (CEDAW), but has actively opposed it." voices of protest," he warned. The Iranian government, the letter said, Iran's election to the U.N. Commission "has earned international came as many women's rights activists condemnation as a gross violator of and their international supporters women's rights. Discrimination against issued a protest statement addressed to women is codified in its laws, as well as the U.N.'s Economic and Social Council in executive and cultural institutions, (ECOSOC). The statement called Iran's and Iran has consistently sought to election "shocking". It asked Council preserve gender inequality in all places, members to oppose Iran's request and from the family unit to the highest to make Iran's election conditional on its governmental bodies." adherence to international equal rights covenants. The second development referenced by Dr. Ghaemi was Iran's May 9 sudden The Iranian official news agency called and secret hanging of five political the women's rights activists "hostile prisoners. Neither their families nor groups and western media", who their lawyers were notified. through "poisonous propagation" tried to prevent Iran's membership in the ICHRI said the executions "appear to Commission on the Status of Women, signal a government policy of relying on but that "their efforts were ignored by politically-motivated executions to members of ECOSOC". strengthen its position vis-à-vis its opposition through terror and The agency said Iran's membership in intimidation". the Commission is important because "Iran's views about the position of The four men and one woman executed women can help reflect Islamic views include Farzad Kamangar, a 34-year-old about family and women". teacher and social worker, who was charged with Moharebeh (taking up The letter by women's rights activists arms against God), convicted and
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sentenced to death in February 2008, permitted to speak at his trial. after a seven-minute long trial in which "zero evidence" was presented, ICHRI Shirin Alam Holi, a 28-year-old Kurdish said in a statement. woman, was also executed. In several letters recently written from Evin He was charged with being a member of prison, she denied charges of terrorism the Party of Free Life of Kurdistan against her and said she had been (PJAK), a Kurdish nationist group that tortured to make false confessions in has been designated a "terrorist front of television cameras, which she organisation" by numerous countries, had refused. including the U.S. and European Union. At least 16 other Kurdish political "Kamangar was arbitrarily arrested and prisoners and 11 post-election set up to be killed in a staged trial, with protestors are in danger of similar no opportunity to present a defence," unannounced and sudden executions, said Aaron Rhodes, a spokesperson for ICHRI said. the Campaign. Roxana Saberi, the journalist who was He added, "These secret executions are, detained in Iran for 100 days in 2009 in in reality, nothing more than state- Iran, is among many others attempting sanctioned murders, and provide more to raise awareness of dire situation evidence of the Islamic Republic's inside Iran. brazen contempt for international human rights standards." She wrote in an Op-Ed in the Washington Post, "If the international Kamangar was held incommunicado for community fails to condemn such seven months after his arrest in July atrocities, Iran's regime will continue to 2006. ICHRI says there is "strong trample on the basic rights of evidence" that he was tortured. His individuals, many of whom have been lawyer has stated that no evidence detained simply for peacefully standing could be found in his interrogation up for universal human rights." records, file, or in presentations by prosecutors or the judge's decision to "It is common for Tehran's prisoners - support the charge of Mohareb. Neither including journalists, bloggers, women's Kamangar nor his lawyers were rights campaigners, student activists
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and adherents of the minority Baha'i faith - to be held in prolonged solitary Resolved to resume executions confinement without access to an attorney as they try to defend So it was a surprise when state themselves against fabricated charges governors emerged from an Apr. 20 such as espionage and 'propaganda meeting to announce they had agreed against Islam' or the regime," she wrote. to begin to execute prisoners in a bid to decongest overcrowded prisons. Saberi believes international pressure and media attention helped her win her The governors said the failure to carry freedom. Her book, "Between Two out death sentences was mostly due to Worlds: My Life and Captivity in Iran", a lack of courage on their part. chronicles her experiences and the stories of her fellow political prisoners But they also blamed prison authorities in Evin prison. (END) for failing to recommend executions. According to Abia State governor Death Penalty Back on the Theodore Orji, the execution papers should be initiated from the prisons. "It Agenda in Nigeria is when the recommendation comes to By Toluwa Olusegun the government that it can be implemented.
LAGOS, May 11, 2010 (IPS) - It has been Governors are willing to execute those nearly twenty years since an official execution has taken place in Nigeria. State governors have been unwilling to sign the execution warrants of persons on death row.
Amnesty International reported in 2008 that it had evidence of a number of executions in the northern state of Kano, but Nigeria has observed an unofficial moratorium on executions since 1999.
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found guilty of offences ranging from problem of prison congestion as they murder to kidnapping and armed often remand suspects pending final robbery, he said. "We agreed that those police investigation even for minor people who have been condemned offences. should be executed accordingly." He gave an example of a young boy who Answering the wrong question was detained for 10 years but was not convicted, during which period he lost But rights advocates argued that both parents. He was released after it governors can hardly base a decision to was discovered that he was wrongly resume executions on relieving arrested. overcrowding. Fapohunda, who was secretary of the Olawale Fapohunda, a managing National Study Group on Death Penalty partner at the Legal Resources inaugurated in 2004 by former Consortium in Lagos, pointed to studies president Olusegun Obasanjo, also such as one commissioned by the agreed the criminal justice system federal government in 2004, which remained faulty. show that the largest share of the prison population is made up of people He said that for that reason the group awaiting trial. recommended an official moratorium on executions pending a time Nigeria's There are more than 42,000 inmates in criminal justice system can ensure the country's 227 prisons, out of which fundamental fairness and minimise the 26,000 are awaiting trial. Fewer than risk of executing innocent people. 1,000 are awaiting the hangman. In Lagos State for example, capacity for "Our call for official moratorium on all the five prisons is put at 2,975 but the executions was borne out of the number of inmates is 4,700 out of which conviction that the federal government persons awaiting trial number 4,000. and state governors can no longer ignore the systemic problems that have Ayo Fatinikun, a Chief Superintendent of long existed in our criminal justice Prisons and spokesman for the Lagos system. State Command, told IPS that the judiciary was responsible for the "These problems have been
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exacerbated by limited funding of rejected world wide. criminal justice agencies, inadequate training of personnel and inadequate "It is not the trend in the world as the legal aid scheme, as well as the well U.S., Asia, Latin America and Africa still documented inadequacies of the Nigeria have capital punishment. If we say stop Police," he told IPS. death penalty, should we not speak for victims of crime? Don’t they have rights Research by Amnesty International in that should be protected?" 2009 found many prisoners had been sentenced to death after blatantly Over 60 percent of the world's unfair trials. population live in countries where executions still take place: China, India, Popular sentiment United States and Indonesia all retain the death penalty and are unlikely to But Nigerians, worried about the abolish it in the near future. activities of armed robbers, hired assassins, ethnic killings in some parts of In July 2008, a bill for the abolition of the country as well as recent - fatal - the death penalty in Nigeria, which incidents of rape and kidnapping, say would have permanently lifted the those who kill must face the threat of execution of thousands consequences of their actions. awaiting execution, was unanimously rejected by the National Assembly. "I am not in support of the execution of condemned prisoners for the sake of it, The sponsor of the bill, Friday Itula, a but steps must be taken to punish crime member of the ruling PDP from Edo appropriately, and for the victims to get State, had argued that capital justice," Lance Aribike, a senior civil punishment had failed to deliver on its servant in Lagos told IPS, promises -- reformation, retribution or deterrence. "Perpetrators deserved death penalty. Even the Holy Books say, Thou shall not But legislators, led by Sada Soli, from kill." Katsina state in the predominantly Muslim north of the country, where He disagreed with any suggestion that sharia law which prescribes stoning to the death penalty is increasingly death for such offences as adultery,
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described the bill as foreign interference Jakatia Pawa, 33, a mother of two pressuring Nigeria to abolish capital working as a domestic helper in Kuwait, punishment. was convicted of killing her employer’s daughter despite the lack of evidence "Abolition is a serious business," Soli linking her to the alleged crime. She said. "The law should take its natural currently faces a death sentence in course. Anyone who takes another's life Kuwait. does not deserve (to keep) his," he said. Joselito Zapanta, 30, who works as a tile Prominent Nigerians including Dr setter in Riyadh, claims he fought back Olapade Agoro, a politician and when he was beaten by his Sudanese chairman of the Conference of Nigerian landlord. Early this year, the father of Political Parties (CNPP), also agreed it two was sentenced to death for the was too early for Nigeria to abolish alleged accidental killing of his capital punishment. employer.
"Abolition could be considered in the These are just two of the cases of future when the country becomes more overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) on enlightened and the avenues (are) death row that have been documented created for people to make wealth," by Migrante International, the largest they said. (END) alliance of Filipino migrant organisations, which claims that the PHILIPPINES plight of OFWs has gotten worse.
Death Penalty Dashes Migrant "Some cases have recently been Workers’ Hopes commuted to life imprisonment, but By Kara Santos
MANILA, May 11, 2010 (IPS) - Every day some 4,500 Filipinos leave their homeland in search of the proverbial green pastures. But some of them end up facing death instead.
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there are roughly about 60 Filipinos on which monitors the overseas death row," Garry Martinez, chairperson employment of Filipinos. of Migrante International, told IPS. "Many leave the Philippines for other At least 26 of these come from the countries to work as migrant workers Middle East for crimes like homicide and due to the lack of jobs, poor working murder in self-defense. Death row cases conditions and wages and salaries which in China are also on the rise, mainly for are inadequate for decent living in the drug-related offences, according to country. But many of them end up Migrante. isolated, abused, trapped and, worse, some are killed," Dr Aurora Parong, Local news reports cite the Department director of AI-Philippines, told IPS. of Foreign Affairs (DFA) as saying some Filipinos are also facing death sentences Migrante estimates that there are close in Malaysia, Kuwait, Brunei and the to 5,000 overseas Filipinos languishing United States. in foreign jails. Cases of mysterious deaths of Filipinos in foreign countries Roughly one-third or 58 countries are also common. The non- around the world still hand out death governmental organisation receives five sentences, according to the New York- to six new cases daily. based Amnesty International (AI), while 139 countries, including the Philippines, Based on cases it has handled, Migrante have abolished the death penalty in law said that OFWs have been turned away or practice. from Philippines embassies when they sought help, were not given legal According to the Commission on counsel, and that they were forced, Population, an estimated 10 percent of usually by the host country’s police, to the country’s 92 million population make false confessions. Language and works abroad, making the Philippines cultural barriers are also a major one of the biggest senders of workers challenge. for overseas employment. Between January and November 2009 alone, "We received a letter written on toilet some 1.28 million Filipinos were paper from several (Filipinos) on death deployed abroad, said the Philippine row detailing how they were tortured Overseas Employment Administration, for five days until they confessed to a
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crime they did not commit," shared The Philippine government, though, has Martinez. The victims, who were been able to save several OFWs on working in Saudi Arabia, were able to death row in the past, by appealing to mail the letter to their families through host countries’ governments, writing a the help of Filipino nurses based in the ‘tanazul’ (letter of forgiveness) and same country. offering blood money, a compensation paid by an offender to the family of the When sought for comment, the Office victim, said Migrante. for the Undersecretary of Migrant and Workers Affairs (OUMWA) under the But this practice is unacceptable to DFA could not give any updates on the some of the OFWs. cases of the OFWs facing the death penalty. "For those in jail who are innocent, asking for forgiveness is like admitting "I have no knowledge on these cases that they committed a crime. What they because the different (consular) desks want is for the Philippine government to assigned to the countries concerned are defend them and fight for their handling that," Bert Manayao, case innocence," said Migrante’s Martinez. officer of OUMWA, told IPS. Fifteen years after the hanging of When asked what services they Filipina domestic helper Flor provided to OFWs in distress, Manayao Contemplacion in Singapore sparked said that they gave "legal assistance" public outrage, Migrante laments that but would not elaborate further. He not much progress has been achieved to added that it was difficult to deal with improve the plight of OFWs. the cases of Filipinos who "pretended to be innocent" and that many OFWs were Despite the threats confronting Filipinos easily fooled into becoming drug mules. abroad, the labour export policy in the country remains strong, which Migrante According to its website, the OUMWA is attributes to the billions the mandated to deliver "timely assistance government rakes in from mandatory to Filipino nationals" and protect "the contributions and fees required of dignity, rights and freedom of Filipino departing OFWs as well as from their citizens abroad." remittances, which hit 17.348 billion U.S. dollars in 2009, up from 16.426
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billion dollars in 2008, according to the extreme punishment abolished in India. Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (Central Bank of the Philippines.) "It is a setback in the sense that there were few voices heard for remission," Now that the May 10 presidential Colin Gonsalves, leading human rights elections are over, Migrante hopes that lawyer and vocal campaigner against the next administration will do the death penalty, told IPS. "However, I something concrete to address the am optimistic that public opinion in the hapless conditions of migrants, adding country will swing back towards that six OFWs have been beheaded abolition." under outgoing President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s watch. India was among 54 countries that voted against the December 2007 "What we want to see is the United Nations General Assembly (government’s) willingness to reverse moratorium on executions, which was the labour export policy and ensure jobs passed with 104 votes in favour and 29 locally so that these kinds of human abstentions. The South Asian country’s rights violations no longer occur," said Supreme Court ruled in 1983 that the Martinez. (END) death penalty may be resorted to only in the "rarest of rare cases". INDIA While death sentences have continued Hanging for Pakistani Sets to be handed down, hangings, the only Back Anti-Death Penalty accepted mode of execution in this Campaign country, are rarely carried out for a variety of reasons, including successful By Ranjit Devraj appeals in higher courts. India’s last
hanging took place in 2004. NEW DELHI, May 10, 2010 (IPS) - The death sentence awarded to Pakistani Kasab’s case, activists and legal experts national Mohammed Ajmal Kasab, 22, agree, went far beyond the "rarest of for his role in the 2008 terror attack on rare" category. His conviction was easy the western port city of Mumbai that because he was captured on camera as killed 166 people is being seen as a he and an accomplice, Abu Dera Ismail setback to a campaign to have the Khan, went about spraying bullets
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indiscriminately on commuters at supreme court and, if that fails, ask for Mumbai's main railway terminus on clemency from the president – a process Nov. 9, 2008. which may well take years, going by past experience. Kasab, it turned out, was the only survivor of a 10-man squad of gunmen Indeed, the People’s Union of Civil who had sailed into Mumbai from the Liberties, a prominent New Delhi-based Pakistani port of Karachi and then rights group, has complained about a fanned out to attack major landmarks. lack of timeframe in which executions They attacked two luxury hotels and a are carried out. Jewish centre and fought off commando teams for two days before being shot Since Kasab's sentencing on May 6, dead. India's television channels have featured several debates and panel In video-recorded confessions, Kasab discussions on his specific case as well admitted that he and the other as the larger issue of death penalty in members of the squad had undergone India. weapons training at camps in Pakistan run by the Lashkar-e-Toiba or ‘Soldiers Well-known rights activist Madhu of God’ jihadist group, which has been Kishwar said at one of the TV debates linked to several terrorist attacks on that Kasab’s was an open-and-shut case India in the past. and that keeping him alive posed a major risk to the country in that it could The weight of evidence against Kasab as encourage attempts to secure his well as public opinion whipped up by release through plane hijacks or round-the-clock media coverage of the kidnappings. Mumbai attacks was such that it was a foregone conclusion that he would be Kishwar’s fear was not baseless. In awarded the death sentence at the end December 1999 a group of five Pakistani of trial conducted in an ordinary court nationals, said to belong to the Harkat that was open to the media. ul Mujahideen group, hijacked an Indian Airlines Airbus loaded with passengers Kasab’s sentence must be ratified by a from Kathmandu headed to Kandahar in high court after which he has the right Afghanistan, then under Taliban rule. to appeal against his sentence in India's
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After seven days of negotiations, the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, passengers were exchanged for three told IPS that she opposed the death Pakistanis lodged in Indian jails on sentence in a case involving a young terrorism charges. One of them, British- man like Kasab because "it snuffs out all born Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, was possibilities". later arrested and sentenced to death in Pakistan for the 2002 murder of ‘Wall Echoing similar sentiments, human Street Journal’ correspondent Daniel rights lawyer Gonsalves said Kasab Pearl. Sheikh's sentence is yet to be could have been given a life sentence carried out. instead and "a chance to reform and perhaps become a voice for The attempt to storm Indian parliament, moderation, even speaking to young the hijacking of the Indian Airlines plane people from jail against taking the path and the Mumbai attacks have kept of ‘jehad’". relations between India and Pakistan low over the past decade and at times In the end, what may save Kasab from hovering on the brink of open hostilities. the gallows for any length of time is the Such events have also meant that there fact that he is the only jihadist to have is little public sympathy in India for been captured alive in India and delaying or commuting Kasab's death officially acknowledged by Pakistan as a sentence. citizen of that country.
Nevertheless, rights activists and those "Kasab is the only living proof we have in favour of abolition on both sides of to put pressure on Pakistan and get it to the border have continued to argue shut down the terror camps that India against hanging Kasab. has repeatedly said are being allowed to be operated from Pakistani territory," "Two wrongs do not make a right," said said Kamal Mitra Chenoy, professor of Pakistani rights activist Tehmina international studies at the Jawaharlal Abdullah appearing at a panel Nehru University and a human rights discussion on an Indian TV channel. activist. (END) "Civilised countries do not sentence convicted people to death." RIGHTS
Gov’t Apathy to Indians on Maja Daruwala, who heads the
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Death Row in UAE Assailed prisoners had criticised the Indian consulate for its "callous attitude" By Sujoy Dhar toward their condition, alleging that
none of its officials paid them a visit NEW DELHI, May 4, 2010 (IPS) - Despite until after the controversial judgment the Indian government’s pledge to was rendered two months ago, extend assistance, legal or otherwise, to generating widespread media attention. the 17 Indian migrant workers currently
on death row in the United Arab The LFHRI team was composed of Emirates (UAE), human rights advocates general secretary Navkiran Singh and have decried its alleged insensitivity to another lawyer, who also met with the the prisoners’ plight. lawyers hired by the government after
the trial to legally assist the 17 Indian In their almost year-long incarceration, prisoners. India’s consulate officials in the UAE
"hardly visited them," said a non- The Indian government did not learn governmental organisation called about the trial until the judgment was Lawyers for Human Rights International made, raising hue and cry. (LFHRI), based in India’s Punjab state,
citing charges by the prisoners. India’s Minister for Overseas Indian
Affairs, Vayalar Ravi, said "the death On Mar. 29, 17 Indians, aged 21 to 25, sentence to 17 people at a time is rather were sentenced to death by a lower shocking, so we have decided to give court in the Sharjah emirate for them the best help possible". Among allegedly leading a violent mob and others, the cost of providing legal aid to murdering a Pakistani following a the prisoners would be met from the dispute over stakes in an illegal alcohol welfare fund for the Indian diaspora, business. said Ravi.
The Indian government has not issued LFHRI’s meeting with the 17 prisoners any reaction to the prisoners’ "revealed a very sorry state of affairs," allegations. Singh told IPS. The hapless workers
were allegedly tortured, framed and A two-member LFHRI team who visited suffered gross miscarriage of justice, the prisoners in mid-April said the said LFHRI in its fact-finding report
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released on Apr. 20. forced to keep away from their articles of faith." "The apathy (toward) the prisoners revealed a total miscarriage of justice, The trial of the Indians was conducted in high-handedness, religious bias of the Arabic, which was translated into Hindi, CID (Criminal Investigation Department) neither of which the 17 men branch of police of Sharjah and a totally understood, since they only spoke callous attitude of the Indian consulate Punjabi, the main language of Sikhs, one towards the Indian citizens who are of India’s ethnic groups, to which they languishing in the jails of UAE," LFHRI belong. said in its report. Moreover, they were provided with an "They were beaten with golf clubs and Emirati lawyer, who could not speak plastic pipes and were also given electric their native language, rights groups said. shocks. They were made to stand on one foot and not allowed to sleep and The UAE embassy in India said the death asked to make confessions to the crime, penalty was subject to appeal and which as per their version they never cassation by the rule of law "without committed," Singh said. any interference from parties."
Singh told IPS there is yet no response "We fully trust our legal system and its either by the Indian or UAE government procedures, and we are sure that it will to the LFHRI report. provide and guarantee a fair trial to the convicted," added the statement LFHRI has demanded immediate action quoted in the Indian daily ‘The Hindu’. by the Indian consulate to protect the human rights of the prisoners. "The The UAE – a federation of seven government should move the UAE emirates in the Arabian Peninsula in authorities to ensure that none of the south- west Asia – inflicts capital prisoners are tortured in custody and punishment for crimes such as pre- that they can practise their (Sikh) faith meditated murder, kidnapping, rape in jail," Singh said. and drug trafficking. Eighty percent of its total population consists of migrant "They were not allowed to access their workers. religious prayer books and had been
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There are about 1.4 million Indians in Middle East and North Africa, in a the UAE, according to the Indian statement. Embassy. "There appears to be a surge in the use Support for the convicted Indians is also of the death penalty in the UAE in pouring in from Pakistan. Leading 2010," said AI. "In the month before the human rights group in neighbouring 17 Indian nationals were sentenced to Pakistan, Ansar Burney Trust, said it death, according to a 22 February article would fight for the recall of the UAE in [UAE capital] Abu Dhabi's newspaper judgment. ‘The National’, at least eight men had been sentenced to death in the Noted human rights activist Ansar UAE." (END) Burney said the NGO, which he chairs, would provide the maximum help WORLD PRESS REVIEW possible for the 17 Indians. MAY 2010
"We have no sympathy whatsoever (for) TAIWAN: EU CONDEMNS RESUMPTION OF hardened criminals and terrorists, but EXECUTIONS
we are worried as to how, in a single The European Union murder case, any court can sentence 17 condemned the resumption of executions in Taiwan, people," said Burney, who is also asking the country to Pakistan’s former federal minister for immediately re-establish the de facto moratorium on the human rights. He termed the conviction death penalty, Ansa "shocking" and "against justice." reported on May 1. EU Foreign Affairs high representative Catherine The LFHRI findings have prompted the Ashton condemned the four executions carried out by New York-based human rights lobby Taiwan for the first time group Amnesty International (AI) to since 2005. 'The Union asks the government of Taiwan to lodge its protest against the penalty. immediately re-establish the moratorium on the death penalty and work towards the abolition of capital punishment, in accordance with the "This is a mockery of justice. These 17 global trend towards universal abolition', she men have been tortured, forced to said in a statement. Four people were executed on April 30 in confess, and sentenced to death based Taiwan after being found guilty of “serious on a fake video," said Hassiba Hadj crimes”, comprising murder and kidnapping. The four were identified as Chang Chun-hung, Hung Sahraoui, AI’s deputy director for the
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Chen-yao, Ko Shih-ming and Chang Wen-wei. criminal cases. Jointly issued by the top court, the top procuratorate, the ministries of public security, TAIWAN: TIME NOT RIPE FOR DEATH PENALTY state security and justice, they are the first REFERENDUM, SAYS JUSTICE MINISTER specific rules on collection of evidence and review in criminal cases. Taiwan’s Minister of Justice Tseng Yung-fu said The first regulation sets out principles and rules there was no need for scrutinizing and gauging evidence in cases to hold a involving the death penalty, and the other sets referendum on the out detailed procedure for examining evidence death penalty given and for excluding evidence obtained illegally. that almost 80 They are expected to cut down on death percent of the sentences and reduce forced confessions, public supported it, experts said. Taipei Times The regulations make it clear that evidence with reported on May unclear origin, confessions obtained through 12.Tseng made the remarks at the legislature in torture, or testimony obtained through violence response to Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT). and intimidation are invalid, particularly in Legislator Hsieh Kuo-liang's proposal to resolve death sentences. the death penalty controversy once and for all "Not a single mistake is allowed in fact finding through a referendum. and collection of evidence in cases involving the Tseng said that a poll conducted by the ministry death sentence," said a written Q&A released by in January showed that 74 percent of the public the five central departments. supported the death penalty. The new regulations define illegal evidence and Various polls have also shown a support rate of include specific procedures on how to exclude 70 to 80 percent, he said. such evidence. A referendum on the issue would be better Lu Guanglun, a senior judge at the Supreme considered once public opinion is more evenly People's Court, said such details do not exist in spread, Tseng added. the Criminal Procedure Law and its judicial He said that abolishing the death penalty was interpretations. the nation's long-term goal. The ministry has "This is the first time that a systematic and clear been promoting policies toward the abolition of regulation tells law enforcers that evidence capital punishment, but it has not set a obtained through illegal means is not only illegal timetable for its implementation. The ministry but also useless," said Zhao Bingzhi, dean of the will follow public opinion, he said. In the law school at Beijing Normal University. meantime, the ministry would not suspend "Previously we could only infer from abstract executions in accordance with the law, he said. laws that illegal evidence is not allowed. But in reality, in many cases, such evidence was considered valid," he said. CHINA: NEW RULES ON CONFESSION TO LIMIT "This is big progress, both for the legal system DEATH SENTENCES and for better protection of human rights," he said. "It will help reduce the number of Evidence obtained illegally - such as through executions". torture during interrogation - cannot be used in Zhao said testimony, particularly in cases involving the the new death penalty, according to two regulations rules will issued May 30, 2010, China Daily reported. also help A death sentence should be pronounced only change the with sufficient evidence acquired through legal mindset of means, stipulate the two regulations: One on law evidence review in death sentence cases, and enforcers the other on excluding illegal evidence in and reduce
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torture in interrogation, one of the causes of given jail terms ranging from 13 years and six wrongful sentences. months to life at the same trial. Ever since the top court started reviewing all "Police have retrieved all of the relics stolen by death sentences in 2007, the overall quality of the gang," said Wang Lifu, a court investigator. handling criminal cases has improved, but a lot He said one of the stolen relics, a seal of a of problems still remain. Changsha King, from a tomb of the Western Han In 2008, the top court announced that about 15 Dynasty (206 B.C.-A.D. 25 ), was under the state percent of death sentence verdicts by lower first-class protection. courts in 2007 were found to have faults. Wang said the gang members were from several The case of Zhao Zuohai, who stayed behind provinces, including Hunan, Shandong, Jiangxi, bars for 11 years until the man he allegedly Shanxi and Gansu. murdered turned up alive on April 30, has They had used professional prospecting attracted national attention and triggered public equipment, digging machinery and explosives to criticism of judicial officers after Zhao said he carry out their raids. "This is the largest tomb was tortured by local police to confess. robbing case ever dealt with in Hunan," said Three former police officers have been arrested Wang. for allegedly torturing Zhao. "Such cases seriously undermine the image of China's justice system and people's trust in the CHINA: TWO DRUG DEALERS SENTENCED TO government," said Bian Jianlin, a law professor DEATH at China University of Political Science and Law. Two drug traffickers have been sentenced CHINA: TOMB ROBBERS SENTENCED TO DEATH to death for dealing large amounts of Four tomb robbers were sentenced to death for crystal stealing more than 200 relics, including 11 items methamphetamine, or listed for the state's top level of protection, "ice", in east China's from ancient tombs in central China's Hunan Zhejiang Province, Province, Xinhua reported on May 14. sources with the local The death sentences were handed down at the court said, Xinhua Intermediate People's Court in Changsha, capital reported on May 12. of Hunan, after the first-instance trial to Lin The Intermediate People's Court of Wenzhou Xisheng, Liu Shengli, Long Shouyun and Liu City, Zhejiang province, sentenced Hu Zhongyi, a Zhihua. native of the city, to death for trafficking 3 They had been convicted of robbing ancient kilograms of crystal methamphetamine between tombs as well as concealing illegal earnings. January and April 2009. Liu Zhihua was given a two-year reprieve. Wu Yiwei, also from Wenzhou, received death The court heard the four were among a 27- for trading 1.4 kg of crystal methamphetamine member gang responsible for robbing a dozen and possessing another 1 kg. Eight others tombs near involved in drug trafficking received death Changsha, sentences with reprieves, life imprisonment or including a tomb jail terms. of the Warring States period (475 -221 B.C.), from INDIA: MUMBAI ATTACKS GUNMAN COULD BE April 2008 to HANGED THIS YEAR January 2009. The other 23 The lone surviving gunman of the 2008 Mumbai members of the attacks could be executed this year if he does gang were also not appeal his death sentence, a senior Indian convicted and government official said, : Xinhua reported on
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May 12.. packages of heroin in Wei's apartment. His Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab, 22, was found counsel, Azura Alias, informed the court her guilty of waging war on India, mass murder, client was remorseful over his actions following conspiracy and terrorism offences last week his remand in 2004 and has two schoolgoing over the assault, which left 166 people dead and children aged 14 and 16 respectively. more than 300 injured. Both children, she said, would now have to be Home secretary G.K. Pillai said Kasab's fate supported by their mother. Even so, Syed depended on whether the Pakistani national Ahmad stated there was only one punishment challenged the sentence through the higher he could give as Cheah has been convicted and courts and filed an appeal for clemency to the that was the death penalty. country's president. "If he doesn't file any appeal anywhere I think the chances of him getting hanged this year are MALAYSIA: LIBERIAN'S DEATH SENTENCE FOR quite high," he told the CNN-IBN news channel DRUG TRAFFICKING UPHELD in an interview. Kasab was one of 10 Islamist militants who Justices Datuk Hashim Yusoff, Datuk Wira Mohd attacked the city's main railway station, three Ghazali Mohd Yusoff and Datuk Seri Raus Md luxury hotels, a popular tourist restaurant and a Sharif of the Federal Court in Putrakaya, Jewish centre on November 26, 2008, sparking a Malaysia, upheld the death sentence of Liberian bloody, three-day siege. businessman Nobies Weah Ezike, 41, for trafficking in 412.8 grams of heroin in Petaling VIETNAM: DRUG SMUGGLERS SENTENCED TO Jaya on March 9, 1996. Bernama.com reported DEATH on May 5. He was sentenced by the Shah Alam High Court Five Chinese men were on August 16, 2005. sentenced to death on May The Court of Appeal on July 30, last year upheld 28 by the People's Court of the conviction and sentence. northern Quang Ninh Province, in Vietnam, for illegally transporting 8 tonnes SINGAPORE JUSTIFIES MANDATORY DEATH of marijuana resin, according PENALTY FOR DRUG TRAFFICKERS to Viet Nam News. Group leader Lu Minh Cheng, 53, and two Singapore's law minister K Shanmugam justified accomplices, were also charged for carrying imposing the mandatory death penalty for drug illegal amounts of cash. They were found traffickers, arguing it would be wrong if they got transporting a total of HK$1.1 million off cheaply because of mitigating factors like (US$141,000) and US$20,000. youth, Earthtimes.org reported on May 10. The marijuana was carried into Viet Nam from Shanmugam was referring to the pending case Pakistan in April, 2008. The group then planned of Malaysian Yong Vui Kong, 22, sentenced to to transport the resin to Canada but was death for smuggling 47 grams of heroin in 2007, stopped by local police on May 12, 2008. but who challenged the constitutionality of the ruling. Although Yong was young, it would send a wrong signal to let him go, Shanmugam said, MALAYSIA: CONTRACTOR TO HANG FOR DRUG the Straits Times newspaper reported. TRAFFICKING "We are sending a signal to all the drug barons out there: Just make sure you choose a victim Malaysian High Court judge Datuk Syed Ahmad who is young, or a mother of a young child, and Helmy sentenced freelance contractor Cheah use them as the people to carry the drugs into Kin Wei, 52, to death for trafficking 2585.5 Singapore," the minister said. Singapore's Court grammes heroin in Ampang Jaya on December of Appeal still has to decide on Yong's fate. 1, 2004, Malay Mail reported on May 12. Police found two bags containing wrapped compact
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AFGHANISTAN: OVER 100 DEATH SENTENCES Islamian, Farzad Kamangar, and Farhad Vakili PENDING BEFORE PRESIDENT were hanged at dawn. They were convicted of 'Moharebeh', or 'waging war on God', in 2008 More than a 100 death for membership in opposition Kurdish groups, sentences are pending before including PJAK, and acting against State security. Afghani President Karzai. Deputy chief of the Supreme Court Bahaoddin Baha said IRAN: FILMMAKER JAFAR PANAHI RELEASED these people were sentenced to death for different crimes Iran released an and the final authority in this internationally regard lies with the president. renowned filmmaker "No cases have remained unprocessed in the and opposition court since last year. The fate of 100 people supporter on bail after sentenced to death awaits presidential more than two months approval," he explained, according to BBC on in custody, state TV May 6. reported, according to AP on May 25. EU: IRAN URGED TO DROP DEATH SENTENCE Jafar Panahi, who has ON TWO 'MOHAREBS' won awards at the Chicago, Cannes and European Union foreign affairs chief Catherine Berlin film festivals, was Ashton pleaded with Iran to drop death freed on bail of about sentences imposed on two people awaiting $200,000, but the report execution for being 'enemies of God', AFP said his indictment reported on May 13. would be sent to a Zeynab Jalalian and Hossein Khezri are currently revolutionary court for future action. in prison awaiting execution. The decision came about a week after the 49- The EU "is profoundly concerned by the year-old filmmaker began a hunger strike to repeated sentencing to death in Iran of people protest his imprisonment. He also demanded to belonging to minorities, as well as of those who be allowed to see his family, meet with a lawyer were involved in the post-election protests," she and be set free pending trial. underlined. It was unclear what charges Panahi faces. Cases Iran hanged six men convicted of drug referred to revolutionary courts are usually trafficking in a prison in Karaj, west of Tehran, security related. the official IRNA news agency reported. The Panahi was taken into custody after Iranian report identified the men as Arsalan Asadi, security forces raided the filmmaker's Tehran Mohammad Ali Fakhri, Abbas Geravand, home in early March. A state prosecutor has Rahman Biabani, Saeed Mikaili and Parviz said Panahi's detention is not political and the Taghizadeh. filmmaker is suspected of committing Meanwhile 'Iran Focus' reported on May 9: Five unspecified "offenses." Kurdish activists, including a woman, were The filmmaker supported Iran's opposition hanged in Iran's notorious Evin Prison. following the disputed June presidential election The Tehran in which Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was declared public the winner. Panahi was briefly detained last prosecutor's summer when he visited the gravesides of the office in a victims of Tehran's postelection unrest and was statement said later banned from traveling abroad. Shirin Alam- Iran has detained more than 80 political activists Houli, Ali and figures accused of fomenting postelection Heydarian, unrest since August, sentencing them to death Mahdi and prison terms, from six months to 15 years.
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Tehran's prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dowlatabadi emirate. met Panahi in prison after he began his hunger Enezi and her husband have two children strike. together, both of them mentally handicapped. Panahi had been asked to be on the jury of the If her death sentence is upheld by the supreme Cannes Film Festival this year and his detention court, she would be the first Kuwaiti woman to was frequently raised during speeches by be executed in the Gulf state's history. directors and actors. Several of his films have Women from other nationalities have been been banned from showing in Iran. hanged in the past, however. Ahmadinejad's re-election has been challenged Kuwait has executed a total of 72 people, three by a range of public figures, including of them women, since it introduced the death filmmakers and singers who have expressed penalty some four decades ago. Most of the support for the opposition and criticized the condemned have been convicted murderers or harsh government crackdown on street drug traffickers. protesters. The opposition contends Ahmadinejad won through fraud and that opposition leader Mir GAZA: HAMAS 'EXECUTES THREE FOR MURDER' Hossein Mousavi was the rightful winner. Tthe Palestinian movement Hamas KUWAIT: DEATH PENALTY FOR A WOMAN executed three men WHO KILLED 57 PEOPLE convicted of murder in its Gaza enclave, The Kuwaiti appeals the interior ministry court confirmed a said in a statement, death sentence AFP reported on May against a woman 18.. convicted of setting It was not immediately clear how the three were fire to the wedding killed. tent as her husband Hamdi Shaqura, of the Palestinian Centre for took a second wife, Human Rights, identified the three men as Rami killing 57 women and Joha, 25, Mattar al-Shobaki, 35, and Amer children, her lawyer Jandiya, 33. He said Joha was sentenced to said. death by a civilian court in April 2004 for gang- "We still believe it's a harsh sentence. We will raping and murdering a 14-year-old girl. Shobaki challenge the verdict at the supreme court," was sentenced by a civilian court, in 1996, for Zaid al-Khabbaz told AFP by telephone on May the murder of another man. Jandiya, was 26 after the ruling was announced. sentenced by a Hamas-run military court in The lower court sentenced Nasra Yussef March 2009 for the murder of a money changer. Mohammed al-Enezi, 23, in March after "The interior ministry this morning carried out convicting her of "premeditated murder and the death penalty on three criminals who had starting a fire with the intent to kill." committed murders after completing all legal Enezi had denied the charge and her defence procedures," the ministry said in a statement. lawyers said her indictment contained no The ministry said the three had been given material evidence to convict her. "every right to defend themselves in open trials The August 15 inferno engulfed the women-and- attended by their lawyers and family members." children-only tent in minutes and triggered a It also said that it granted the opportunity for stampede. The final death toll was 57, including the families of the victims to forgive the killers Saudis and stateless Arabs as well as Kuwaits. and accept blood money, in keeping with Islamic Enezi was initially believed to be the groom's ex- law, "until moments before the death sentence wife but defence lawyers said she was still was carried out." married to him, as men are allowed to have more than one wife in the conservative Muslim
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JORDAN: MAN SENTENCED TO DEATH AFTER disproportionately," Amnesty said. KILLING WIFE FOR REFUSING SEX "They are often not provided with interpretation or translation assistance during legal A 28-year-old Jordanian man was sentenced to proceedings, which are conducted in Arabic, or death by the Amman Criminal Court for killing access to their own government’s consular his wife and chopping her body up into small representatives," Amnesty added. pieces because she allegedly refused to have sex It said, "foreign nationals are also at a with him, a court official said. The man drug his disadvantage compared to Libyans in seeking wife, a nurse, and then killed her in December commutation of their death sentences because 2007 because she disrespected him and they generally have limited financial means and disobeyed him, reported Herald Sun on May 7. lack a family network in Libya that can assist them by negotiating with the family of their LEBANON: COLONEL GETS DEATH PENALTY FOR alleged victim." SPYING FOR ISRAEL MAURITANIA: DEATH SENTENCE FOR AL- The Beirut Military Tribunal in Lebanon QAEDA YOUTHS IN FRENCH KILLINGS sentenced a Lebanese Army lieutenant colonel to death for collaborating with Israel during the A Mauritanian court 2006 July war. Military Investigative Magistrate sentenced three Al- Riyad Abu-Ghayda also found Lieutenant- Qaeda members to Colonel Ghazwan Chahine guilty of possessing death for the 2007 illegal arms and explosives, and confidential murder of four French military documents, BBC reported on May 8. tourists, who responded with threats against France and its LIBYA: 18 PEOPLE EXECUTED BY FIRING SQUAD president, AFP reported on May 25. Eighteen people including nationals of Nigeria, Mohamed Ould Chad and Egypt were executed in Libya after Chabarnou, 29, Maarouf being convicted of premeditated murder, Libya's Ould Haiba, 28, and Sidi online Qurina news website reported on May Ould Sidna, 22, had 30, 2010. pleaded not guilty to the murders -- which Of the 18, 14 were executed in the capital, shocked the visitor-friendly nation -- but Tripoli, while the four other executions were presented themselves as "soldiers of Al-Qaeda". carried out in Benghazi. Their identities have not The three men were accused of shooting five been made public by Libyan authorities. French tourists on December 24, 2007 near the "In the case of Libya, we fear that death city of Aleg in southern Mauritania. sentences are handed down after proceedings Only one man survived the cold-blooded attack, which fail to satisfy international standards for a man in his seventies who lost two of his sons, fair trial," Amnesty International said. his brother and a friend of the family. More than 200 people are currently on death The accused acknowledged during the trial that row in Libya, Qurina reported. "They are they had been "trained in camps" of Al-Qaeda, believed to but denied they killed the tourists. include a large Prosecutors sought the death sentence, which number of has not been applied since the 1987 execution foreign nationals of three officers sentenced for attempting to against whom the overthrow the government of Maaouiya Ould death penalty Taya. appears to be The three men had been accused of criminal used association, belonging to an armed gang that carried out murders and terrorist attacks against citizens of a foreign country.
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The court is trying a total of 12 Mauritanian men Eleven militia members were sentenced to in connection with the murders, two in their death in the Democratic Republic of Congo for absence because they are on the run. their part in an attack that left two UN staff Ould Sidna and Ould Chabarnou were arrested dead in April in the town of Mbandaka. The in January 2008 in the west African country of unrest followed clashes between two ethnic Guinea-Bissau with the help of French groups over fishing rights. Defence lawyer Steve intelligence. Ould Haiba was detained shortly Omekongo told the BBC he would appeal after in the Mauritanian capital of Nouakchott against the death sentences. Some 36 men were initially charged; four were acquitted and MAURITANIA: TERROR SUSPECTS FACE DEATH the rest were given prison terms, BBC reported PENALTY on May 19. Mbandaka is the capital of Equateur province, A Mauritanian prosecutor where at least 100 people were killed in clashes asked the Nouakchott between the Lobala and Boba communities in criminal court to sentence to 2009, displacing an estimated 200,000 people. death three young men accused of the murder of four French tourists in 2007, DRC: TWO SOLDIERS AND A CIVILIAN GET AFP reported on May 24. DEATH The defendants - Sidi Ould Sidna, 22, Maarouf Ould Haiba, 28, and Two soldiers Sergeant-Major Seba Tandema and Mohamed Ould Chabarnou, 29 - are accused of Sergeant Oscar Tchenda Kashama and a civilian having shot five French tourists east of the identified as Mushamuka were sentenced to southern desert town on Aleg, killing four of death by a military court in the Democratic them on December 24, 2007. Republic of Congo for murdering journalist At the opening of the trial, the three men Didace Namujimbo, 34, in Bukavu in November presented themselves as 'soldiers of Al-Qaeda' 2008, News24.com reported on May 5. The and acknowledged they that had been 'trained three must also pay $500,000 damages to the in camps' of the organisation, but they denied victim's family. Six journalists have been killed in killing the French tourists. the volatile eastern DRC since 2005. 'I am a soldier of Al-Qaeda, I say it with pride. I Local media rights group Journalists in Danger have been trained in their camps,' Ould Sidna, (JED) has previously denounced "intimidation, one of the three defendants, told the trial in the denigration and threats" against journalists in Mauritanian capital. 'I did not kill but I confess the region, which for a decade has been the that it would have been a great honour for me if theatre of ongoing clashes between the army I had killed,' said another, Ould Haiba. and several rebel groups. The three men are notably accused of criminal association, belonging to an armed gang that carried out murders and terrorist attacks against ZIMBABWE: COURT ACQUITS MUGABE citizens of a foreign country. OPPONENT ROY BENNETT The court is trying a total of 12 Mauritanian men in connection with the murders, two in their Roy Bennett, a leading absence because they are on the run. Since the opponent of Zimbabwe’s shootings of the French tourists, usually president, Robert Mugabe, peaceful Mauritania has been subjected to has been acquitted of several attacks, killings and kidnappings claimed terrorism charges that could by Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. have led to the death penalty, Guardian reported on May 11. DRC: REBELS GET DEATH SENTENCES FOR The high court in Harare, MBANDAKA ATTACK packed with supporters, journalists and foreign
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diplomats, erupted in cheers and applause Eight executions are scheduled to take place in today as a judge ruled that all charges be the United States in June. dropped in a case that has strained Zimbabwe's unity government. MISSISSIPPI EXECUTES 2ND INMATE IN AS Bennett, 53, a white former farmer and now MANY DAYS treasurer general of the Movement for Democratic Change party, said: "It was The state of Mississippi on May 20 executed its incredibly emotional. To have this hanging over second death row inmate in as many days, this your head, knowing it could mean the death time a man convicted of raping and killing a 15- penalty, has been very hard. I've got to thank year-old girl, according to an AP report. God and think that good will always triumph Gerald James Holland was declared dead by over evil. This experience has fortified me and lethal injection at 6:14 p.m. At 72, he was the made me stronger." oldest inmate on the state's death row. He had been accused of buying £3,000 worth of He was convicted in the rape and slaying of arms in 2006 to carry out acts of insurgency, Krystal King at his home in 1986. Prison officials sabotage, banditry or terrorism in a plot to say he admitted to drinking heavily that night topple Mugabe. and killing the girl, but he never admitted to His supporters, including the prime minister and rape. MDC leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, maintained the On Wednesday, Paul Everette Woodward was charges were baseless and aimed at executed for his 1987 conviction in the rape- undermining the coalition. slaying of a 24-year-old woman. The Mississippi Judge Chinembiri Bhunu ruled that the most Department of Corrections said the last back-to- important evidence presented by prosecutors – back executions occurred in 1961. (Sources: Ap, a confession that an arms dealer said he was 21/05/2010) tortured into making – was inadmissible. He also ruled that prosecutors had failed to TEXAS (USA): MAN EXECUTED FOR 1998 prove that emails allegedly linking Bennett to KILLING the arms dealer were genuine. "The state has failed to prove its case," the judge told the court The state of Texas as he dismissed the charges. "The accused is executed by lethal accordingly found not guilty." (Sources: injection a 41-year-old Guardian, 11/05/2010) man convicted in a killing spree in which his female accomplices lured men ALABAMA (USA): MAN EXECUTED FOR 1976 for sex before robbing KIDNAPPING, RAPE AND MURDER and beating them, AFP Thomas Whisenhant, a US man convicted of reported on May 12 having killed and mutilated a young woman in quoting authorities. 1976, was executed by lethal injection at Kevin Varga was Alabama's Holman prison, penitentiary pronounced dead at 6:19 authorities said, according to an AFP report on p.m. local time (2219 GMT), seven minutes after May 27. receiving the lethal dose, the Texas corrections Whisenhant, 63, spent 32 years on death row, department said. exhausting all available appeals. Varga's male accomplice, Billy Galloway, is also "He had no last words. He refused his set to be executed this week. breakfast," said Brian Corbett, a prison services The two men accompanied by two 17-year-old spokesman. girls left South Dakota for Mexico with the Whisenhant was convicted of kidnapping, killing intention of "rolling" male victims to finance and mutilating 24-year-old Sheryl Lynn Payton, a their trip, according to authorities. convenience store clerk. He also admitted killed The females met David Logie, a 37-year-old two other women. serviceman, in a bar in Greenville, Texas, where His execution was the 24th this year in the they lured him to a deserted area of town for United States, and the first this year in Alabama. sex, according to court documents.
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Varga and Galloway were waiting, and beat the Criminal Justice held in Brazil in April 2010. In man to death with a hammer and tree limb. the statement PRI welcomes the The group had previously carried out a similar recommendations in the Congress Report which scheme, killing David McCoy, 48, and stealing his "reaffirm the importance to an effective criminal car in Kansas, according to officials. justice system of human rights protection, Varga has been on death row since 2000, having fairness and accountability, and the universal failed in appeals for commutation of his character of the existing UN standards and sentence. norms". Varga was the eighth person executed in Texas PRI also notes the emphasis placed by the Crime in 2010, the most active US state in capital Congress Declaration on the fact that there punishment. remains "a serious problem in implementing The two females were sentenced to prison standards and norms which have already been terms in the case. accepted as of universal applicability".
Mary Murphy, PRI's Policy Director, participated News from International in the launch of the ‘Madrid Recommendation NGOs – May 2010 on Prison Health Protection’, organised by the World Health Organisation Regional Office for PRI at UN Commission on Crime Europe Health in Prisons Project and UNODC HIV and AIDS section. The Madrid Prevention and Criminal Justice session Recommendation is the outcome of a conference on prison health protection that was On 19 and 20 May, PRI attended the United held in Madrid 29-30 October 2009. R Nations Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice 19th session in Vienna, Austria, which considered the 8th Quinquennial Report submitted by the Secretary General of the Alternative Report Says Kazakh HIV United Nations.The Report reviews the use and Prevention Measures In Prisons trends in capital punishment including Inadequate implementation of safeguards guaranteeing protection of the rights of those facing the The UN Committee on Economic, Social and death penalty. This report marks a trend Cultural Rights heard statements on 3 May 2010 towards abolition and restriction of the use of from a series of non-governmental organizations capital punishment in most countries. (NGOs) on the situation of economic, social and cultural rights in Colombia, Algeria, Mauritius, At an ancillary meeting on 20 May, hosted by Kazakhstan and Afghanistan. Alternative reports the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty prepared by the NGOs were considered during (WCADP), Jacqueline Macalesher, PRI's Death the committee’s session. Penalty Project Manager, launched and presented PRI's current programme of work on The alternative report on Kazakhstan’s initial the abolition of the death penalty and report on the implementation of the alternatives that respect international human International Covenant on Economic, Social and rights standards. This programme of work is Cultural Rights was prepared by the being implemented with the financial assistance International Harm Reduction Association (IHRA) of the European Union. Jacqueline took this in collaboration with local Kazakh NGOs. opportunity to highlight PRI's priorities and strategies for successfully implementing this two The report states that while there have been -year project. positive developments in recent years, measures for HIV prevention among people who Also on 20 May, PRI issued a statement in use drugs and prisoners remain inadequate. relation to the outcomes of the Twelfth United Nations Congress on Crime Prevention and The report says prisoners are at very high risk of
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HIV infection through unsafe injecting practices and that efforts to address this problem have “We will judge the government on the basis of been insufficient. There are no needle and its acts, and by sentencing these two men the syringe programmes in the Kazakhstan prison government is demonstrating its true intention system, and opioid substitution therapy is not of continuing the use of this brutal and pointless permitted. punishment. The only convincing declaration would be to declare a moratorium,” said Aleg The report also notes that there is no possibility Gulak, Chair of the Belarusian Helsinki in legislation for court ordered drug dependence Committee. treatment as an alternative to imprisonment, meaning that in practice incarceration is the Oleg Grishkovtsov and Andrei Burdyko only policy option available for people arrested reportedly robbed a flat in Grodno in October, for drug offences. R killing one man and two women and taking a child hostage. They reportedly set fire to the flat and then forced a taxi driver to drive them to Human Rights Groups Condemn Two Minsk or Moscow, but were detained the New Belarus Death Sentences following morning in Belarus when the taxi driver escaped. Amnesty International has joined leading Belarusian human rights groups in condemning The death sentences come two days after a UN the death sentences handed down to two men Universal Periodic Review Working Group convicted of murder in the city of Grodno. session at which Belarus came under criticism for its retention of the death penalty. Aleg Gryshkautsou (29) and Andrei Burdyka (28) were sentenced to death by shooting on 14 May The government stated that the death penalty is 2010 for crimes committed during an armed a temporary measure, applied only for the robbery on a flat in Grodno in October 2009. gravest crimes, and that abolition is being Both men were found guilty of premeditated actively discussed. murder, armed assault, arson, kidnapping of a minor, theft and robbery. "The death sentences passed against Aleg Gryshkautstou and Andrei Burdyka once again “The death penalty is not the answer to violent demonstrate the need to immediately impose a crime. At a time when the world is moving moratorium on the death penalty. It is clear that towards abolition of the death penalty, Belarus as long as the death penalty is retained in law, is taking a step backwards,” said Halya Gowan, judges will continue to hand down death director of Amnesty International's Europe and sentences," said Halya Gowan. Central Asia Programme. Two men were executed in Belarus in March. Aleg Gryshkautsou and Andrei Burdyka have 10 Vasily Yuzepchuk was executed for the murder days to appeal against the sentence to the of six elderly women, while Andrei Zhuk Supreme Court. If refused, they can apply to received the death penalty for the armed Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka for assault on and murder of a man and woman. R clemency.
Belarus remains the only country in Europe that PRI Launches Programme in Burundi is still carrying out executions. Amnesty International, the Belarusian Helsinki Committee The 31st of May 2010 marks the official launch and the Human Rights Centre “Vyasna”, have of PRI’s programme and the opening of its jointly called on the Belarusian authorities to project office in Burundi. signal their desire to abolish the death penalty by commuting both sentences. PRI’s work in the country seeks to uphold and promote human rights for people detained in
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prison and improve access to justice for them said Philip Luther, Deputy Director of Amnesty through the work of paralegals. PRI is specifically International’s Middle East and North Africa focusing on supporting children, women, and programme. those affected by HIV and aids. “We are calling on King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia “Many people detained within Burundian prison not to let this or other executions go ahead.” walls have been in pre-trial detention for months or years illegally. This is why PRI is ‘Abdul Hamid Bin Hussain Bin Moustafa al-Fakki deploying eight paralegals in four pilot prisons was arrested on 8 December 2005 in the city of to train detainees in legal issues so that they Madina by the Mutawa’een (religious police), know their rights, understand the judiciary officially called the Committee for the system better, can follow the progress of their Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice own cases, and represent themselves in court, “ (CPVPV). said Johanne Fortin, regional director of PRI’s work in the Great Lakes Region. He was accused of practising sorcery, after being entrapped by the CPVPV. It is not clear why the PRI will train prison staff in human rights and authorities targeted him. A man working for the international human rights instruments, laws CPVPV approached ‘Abdul Hamid and asked him and regulations pertaining to prison and the to produce a spell that would lead to the man’s national police, and jurisdictions among other father separating from his second wife and things. returning to his first wife, the man’s mother.
PRI’s work in Burundi is funded by the European ‘Abdul Hamid apparently accepted to do this in Commission and the Kingdom of Belgium. exchange for 6,000 Saudi Arabian riyals PRI's work in the Great Lakes region http:// (approximately US$1,600). www.penalreform.org/worldwide/great-lakes He apparently took an advance of 2,000 riyals Sudanese Man Facing Execution In from the man, together with the names of his Saudi Arabia Over ‘Sorcery’ Charges father and the father’s second wife, as well as the names of their mothers, and agreed to meet the man afterwards to deliver his work. Amnesty International has urged the Saudi Arabian authorities to intervene to halt the He went to the agreed meeting place and was possibly imminent execution of a Sudanese man seen by CPVPV agents getting into the man’s who was sentenced to death for “sorcery”. car. He delivered his work, consisting of nine pieces of paper with codes written on them with Abdul Hamid Bin Hussain Bin Moustafa al-Fakki saffron, and received the rest of the money. was sentenced to death by a Madina court on 27 March 2007, after he was accused of He was then arrested while in possession of producing a spell that would lead to the bank notes whose serial numbers had been reconciliation of his client’s divorced parents. recorded by the CPVPV.
Very little is known about his trial proceedings He was questioned and apparently beaten, and as they were held in secret. Three years since he is believed to have confessed that he did carry was sentenced to death, it is not known what out acts of sorcery in a bid to solve the family stage his case is at or if his execution has been problems of the man who had approached him. scheduled, but it is likely to be imminent given the time that has elapsed. The crime of “sorcery” is not defined in Saudi Arabian law, and has been used to punish “‘Abdul Hamid al-Fakki appears to have been people for the legitimate exercise of their convicted solely for the peaceful exercise of his human rights, including the rights to freedom of rights to freedom of expression and religion,” conscience, religion, belief and expression.
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predecessor lacked the courage to do - order an The Saudi Arabian authorities arrested scores of investigation into the mounting evidence of people for “sorcery” in 2009, and have arrested British complicity in torture," said Tom over 20 more this year. Often arrests are carried Porteous, London director of Human Rights out by the Mutawa’een, which uses entrapment Watch. "It's vital that this inquiry has the to secure charges not only of “sorcery” but also mandate to follow the evidence however high it of other offences such as khilwa (being in the leads, and the full cooperation of the security company of members of the opposite sex who services." are not close relatives). Human Rights Watch believes that in order for The last known execution for “sorcery” was that the inquiry to be successful it should: of Egyptian national Mustafa Ibrahim, on 2 Be held in public; November 2007. He had been arrested in May Not be held under the Inquiries Act 2005, 2007 in the town of ‘Arar, where he worked as a which allows the government to control an pharmacist, and accused of “apostasy” for inquiry. having degraded a copy of the Qur’an by putting it in a toilet. Have the full cooperation of the security services; Saudi Arabia applies the death penalty for a Examine all cases brought to its attention in wide range of offences, including some with no which UK complicity is alleged; lethal consequences such as sorcery. Court Assess whether the guidance provided to proceedings fall far short of international the members of the security services in the standards for fair trial. interrogation of suspects overseas and on cooperation with foreign intelligence agencies Defendants are rarely allowed formal was adequate to prevent complicity; representation by a lawyer, and in many cases Examine the degree to which UK are not informed of the progress of legal government policy, and decisions by UK proceedings against them. ministers and officials, contributed to such abuse. They may be convicted solely on the basis of Examine whether the British justice system confessions obtained under duress or is able to investigate and prosecute those deception. Prisoners in Saudi Arabia may be put responsible for acts of complicity or to death without a scheduled date for execution participation in torture, as required by the being made known to them or their families. Convention against Torture; Since the beginning of 2010, at least 11 people have been executed. R Assess adequacy of mechanisms of oversight of the security services, including that provided by the Intelligence and Security
Committee; Will Need Strong Mandate, Produce a public report with detailed Cooperation from Security Services recommendations on the steps needed to ensure that UK security services are never again (London) - The British government's planned complicit in torture overseas. inquiry into the complicity of UK intelligence In November 2009, Human Rights Watch agencies in torture should be comprehensive, released a report detailing five cases in independent, and public, Human Rights Watch which UK security services were said today. UK Foreign Secretary William Hague complicit in the torture of UK citizens in announced the inquiry in comments to the BBC Pakistan by the Pakistan security last night, but did not provide details regarding services. Cases of complicity have also its scope, time-scale or composition. been documented by the Guardian, and by other civil society organizations. "This new government has done something its
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Pressure for an inquiry has been mounting. The champion," said Porteous. "It's not only the right House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee thing to do, it's also crucial for efforts to prevent and the Parliamentary Joint Committee on radicalization and recruitment to terrorism at Human Rights (JCHR) both issued critical reports home and abroad." R about UK complicity in 2009, with the JCHR concluding that an inquiry was necessary. In At Least 17 More Kurdish Prisoners at March 2010, the All Party Parliamentary Group Risk of Imminent Execution on Extraordinary Rendition, together with Human Rights Watch and three other leading (New York) – Iranian authorities executed five NGOs, called on the incoming government to prisoners, four of them ethnic Kurds, without order a judicial inquiry. warning their families, and have so far refused to release their bodies, Human Rights Watch But the previous government refused to order said today. These executions follow convictions an inquiry, even when confronted with the that appear to have relied on the use of torture. detailed evidence in Human Rights Watch's report on Pakistan. It instead repeated blanket The Kurdish prisoners – Farzad Kamangar, Ali denials of wrongdoing, and pointed to the Heidarian, Farhad Vakili, and Shirin Alam Holi – existence of two police investigations - one into were executed by hanging on the morning of allegations of complicity by one or more MI5 May 9, 2010, in Tehran’s Evin prison, said a agents in the torture of Binyam Mohamed, and statement released by the Tehran Public another into unspecified allegations involving Prosecutor’s office. The government also one or more MI6 agents, referred by that executed a fifth prisoner, Mehdi Eslamian, an agency - as sufficient steps towards alleged member of a banned pro-monarchist accountability. Those criminal investigations group. Authorities maintain that all five were must continue in parallel to the inquiry, Human engaged in “terrorist operations, including Rights Watch said. involvement in the bombing of government and public centers in various Iranian cities.” The previous government also failed to publish the guidance given to members of the security “These hangings of four Kurdish prisoners are services on interrogation of suspects held the latest example of the government’s unfair overseas, despite an undertaking by then Prime use of the death penalty against ethnic minority Minister Gordon Brown in March 2009 to do so dissidents,” said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East once it had been reviewed by the Intelligence director at Human Rights Watch. “The judiciary and Security Committee (ISC). The guidance was routinely accuses Kurdish dissidents, including finally made available to the ISC in November civil society activists, of belonging to armed 2009, which has yet to release it. The new separatist groups and sentences them to death government should order the release of the in an effort to crush dissent.” current and historic guidance without delay, Human Rights Watch said. The Tehran prosecutor’s statement alleged that Kamangar, Heidarian, Vakili, and Alam Holi had There has been longstanding support for an confessed to being members of the outlawed inquiry from a number of senior Liberal Free Life Party of Kurdistan, or PJAK, and were Democrats and Conservatives. Liberal Democrat involved in a series of bomb plots in leader (now Deputy Prime Minister) Nick Clegg northwestern Iran as well as Tehran. PJAK is committed his party to an inquiry during the widely regarded by analysts to be an Iranian election campaign. The detailed coalition affiliate of the banned Turkish Kurdish Workers’ government agreement released yesterday Party, or PKK. includes a commitment "never to condone torture." The government accused the fifth prisoner, Eslamian, of involvement in the bombing of a "This inquiry offers the chance to help restore religious site in the southern city of Shiraz in Britain's global reputation as an anti-torture
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2008. Authorities alleged that Eslamian was a Vakili, Heidarian, and Alam Holi made similar supporter of the pro-monarchist Anjoman-e allegations in prison letters, indicating that Padeshahi, or the Kingdom Assembly. The authorities used torture to secure confessions government executed two other alleged from them. In a series of letters from prison, members of this group, Arash Ramanipour and Alam Holi, a 28-year-old Kurdish woman Mohammad-Reza Ali Zamani, earlier this year. accused of bombing a vehicle at a Revolutionary Guards compound in Tehran, described Branch 30 of the Revolutionary Court sentenced numerous instances of physical and Kamangar, Heidarian and Vakil to death on psychological torture suffered at the hands of February 25, 2008. Khalil Bahramian, one of the her captors, including beatings with cables and lawyers representing Kamangar who was at the electric batons. closed-door trial of the three men, said that gross irregularities, including the absence of a The May 9 executions were carried out jury, plagued the initial trial and subsequent unannounced – the government informed appellate court decisions upholding the neither the lawyers nor the families of the convictions. Bahramian told the BBC on Sunday prisoners, Bahramian and family members said. that Kamangar’s trial lasted all of 10 minutes, Bahramian told the BBC that “the law requires and that when Bahramian asked permission to that I be informed regarding my two clients… present his client’s case, the judge simply but I was not informed [of their execution] in instructed him to “write down *his+ concerns.” any way.” One of Kamangar’s brothers told the BBC that the families learned about the “In the end *the judge+ never heard what I had executions from media reports. to say,” Bahramian told the BBC. He sharply denied that his client was in any way involved A family member of one of the other prisoners with PJAK or any other terrorist group. told Human Rights Watch that the authorities have so far prevented delivery of their bodies to In addition to finding the five persons guilty of the families for burial. Islamic custom generally various national security crimes, the judiciary requires burials to take place as soon as sentenced all five to death after convicting them possible, preferably within 24 hours. of the crime of moharebeh, or “enmity with God.” Under articles 186 and 190-91 of Iran’s “Iran’s judiciary should immediately issue a penal code, anyone charged with taking up arms moratorium on all executions,” Stork said. “This against the state, or belonging to organizations includes the 17 Kurdish dissidents known to be that take up arms against the government, may on death row.” be considered guilty of moharebeh and sentenced to death. The 17 Kurds presently facing execution are: Rostam Arkia, Hossein Khezri, Anvar Rostami, Security forces arrested Kamangar, a Mohammad Amin Abdolahi, Ghader superintendent of high schools in the city of Mohammadzadeh, Zeynab Jalalian, Habibollah Kamyaran in July 2006 in Tehran. In February Latifi, Sherko Moarefi, Mostafa Salimi, Hassan 2008, Bahramian informed Human Rights Watch Tali, Iraj Mohammadi, Rashid Akhkandi, that his client had alleged numerous instances Mohammad Amin Agoushi, Ahmad Pouladkhani, of abuse and torture at the hands of prison Sayed Sami Hosseini, Sayed Jamal Mohammadi, authorities in Sanandaj, Kermanshah, and and Aziz Mohammadzadeh. Tehran. Human Rights Watch obtained a copy of Human Rights Watch opposes capital a letter Kamangar wrote and smuggled out of punishment in all circumstances because of its prison in which he detailed his torture, including cruel and inhumane nature. threats of sexual violence. Bahramian also represented Eslamian.
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San Francisco hosts World Coalition AGM
Published by Thomas Hubert on 2010/5/31 For the first time, a major international abolitionist event will take place on US soil on June 12 when World Coalition members converge on California for their general meeting and a public conference.
The World Coalition's AGM will take place at Hastings College of Law in San Francisco, California at the invitation of member organisation Death Penalty Focus. On June 12, the public is invited to take part in debates on key issues surrounding capital punishment in America and to prepare for the 2010 World Day Against the Death Penalty, which will focus on the US.
Two plenary sessions and four thematic debates will give participants a chance to discover or further explore the fields in which the battle against the death penalty is being fought in the US, from racial discrimination in its administration to the execution of innocents and the opinion of crime victims and law enforcement professionals.
World Day and "Cities for Life" launch
The rest of the world will not be overlooked with the launch of the autumn’s two global abolitionist events – World Day Against the Death Penalty on October 10 and “Cities for Life – Cities Against the Death Penalty” on November 30. Spain’s ambassador against capital punishment, Rafael Valle Garagorri, is also expected to present his government’s initiative to create an International Commission on the Death Penalty. On June 13, World Coalition members will stay on to hold their statutory general meeting and receive training on a range of issues including international law, internet campaigning, activism in China and fundraising. R
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