Nov. 16
NORTHERN IRELAND:
Memorial to killer angers US
American death penalty supporters have expressed "deep reservations" about
a proposed memorial service and plaque in an Irish cemetery for executed
Texas killer, Robert Brice Morrow.
Morrow, who was put to death earlier this month in Huntsville Prison in
Texas, struck up a close friendship with an unnamed Cork pen-pal over his
eight years on death row. His last wish was to have his ashes scattered in
Cork.
Plans are afoot to scatter the Texan killer's ashes in Kilmurray cemetery
and to erect a special memorial plaque to him on the cemetery wall.
However, the proposal has been greeted with anger and concern by death
penalty supporters in the United States - who said that brutal killers
should not be commemorated.
(source: Belfast Telegraph)
IRAN----new juvenile death sentence
Boy (16) sentenced to death for murder
Iran's hardline judiciary has sentenced a 16-year-old boy to death for
murder, the reformist Shargh daily reported on Tuesday.
According to the report, the boy - only identified as Vahid from near
Tehran - confessed to stabbing his friend Mehdi to death but insisted he
did it in self-defence, saying the victim wanted to sexually abuse him.
No further details were given, but verdicts can be appealed and death
sentences are subject to supreme court approval.
Under Iranian law, any person who has reached the age of maturity -
considered 9-years-old for girls and 15 years for boys - can be executed
for capital offences.
But executions for those who committed their crimes while under the age of
18 are rare.
Last month the judiciary said it has drawn up a bill that would scrap the
death penalty and lashings for under-18s - meaning the sentencing of the
16-year-old could be annulled.
Several Iranian human rights organisations and Nobel Peace Prize winner
Shirin Ebadi have been lobbying Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahrudi, the
head of the judiciary, not to sentence minors to death.
Murder, armed robbery, rape, apostasy and serious drug trafficking are all
punishable by death in Iran.
(source: iafrica.com)
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Death penalty creeps closer to Protestant clergyman jailed in Iran --
Moved to a military prison, he might be sentenced on "espionage" charges.
Chances that Hamid Pourmand - a Protestant convert from Islam - will be
sentenced to death are growing. Iranian authorities moved him to a
military prison. If tried by a military tribunal, Pourmand could be
charged with "espionage" and face the death penalty.
Married with two children, the 47-year-old was arrested on September 9 in
Karaj, a town 30 km west of the capital Tehran in a police raid against
the annual General Council of the Assemblies of God Church.
Born a Muslim, Rev Pourmand converted to Christianity 25 years ago. He is
a colonel in the Iranian army based in the city of Bandar-i Bushehr (380
km south of Tehran). His conversion alone - which a friend said he never
kept secret - is ground for the death penalty for, under Islamic law,
apostasy is a capital crime.
In recent months, government officials have repeatedly denounced "foreign
religions", which they accuse of threatening national security. Several
former Muslims who converted to Christianity have been executed by court
order on "espionage" charges.
There are about 360,000 Christians in Iran out of a population of 65
million. Of these, 25,000 are Catholics.
(source: Asia News)
