Dec. 28
IRAN:
18-year-old facing imminent execution for crime committed as minor
A teenager who is currently in one of Irans Centers for Reform and
Education (Juvenile Prison) is to be hanged to death within 3 weeks for a
crime allegedly committed when he was fourteen.
The boy only identified as Mohammad T. was accused of fatally stabbing
another boy who was involved in a scuffle with his brother. Mohammad M.
died from his wounds in hospital on October 17, 2000.
The acting judge at the time, cleric Mohammad Sultan Hematyar, sentenced
Mohammad to spend time in the Center for Reform and Education until he
turned eighteen and then be executed.
Under Iranian law, girls above the age of 9 and boys above the age of 15
are considered to be adults and can be executed for capital offences.
The sentence was later approved by Irans Supreme Court which called for
him to be hanged by the end of the Iranian calendar month. Mohammad now
faces imminent execution.
Increasingly under international pressure, the Iranian regime keeps
children on death row in Juvenile Prison until they turn 18.
(source: Iran Focus)
INDIA:
Doctors oppose lethal injection in cases of death penalty:
Doctors from across the country today vehemently opposed the Centre's
proposal to replace hanging by the neck in case of death penalty with
lethal injection saying it was against the Hypocratic oath for a medico to
take life.
The strong opposition to the recommendation by the Law Commission came
during the central council meet of the 69th annual conference of Indian
Medical Association (IMA) underway here.
"The Law Commission has observed that hanging by neck is brutal and should
be replaced by the more sophisticated lethal injection. This is against
the oath that doctors take before being inducted into the service -- that
they will strive only to save lives," Dr Vinay Aggarwal, secretary general
of IMA said.
The recommendation had caused confusion in the medical fraternity with its
'obvious contradiction' of the basic nature of professional duties
expected of doctors, he said.
IMA national president Sudipto Roy said the association had written to the
union law ministry on its resentment over the issue.
"No doctor would be willing to inject a lethal dose to anybody, even if
the person is facing a death penalty for the most heinous of crimes," he
said.
(source: PTI)
