Jan. 26
OMAN:
Sultan overturns death sentence
The death penalty has been overturned for a Tuttle woman convicted of
murder overseas.
This week, the daughter of Rebecca Thompson was notified that her mothers
sentence had been overturned and reduced to a 15-year prison term by
Sultan Qaboos of Oman. Thompson was convicted of murdering her husband
earlier this year.
Thompsons daughter, Laura Albert said that although the news is positive,
they will not stop working toward her mothers release.
"We will continue to work on getting [the 15-year prison term] reduced as
we don't feel my mother will survive this long without the proper
nutrition and medical attention she needs for her condition," Albert said.
Thompson has been in prison since January 2004 after her husband was found
dead. Mark Lee Thompson, an oil worker, was battered to death on Dec. 30,
2003. His body was found partially burnt.
During his wifes trial, which concluded on April 21, she claimed she was
provoked into hitting and killing her husband with an iron bar.
Thompsons son by a previous marriage, William Derrick Green, 14, and two
17-year-old Omani boys were convicted connection with the case. She was
found guilty and sentenced to death, which is usually carried out by
firing squad in Oman. However, records show no woman has even been put to
death in Oman.
Albert credited the support of friends, family and others in saving her
mother's life. Amnesty International spearheaded a letter writing campaign
to the Sultan, asking him to spare Thompson.
"To all the hundreds of people who wrote letters on my behalf for my
mother, thank you. I truly believe they all made a difference," Albert
said. "Please continue to keep my mother in your thoughts and prayers as
this is not over for us yet."
(source: (Okla.) Tuttle Times)
PAKISTAN:
6 convicts to get death sentence on Feb 8
Following rejection of their mercy appeal by President General Pervez
Musharraf as many as 6 convicts will be hanged simultaneously on Feb 8 at
District Jail Faisalabad.
The District Session Judge has also issued the death warrant of the
convicted persons including Manzoor Ahmad his son Muhammad Ishaq, Ghulam
Mustafa alias Papoo, Muhammad Ilyas, Muhammad Anwar and Javed Obal.
Security within and around the Jail has been tightened and the prisoners
were allowed amid tight security to meet their kith and kin.
(source: Pakistan Tribune)
IRAN----death sentence for juvenile
Minor sentenced to death in Iran
A 17-year-old boy was sentenced to execution by a Tehran court. The boy,
only identified by his first name Sattar, was accused of murder.
Sattar allegedly stabbed to death a man by the name of Mahmoud a few
months ago after a scuffle at a phone booth in Islamshahr (southern
Tehran).
The exact date of the execution has not been announced.
Last week a young man who was accused of killing a member of Irans
security forces when he was a minor was hanged in the notorious Evin
prison in Tehran.
Iman Farrokhi who was 17 at the time of the offence was on death row in
the Tehran Centre for Reform and Education (Juvenile Prison).
Mohammad T., another teenager currently in one of Irans Centers for Reform
and Education, is to also be hanged to death in the coming weeks for
allegedly stabbing someone when he was 14.
His sentence was approved by Irans Supreme Court.
Under Iranian law, girls above the age of 9 and boys above the age of 15
are considered as adults and could be executed for capital offences.
At present at least 30 juveniles are on death row in Tehran and
Rajai-Shahr (40km west of the Iranian capital) for offences they have been
alleged to have committed under the age of 18.
(source: Iran Focus)
****************
Iranian woman on death row freed----Women's groups in Iran have rallied to
raise money for Norouzi
An Iranian woman accused of killing an intelligence officer who she said
tried to rape her, has walked free after 8 years imprisonment and coming
within a day of hanging, her lawyer said.
Afsaneh Norouzi was sentenced to death 3 years ago and has been in jail
since 1997. The mother of three said she stabbed the man when he tried to
assault her on the resort island of Kish in the Gulf.
Iran's police in December concluded that Norouzi, in her early thirties,
had killed the officer in self-defence.
But Norouzi still has to pay blood-money to the officer's family. Women's
groups and newspapers in Iran and the United States have rallied to raise
the money.
Blood money
Iranian newspapers put the blood-money at 50 million tomans ($57,000).
"She was just released and is with me in the car," Norouzi's lawyer,
Abdolsamad Khorramshahi, told Reuters by telephone on Wednesday.
Norouzi's death sentence was upheld after appeal in 2003, but Judiciary
chief Ayat Allah Mahmoud Hashemi-Shahroudi ordered a fresh investigation
into the case, a day before the sentence was to be carried out.
Iran's Supreme Court revoked the death sentence against Norouzi last July,
sending the case back to a lower court in Kish.
Iranian rights activists launched a campaign to save Norouzi's life
arguing her execution would make women afraid to defend themselves against
sexual assaults.
(source: Aljazeera)
