Aug. 11
SAUDI ARABIA:
15-YEAR-OLD GIVEN DEATH SENTENCE
A 15-year-old Egyptian boy has been sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia for
killing a 3-year-old Saudi girl. The Saudi newspaper al-Yom reported that
Ahmed Abdel Mordi Mahmoud admitted to the court in Dammam, in the east of
the country, that he stabbed the girl, who lived near him, 20 times during
a dispute. His father and the parents of the victim were in court.
The sentence must be upheld by the court of appeal in the capital Riyadh
before it can be carried out. The boy's father, Abdel Modi Mahmour, who
works as a chemistry teacher in Saudi Arabia, has appealed to the Egyptian
embassy to intervene and help him get the girl's father to pardon his son
in order to stop the sentence going ahead. "My son admitted that he
committed the crime, but he is still young and is not aware of what he
did," Mahmoud said.
Saudi Arabia applies the death penalty for a wide range of offences. Human
rights organisation Amnesty International criticised Saudi Arabia in its
annual report earlier this year for executing 33 people in 2004, including
a Sri Lankan woman and 13 foreign men. However, so far this year at least
50 people are known to have been put to death, 2/3 of whom are foreigners,
and it is not known how many more are being held on death row. Amnesty
believes many of them may have been convicted solely on the basis of
confessions obtained under duress, torture or deception.
(source: AKI)
ENGLAND:
Hundred Protest in London Over Gay Executions in Iran
Over 100 people protested outside the Iranian Embassy in London today -
coinciding with simultaneous US and European protests against Irans
"tyrannical, homophobic, misogynistic and fundamentalist regime."
"We condemn the execution of 2 teenage boys in Iran on charges involving
homosexual acts," said protester Aaron Saeed, Muslim affairs spokesperson
of the LGBT human rights group OutRage!, which coordinated todays demo.
"One of them was a minor at the time of his execution; both were minors
when they committed their offences. OutRage! urges an end to the death
penalty. We express our solidarity with Iranians campaigning for democracy
and human rights."
The London protest was one of five simultaneous international
demonstrations. The others were in Dublin, San Francisco, Paris and
Montpelier. These protests were against Irans use of the death penalty and
its persecution of lesbian, gay and bisexual people.
"Among the London protesters were members of LGBT, socialist and human
rights groups, and Iranian left-wingers, exiles and asylum seekers;
including an Iranian woman whose 16 year old brother was executed and his
body dragged through the streets," added Mr. Saeed.
Ramzi Isalam, also from the LGBT human rights group OutRage!, pointed out
that there were differing versions of why the executions were carried out.
"Some reports say the youths were hanged for gay sex. The Iranian
government claims they were hanged for the rape of a 13 year old boy," he
said.
"We are not prepared to give the violently homophobic Iranian government
the benefit of the doubt. It has previously lied to justify public
executions. In any case, the death penalty is a disproportionate
punishment. It is barbaric and should be abolished," added Mr Isalam.
(source: UK Gay News)
INDONESIA:
Bali bomber executions could be imminent
Executions for the 3 Bali bombers could be imminent with their lawyers
expecting to receive letters from the Indonesian government authorising
the carrying out of their death sentences.
Adnan Wirawan, the lawyer for the so-called smiling assassin Amrozi bin
Nurhasyim, as well as bombing mastermind Imam Samudra and financier
Mukhlas, said he has heard that a letter has been sent to authorities in
Bali, clearing the way for police to organise firing squads.
"I have not yet seen it from the attorney-general, it's not here yet," he
told AAP.
"But if it's really been issued, we will fight it."
The head of the justice ministry's prisons division in Bali, Mayun
Mataram, also said an execution letter had been issued by justice
officials in Jakarta.
"But officially the letter hasn't been received," he said.
When received, the letter could mean the death sentences are carried out
within the next few months.
A spokesman for the attorney-general's office was unavailable.
The three bombers have all had their appeals rejected.
Their last hope of avoiding death rests with a clemency request to
Indonesia's President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
Adnan said the clemency requests had been sent automatically by the
Denpasar District Court, although the three themselves had not asked for
mercy from their death-row cells at Denpasar's Kerobokan Prison.
"They never wanted clemency," he said. "They don't want mercy."
The court's chief registrar I Nengah Sarwa said the clemency letters had
been sent to the Supreme Court in Jakarta and then to the president as
part of general sentence remission requests made to coincide with
Indonesia's independence day on August 17.
"If the convicted, their family or lawyers don't submit for clemency, the
head of the district court may submit it on their behalf," he said.
Mayun said 19 convicted Bali bombers would receive automatic sentence
remissions next week of between 1 and 6 months.
Thousands of other inmates are expected to get similar remissions.
Amrozi, Imam Samudra and Mukhlas were not on the list.
Mukhlas punched the air in delight when he was sentenced to death in
October 2003, mimicking his younger brother Amrozi.
A defiant Amrozi, sentenced in August 2003, took off his Islamic skull
cap, raised his arms and gave his lawyers the thumbs-up as survivors of
the bombing at the Sari Club and Paddy's Irish Pub in Kuta cheered.
Imam Samudra, a computer expert and the only one of the suspected bombers
to have a university degree, was convicted in September 2003 and shouted
"Allahu Akbar" ("God is great") as the verdict was read out.
He said he was happy about the number of foreigners, including 88
Australians, who died in the Bali attack, but regretted the 38 Indonesian
victims among the 202 people killed.
Death sentences in Indonesia are carried out by a police firing squad made
up of elite paramilitary officers from the Mobile Brigade, or Brimob.
The condemned are usually shot in a remote forest or beach.
Indonesian authorities are currently considering a more humane alternative
method after reports many of the condemned do not die immediately.
(source: AAP)
***********************************
Bali blast 19 may get reprieve
19 people convicted in relation to the Bali bombing may receive reduced
sentences on Indonesia's national day next week.
The Justice Ministry confirmed that the bombers were among more than 500
prisoners proposed for remissions by prison authorities in Bali. A
spokesman said the three most senior bombers - Amrozi, Imam Samudra and
Mukhlas - were excluded from the list.
The spokesman denied reports that a letter clearing the way for the trio's
execution by firing squad had been sent.
The news came as prsosecutors demanded a death penalty for the most senior
participant on trial for the bombing of the Australia's embassy in Jakarta
last year.
The death sentence request for Rois, who recruited the suicide bomber and
bought the explosives, reverses prosecution calls for sentences of less
than 5 years for others involved.
The request that Rois be executed follows criticism that two others
convicted of assisting him received less than four years. The Age has also
learnt that the man accused of assembling the embassy bomb, Sogir, will
face a call for a seven-year sentence next week.
The blast from the truck driven towards the gate of the embassy last
September killed 11 people - including the bomber - and injured more than
200. Rois is charged with having carried out a fatal terrorist attack,
conspiring to carry out terrorism, illegally possessing explosives and
hiding terrorists.
Chief prosecutor Kuntadi said Rois had "deliberately helped carry out an
act creating widespread feeling of terror and fear, creating mass
victims".
Prosecutors told the court that Rois had scouted the embassy 3 times,
first alone and then with Azahari.
In late August the pair had discussed in detail how to drive the bomb
truck up to the embassy.
Rois was impassive when the request for his execution was made, and his
lawyers said they would contest it.
Speaking from the cells of the South Jakarta District Court before the
sentence request yesterday, Rois continued to deny intimate knowledge of
the attack.
He admitted buying explosives and casing the embassy site with a leader of
the terrorist network Jemaah Islamiah.
The bombing was carried out on the orders of the 2 most senior and wanted
Jemaah Islamiah operatives in South-East Asia - Azahari bin Husin and
Noordin Mohammad Top.
(source: The Age)
IRAN:
WORLD ORGANISATION AGAINST TORTURE (OMCT)
Press Release
End child death penalty in Iran
The International Secretariat of OMCT wishes to express its concern
regarding the situation of human rights in Iran and would like to draw
the attention of the new President Mr. Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad to Iran's use
of the death penalty, including public executions of juveniles.
Indeed, the overall human rights situation in Iran remains worrying, as
recent weeks have seen renewed violations of human rights in the country.
In particular, despite the prohibition of article 37 of the UN Convention
on the Rights of the Child to which Iran is state party, a number of
juveniles have recently received death sentences.
In this regard, OMCT would like to recall that on July 19, 2005, two
boys, aged 16 and 18, were arrested and subjected to corporal punishment
(they were lashed 228 times) before being publicly hung by Iranian
authorities in the northeastern city of Mashad. According to the
information received from reliable sources, the sole reason for the
hangings is their confessions, obtained through torture, that they were
involved in homosexual sex. After being convicted of raping a 13-year-old
boy at knifepoint, they were executed after the Supreme Court upheld the
verdict of child rape. Although homosexuality is a crime in Iran, the
death penalty is normally reserved for murder, rape, armed robbery,
adultery, drug trafficking and apostasy. In August 2004, a 16 year old
girl, Atefeh Rajabi, was executed in the Caspian port of Neka for having
had sex before marriage.
OMCT stresses that it is strongly opposed to the death penalty and
emphasises that it considers the capital punishment an extreme form of
cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment, as proclaimed in the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights and other international human rights
instruments. Moreover, even if various bills have been considered for
several years, in Iran the death penalty still exists in law and in
practice for offences committed by persons under eighteen years of age.
This is despite the fact that Iran ratified the Convention on the Rights
of the Child that prohibits capital punishment in its Article 37 (a).
Despite an announcement by the Head of the Judiciary, Ayatollah
Shahroudi, on April 28, 2004, in which he stated: "Any torture to extract
a confession is banned and the confessions extracted through torture are
not legitimate and legal", no subsequent improvements have been observed.
Restrictions on freedom of expression appear to have tightened and the
widespread practices of arbitrary detention following arrest, of
detention in unofficial prisons and of torture while in detention
continue to be features of the Iranian penal system.
OMCT therefore urges the Iranian authorities to:
- abolish the death penalty for child offenders both in law and in
practice;
- pass legislation explicitly banning corporal punishment and also ensure
that it is no longer used as a penal sanction;
- prohibit the use of torture and carry out independent and impartial
investigations of all torture allegations, in order to identify the
perpetrators, bring them to justice and pronounce sentences proportional
to the gravity of their crime;
- guarantee the respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms
throughout the country in accordance with national laws and international
human rights standards.
Geneva, 11th August 2005
