[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

July 24


GLOBAL:


The EU has rebuked Iran for the sentencing of 9 people to death by stoning
even as a new report by a European rights group shows the number of
executions worldwide is on the rise.


The European Union said this week it was deeply worried about news that
Iran had sentenced 9 women and 1 man to death by stoning for separate
adultery convictions in different Iranian cities.

A statement issued by France, which currently holds the EU presidency, on
Thursday, July 24, reminded Tehran it had pledged to introduce a
moratorium on stoning and urged it to abide by its commitments and
international standards.

"The European Union calls on the Iranian government and parliament to
abolish, in law and in practice, recourse to cruel and degrading
punishment and, in particular the use of stoning, as a method of
execution," the statement read.

News reports say the 8 women, ranging in age from 27 to 43, had
convictions including prostitution, incest and adultery. The man, a
50-year-old music teacher, was convicted of illegal sex with a student.

The last officially reported stoning in the Islamic Republic was carried
out on a man a year ago which sparked criticism from rights groups, the
European Union and a top UN official.

Iran's judiciary chief Ayatollah Mohmoud Hashemi-Shahroudi ordered a
moratorium on stoning in 2002.

Iran, Saudi Arabia world leaders in executions

The EU's concerns over the death by stoning sentences in Iran coincided
with the release of a new report by a Rome-based anti-death penalty group.
It showed that though a global trend towards abolition of the death
penalty continued in 2007 with the number of countries practicing capital
punishment dropping to 49 from 51 in the previous year, the number of
executions worldwide increased.

The group, called Hands Off Cain, presented its findings in the 2008
edition of its annual report, which covers the first 6 months of the year
and 2007.

At least 5,851 executions were carried out in 2007 up from the 5,635
registered in 2006 and 5,494 in 2005, the report said.

The surge was "in large part" due to the increased number of executions in
Iran, up by 1/3, and Saudi Arabia where the number of people executed
quadrupled, it said.

China put to death at least 5,000 people, accounting for 85.4 % of the
world total. Iran, which executed at least 355 people, and Saudi Arabia
166, filled the other top 3 places of what the report called the "terrible
podium" of capital-punishment practicing countries.

Most executions in Asia; US to blame too

Other countries where the number of people executed numbered more than 10
included Pakistan, with at least 134, the United States where 42 people
were put to death, Iraq with at least 33, Vietnam with at least 25, Yemen
and Afghanistan, both with at least 15, and North Korea with at least 13.

The report noted how the "prevalent situation worldwide" including China,
Vietnam, Belarus and Mongolia, was for governments to conceal the number
of executions, making it difficult to provide exact figures.

"It points to the fact that the fight against the death penalty entails,
beyond the stopping of executions, a battle for democracy, for the respect
of the rule of law and for political rights and civil liberties," the
report said.

Asia remained the region where the vast majority of executions are carried
out, while the Americas "would be practically death-penalty free were it
not for the United States, the only country on the continent to execute
anyone in 2007," the report noted.

In Africa, the death penalty was carried out in seven countries --
Botswana (at least one), Egypt (actual number unknown), Ethiopia (1),
Equatorial New Guinea (3), Libya (at least 9), Somalia (at least 5) and
Sudan (at least 7).

In 2007 and in the first 6 months of 2008 9 countries moved from retention
to a form of abolition of the death penalty.

Rwanda went from retentionist to abolitionist in July of 2007 with a law
that abolished the death penalty for all crimes, while Kyrgyzstan
abolished the death penalty in January 2007, after years of moratorium.

Uzbekistan went from retentionist to abolitionist on January 1, 2008.These
moves were partly offset by the resumption of executions in Afghanistan
and Ethiopia after several years of suspension, the report said.

Belarus a blemish on Europe

"In Europe, the only blemish on an otherwise completely death penalty-free
zone continues to be Belarus, where at least 1 person was executed in 2007
and 3 in the first 5 months of 2008," the report said.

Hands Off Cain hailed the December 2007 adoption by the United Nations
General Assembly of a resolution that calls upon all member states that
still maintain the death penalty to establish a moratorium on executions
with a view to abolishing them.

The group announced it had bestowed its "Abolitionist of the Year 2008"
award on former Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi, who during his time
in office led a campaign to bring the resolution before the UN General
Assembly.

(source: Deutsche Welle)






TURKEY:

Is party closure death penalty?


Punishment has to be corrective in nature That is the modern understanding
of punishment. This understanding was the backbone of the anti-death
penalty movement in Turkey until that inhumane application was lifted from
Turkish criminal law by the Blent Ecevit government with the exception of
times of war and later by the Recep Tayyip Erdogan government all together
including the time of war.

Amid building pressures against resumption of hangings during the period
of military rule, Kenan Evren, the leader of the 1980 military coup, had
asked angrily "Shall not we hang but feed them?"

Those were the times when the "If you hang a few of them, peace and order
in the country will easily be restored" mentality was in power in the
country and that "absolute power" of the then ruling junta was so
merciless that the age of an 17-year-old young "criminal" was increased"
by a court decision to 18  in order to overcome the "legal obstacle"
prohibiting at the time application of death penalty on people below 18
so that he could be hanged as well. He was Erdal Eren, one of the 54
people hanged during the 1980-83 coup period.

After the restoration of civilian rule at the end of 1983 Turkey started
to apply an undeclared moratorium regarding the death penalty, largely
because of the deep sorrow the Turkish public felt at the Eren case and as
a reaction to Evren's "Shall not we hang but feed them?" mentality

Applause for Ecevit, Erdogan:

Abolition of the death penalty is indeed one of the many reforms that the
ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, government achieved in its
first three years in office, that not only the supporters of the party but
even opponents who wanted enhancement of democracy and individual rights
and liberties in this country united in applauding. Those years were the
times of a fast wind of change in Turkey toward becoming a country
anchored firmly with the democracies of the Western world Since then,
unfortunately, that wind subsided in parallel with the growing awareness
in the AKP that the "religious freedoms" it was aspiring were not indeed
conforming well with the European Union understanding of governance and
individual rights  as was demonstrated in the decision of the European
Court of Justice during the Leyla Sahin case. Thus, after the first 3
years in office the reform understanding of the AKP was replaced with a
"pretending as if doing" approach, rather than the preceding fast track
and indeed revolutionary performance, forgetting that it was the "change
expectation" of the Turkish people and the strong winds of reform that not
only brought the AKP ship to power but helped it survive all those
difficult tides. The more the AKP sailed away from the EU dock towards an
ambiguous orientalist destination, the more the country started to
polarize and the more the AKP faced hardships, the latest one being the
closure case which to a great extend triggered with the so-called turban
or headscarf case.

Now, as the Constitutional Court has set July 28 as the date to start its
decision-making sessions in the closure case, not only the AKP but its
supporters among the intellectuals of the society and in the media have
started talking about the "similarity" between the "death penalty for
individuals" and "closure of political parties."

Of course there is a similarity between the two as the death penalty
terminates the life of an individual, closure decision terminates the life
of a political party and from that perspective in essence such an
application is against the modern understanding that punishment has to be
corrective in nature. From this perspective, of course, even the Venice
criteria that allow closure of parties if they were involved in violence
must be scrapped and some sort of a new "corrective" punishment like the
"life imprisonment without parole" must be introduced in the laws
governing political parties.

But, of course this issue is not something that can be resolved between
now and the beginning of August when the high court is expected to
finalize its verdict in the AKP closure case. This issue must be addressed
perhaps as part of a wide-ranging new reform move that not only this
writer but vast sections of the Turkish society aspire to see irrespective
of what the verdict in the closure case against the AKP or the much
ignored other closure case  against the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society
Party, or DTP  might be. However, until after that new "corrective
punishment" is defined in laws, the current law has to be applied and
current laws say the Constitutional Court can decide either for closure
and impose political bans for those it considers caused the party's
closure with their actions  with a qualified (minimum 7-4) majority,
suspend Treasury assistance or acquit the party. We might not be happy and
we might even deplore the verdict, but it will be a legal one that has to
be respected.

(source: Turkish Daily News)






CHINA:

China remains top executioner


Executions jumped by 1/3 in Iran and quadrupled in Saudi Arabia last year,
causing the total number of executions around the world to rise yet again
in 2007, a human rights group reported, adding that China remained far in
front as the world's top executioner.

The Rome-based Hands Off Cain, which campaigns to stop the death penalty,
said that while countries were increasingly renouncing the death penalty,
more people were put to death in 2007 than in either of the previous 2
years.

In all, the number of executions increased last year to at least 5,851,
compared with 5,635 in 2006 and 5,494 in 2005, the group said in its
annual report.

The gradual trend of abolishing capital punishment continued, with 49
countries retaining the death penalty, compared with 51 in 2006 and 54 in
2005. Only 26 countries that have capital punishment on their books
actually used it in 2007, down from 28 in 2006, the report said.

China alone accounted for at least 5,000 executions, the rights group
estimated, based on reports by the media and other human rights groups.
The exact number of executions in China remains a state secret. This was
the same estimate the group gave for China last year.

However, Hands Off Cain said there were indications of a reduction in the
number of death sentences in China.

Citing reports by magistrates, researchers and rights groups, the group
said death sentences issued by Chinese courts may have dropped by up to
30% in 2007. China's own Supreme People's Court has said it rejected 15 %
of all death sentences reviewed in the first half of this year.

In Iran, at least 355 people were put to death last year, compared with
215 in 2006, the group said, adding that the figure may be even higher
because Tehran does not publish official statistics.

Saudi Arabia carried out 166 executions, compared with 39 a year earlier,
the report said. Hands Off Cain said both Iran and Saudi Arabia executed
minors, in violation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Pakistan also continued an upward trend, executing at least 134 people.

The US remained the only country in the Americas that carried out death
sentences in 2007 - putting 42 people to death, 11 less than in 2006 and
the lowest number in 13 years.

(source: Press Association)






IRAN:

Ban on public executions reiterated


A senior judicial officially rejects reports that the execution of
criminals continues to be carried out publicly in Iran.

The head of the intelligence center for the judiciary, Asghar Jahangir,
reminded reporters on Thursday of an earlier ruling by the judiciary to
ban public executions.

The comments came after some news agencies clamed that Iran has executed
six criminals in public in the northeastern city of Sabzevar.

In January, Iran's judiciary chief, Ayatollah Seyyed Mahmoud
Hashemi-Shahroudi, ordered a halt to public executions in Iran unless they
had his direct approval.

Murder, adultery, rape, armed robbery, apostasy and drug trafficking are
punishable by death under Iranian law.

(source: Press TV)

*******************

Death penalty----Medieval relic


AFTER the Ayatollah Khomeini and other mullahs took control of Iran in
1979, they vowed to create "the government of God on Earth" - but they
actually created a stunningly cruel regime.

AFTER the Ayatollah Khomeini and other mullahs took control of Iran in
1979, they vowed to create "the government of God on Earth" - but they
actually created a stunningly cruel regime.

Bahais were hanged for refusing to convert to Shiite Islam. Women were
stoned for adultery. Gays were put to death. Torture, flogging and
chopping off hands and feet under Islamic law became rampant. Amnesty
International counted 5,195 Iranian executions in the first four years of
the new government. "60 Minutes" reported that, because the Islamic code
forbids execution of virgins, some condemned young women were raped by
guards before being shot.

Today, almost 3 decades later, Iran still is a repulsive place where
Islamic courts sentence hundreds to death, mostly for murder or
drug-trafficking, but sometimes for sexual straying.

Early this month, 24 human rights groups protested that Iran executes
teens for crimes committed when they were as young as 14.

Last week, the European Union formally denounced Iran for holding 10
public executions in a week.

"Iranian authorities have doubled the number of executions from 2006 to
2007, without achieving anything but a worsening crime rate," the EU said.
It warned that Iran's parliament is pondering a bill to add new death
penalty grounds, including for creating Web sites that criticize the
state.

The death penalty is a barbaric relic from medieval times. Most modern
democracies have abolished it as uncivilized. It continues only in brutal
places like Iran, China - and, sadly, the United States.

Last week, the World Court in Holland asked Texas to delay the execution
of five Mexicans awaiting death. Some Americans complained that the
international court was intruding on U.S. sovereignty. Evidently, they
think it's nobody's business if Texas aligns itself with Iran, China and
such ilk.

Thank heaven, West Virginia joined enlightened places long ago and stopped
putting people to death.

(source: Editorial, Charleston Gazette)