[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

May 16



IRAN:

Execution Surge Bucks Worldwide Trend


The near-doubling of the number of executions in Iran to 177 prisoners in
2006 has only steeled the resolve of human rights activists here to raise
public awareness of the idea that capital punishment is not an effective
deterrent to crime and should be abolished as inhuman.

The Iran execution figures were published in the latest report on capital
punishment worldwide by Amnesty International. China topped the list with
1,010 recorded executions in 2006 -- although human rights activists say
the true figure could be up to eight times higher. Iran's execution
numbers were unofficial, gathered from press reports and activists. There
are no government statistics on executions.

The Amnesty report showed a significant drop in executions worldwide -- 26
percent less than in 2005. But the trend was the opposite in Iran. There
are also no signs of the number being any less this year, activists say,
noting that in just 2 weeks in May the press reported some 18 executions.

"The abolition of all the laws related to capital punishment in Iran now
seems a very far-fetched dream," one human rights activist, requesting
anonymity, told IPS. "Capital punishment is widely considered as a vital
factor in preventing crime in our society."

One of their most important tasks now was to create awareness that more
executions did not mean less crime. A campaign was also necessary to bring
pressure on the authorities to reduce the number of executions, the
activist said.

An array of capital offences are now in place in Iran. These include
murder, drug-related offences, ideological and financial crimes and even
sexual offences.

Execution is usually by hanging. Occasionally, in case of sex offenders,
such as convicted child abusers and rapists, terrorists and drug
traffickers, executions are carried out publicly. Sex offences may attract
death by stoning.

A high proportion of the executions this year have been for drug
trafficking. It is a capital crime to be in possession of more than 30
grams of heroin and 5 kilos of opium.

In February, Nasrollah Sanbezehi was convicted of terrorism after a hasty
trial without access to a lawyer, according to activists here. On February
19, a day after his trial, he was publicly hanged in the city of Zahedan,
south-eastern Iran. Shanbezehi was 1 of 4 alleged Baluchi separatists
arrested after a car bomb exploded in front of a bus carrying
Revolutionary Guards. 12 guards were killed in the attack.

Before the trial, Shanbezehi confessed on television and pleaded for
forgiveness. There have been other similar hastily-arranged trials where
defendants have been denied access to defence lawyers, according to rights
activists.

Iran continues to execute minors, although this is a violation of
international law, activists say. Four young men alleged to have committed
crimes when under the age of 18, were among those executed last year,
according to these sources. In 2004 a young girl was publicly executed for
sex offences. It was later proved that she was 16 at the time of her
execution. Nasrin Sotoudeh, a lawyer and child rights activists is
currently defending a client, named Soghra, who was sentenced to death for
an alleged killing when she was 13. The woman is now 30 years old and has
been on death row for 17 years, Sotoudeh told IPS. The lawyer said she
knew of 36 other cases of minors sentenced to death over the past three
years. But there were "many more" in smaller towns. These have not been
reported in the press nor do they appear in officials records, she said.

"I believe the situation has worsened over the past two or three years,"
Sotoudeh said. This was because children were being tried as adults in
provincial rather than juvenile courts. Judges trying adultery cases are
obliged to hand down death sentences by stoning -- although these are
rarely carried out. Some "tens" of women and men sentenced to death in
this way are now awaiting execution, according to human rights sources.

In May 2006 a man and a woman were stoned to death for adultery in Mashad,
northeast Iran. Some months later, women's rights groups began campaigning
against the stoning laws which are more frequently used against women than
men. Volunteer lawyers took up the cases of several women and one man and
saved them from execution, according to sources.

Iran's legal system is based on related Islamic laws. All legislation
passed by parliament also needs the approval of the all-powerful,
hard-line six-member clerical council appointed by the Iranian supreme
leader Ayatollah Khamenei. This examines the compatibility of all laws
with religious laws.

The council can veto parliamentary legislation. Any change of law is a
religious matter and the decision ultimately rests in the hands of the
religious authorities. Opposition to the Islamic laws can lead to heresy
charges which may result in the death penalty.

Human rights activist Emadeddin Baghi is currently campaigning to convince
law-makers and religious authorities to abolish capital punishment -- or
at least reduce its use to the minimum.

A devoted Muslim and former student of a Qom religious seminary, Baghi
finds justification for his belief in abolition and the "right to live" in
the Koran and Islamic Shariah law.

In 1999 Neshat, a highly popular reformist newspaper published an article
by Baghi arguing that Iran's religious laws calling for retribution for a
killing did not apply to a large number of cases -- some 25 % -- where
death was cause unintentionally.

This view was judged heretical by the authorities. In a huge crackdown on
reformist newspapers the publication was closed down. The editor,
Mashallah Shamsolvaezin, was jailed for 19 months. Baghi was also put on
trial for opposing the code of the Koran. He was sentenced to two years in
prison for the article and other alleged offences. The ban was lifted 5
years later, although the newspaper never reappeared.

Undeterred, Baghi has now founded Iran's first anti-capital punishment
organisation, the Association for the Right to Live. "We haven't yet
applied for a licence for our association because we are sure our
application will be rejected. We have also seen what pressure is being
currently exerted on those non-governmental organisations which are
legally licensed. The government is so distrustful of them," Baghi told
IPS.

Baghi has now written a book on the death penalty and Islam. His central
argument is that abolition would not be contrary to Islam.

Iranian authorities have blocked publication of the book. But Baghi is now
planning to circumvent the ban by publishing it in Afghanistan. He hopes
the book will play a role in reducing the religious taboo associated with
any open debate on the abolition of the death penalty in the country.

(source: IPS News)






EUROPEAN UNION:

E.U. Will Seek Death Penalty Moratorium


The European Union will draft a resolution to present to the United
Nations that calls for a worldwide moratorium on state-ordered executions.

Italy and Germany, which holds the rotating presidency of the E.U. through
June, were given a mandate Monday by foreign ministers to draft the text,
Italy's Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema said. The document, which was
lobbied for by the Italian government, will be presented to the General
Assembly by September at the latest, he said.

"The E.U. ministers have conferred upon Italy and the German presidency
the unanimous mandate to prepare the text," Mr. D'Alema said late Monday
in Brussels. The step is a "European success, of which Italy is the main
originator." The Italian government is leading the E.U. lobby to pressure
for a U.N. resolution against the death penalty worldwide.

The European Parliament last month backed a motion that calls on the E.U.
to present the resolution.

State-ordered executions fell more than 25% last year worldwide, compared
with 2005, while China remains the country that most frequently resorts to
capital punishment, Amnesty International said last month. China,
Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, Sudan, and America committed 91% of all executions
last year.

Prime Minister Prodi of Italy and his coalition have been outspoken about
the need for a resolution. Brazil, South Africa, and New Zealand have
expressed their support for the resolution, and the European Union hopes
to count the Philippines, India, Senegal, Chile, and Mexico among its
advocates, Italian daily Corriere della Sera reported yesterday.

The Philippines abolished the death penalty last year, while Mexico did
away with the practice in 2005.

(source: Bloomberg News)






SAUDI ARABIA----executions

2 beheaded for murder, robbery


Saudi Arabia beheaded 2 Ethiopians for murder and armed robbery on
Wednesday as it kept up a relentless pace of executions that has seen 76
convicts put to the sword already this year.

Ali Mohammed Ali and Adel Adam Aman were found guilty of gunning down a
Saudi national during a night-time raid on a telephone exchange, said the
interior ministry.

Their execution was carried out in the Jeddah region in the west of the
kingdom on the Red Sea coast, the ministry said.

The Saudi authorities have now carried out more than twice as many
executions this year as in the whole of 2006 with more than 6 months still
to go.

Last year, 37 people were executed in the conservative Gulf kingdom, while
83 were put to death in 2005 and 35 the year before, according to AFP
tallies based on official statements.

The spate of executions has sparked mounting concern in Canada, which has
2 nationals facing possible death sentences for a murder they insist they
did not commit.

Mohamed Kohail, 22, of Palestinian origin, was arrested in January and
accused of killing a Syrian youth in a vicious schoolyard brawl in Jeddah,
Toronto's Globe and Mail newspaper reported on Tuesday.

His 16-year-old brother Sultan is also being held in relation to the
death.

In an interview by mobile phone from his prison cell, Kohail told the
newspaper he had been pushed, slapped and abused, and forced into signing
a false confession.

Local police told him to admit to hitting the Syrian schoolboy if he
wished to avoid a lengthy prison term, unaware the boy had died, he said,
but after signing the document, he was charged with the boy's murder.

Until last year, Kohail had lived with his family in a Montreal suburb,
but returned to Saudi Arabia, where he was born, when his sister became
ill, he said.

Rodney Moore, a spokesperson for Canada's foreign affairs department,
acknowledged that Canadian officials are "aware of the arrest of 2
Canadian citizens in Saudi Arabia".

Consular officials have met with Saudi officials, Kohail and his family,
Moore said, but refused to offer details because of Canadian privacy laws.

Executions are usually carried out in public in Saudi Arabia, which
applies a strict form of or Islamic law. Rape, murder, apostasy, armed
robbery and drug trafficking can all carry the death penalty.

(sources: SAPA/Agence France Presse)