[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

April 13



IRAN----executions

Iran hangs 4 criminals: report


Iran has hanged 4 criminals, including 2 members of a Sunni militant group
blamed for a string of attacks in the southeast of the country, media
reports said on Sunday.

The two men, identified by only their initials A.M. and M.S., were hanged
in the southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchestan for the capital offence
of being "moharebeh" (an enemy of God), Kayhan newspaper reported.

The local revolutionary court found them to be members the "terrorist
group" Jundallah, and they were hanged in prison in the provincial capital
of Zahedan.

Jundallah has been behind a string of attacks in the province in recent
years and is led by Abdolmalek Rigi, a shadowy young Sunni militant. Iran
accuses its arch-enemy the United States of backing the group.

The region has also seen abductions of both Iranians and foreigners by
bandits and militants linked to Jundallah.

2 other men convicted of abduction and murder were hanged in a prison in
the northern city of Sari, the official IRNA new agency reported.

The men, identified only as H.H. and R.Sh., were hanged on Saturday
morning for kidnapping the owner of an industrial workshop and killing him
with 10 shots to the head after police intervened.

The abductors had demanded a 500-million-rial (54,000-dollar) ransom, IRNA
said.

Saturday's hangings bring to at least 56 the number of executions in Iran
so far this year. The number of executions soared last year to 298,
according to an AFP count.

Capital offences in Iran include murder, rape, armed robbery, serious drug
trafficking and adultery. The Islamic republic currently makes more use of
the death penalty than any country apart from China.

Many executions were held in public last year, but judiciary chief
Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi ordered in January that there should
be no more public executions without his approval.

There have been no reports of any public hangings since then.

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

Iran upholds death sentence for Kurdish activist


Iran has upheld a death sentence for a Kurdish activist convicted of links
to an outlawed separatist group after the supreme court quashed the
original hanging verdict, his lawyer said on Sunday.

"A revolutionary court in the town of Marivan has sentenced Hiva Botimar
to death for the second time after the supreme court quashed its first
verdict and ordered a new trial," lawyer Saleh Nikbakht told AFP.

He said the court in western Kordestan province had found 31-year-old
environmental activist Botimar guilty of "moharebeh" (being an enemy of
god) and having ties with Turkey's outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

Nikbakht said the court cited as evidence of guilt hundreds of bullets
found in Botimars possession which he had recovered from an abandoned army
camp in a Kordestan village when he was 14.

"The court gave its ruling regardless of the army's official
explanations," the lawyer said, adding that he had 20 days to appeal the
verdict against his client who has been in jail since December 2006.

In a separate ruling, the supreme court has quashed a death sentence
against another Kurdish man accused of espionage and imprisoned since
January 2007, Nikbakht said.

Adnan Hassanpour, 26, who briefly worked as a journalist for a local
publication in Kordestan province, "was approached by some political
people to gather information about military sites," the lawyer said.

"He has denied any systematic ties with outlawed political groups,"
Nikbakht said, adding that he awaited a judiciary ruling for a retrial.

The death sentences were in July 2007 condemned in Europe and raised the
concern of press and human rights watchdogs.

But Nikbakht said the charges against Hassanpour were unrelated to his
journalistic work.

Iran has been battling separatist rebels of the Party of Free Life of
Kurdistan (PJAK), which is linked to the PKK, in its western
Kurdish-populated areas.

Tehran has repeatedly accused the United States of seeking to stir up
ethnic unrest by providing material support to PJAK, which has bases in
northeastern neighbouring Iraq.

(source for both: Agence France Presse)






SAUDI ARABIA----executions

Saudi beheads 2 Nigerian drug traffickers

2 Nigerians convicted of drug trafficking were beheaded by the sword on
Sunday in Saudi Arabias western Mecca region, the official SPA news agency
quoted the interior ministry as saying.

Mohammed Qaddus Suleyman and Idris Abdel Ghani Mohammed were sentenced to
death for smuggling cocaine hidden inside their stomachs into the kingdom,
a ministry statement said.

Their beheadings took to 43 the number of executions carried out in the
country this year.

In 2007, a record 153 people were executed in ultra-conservative Saudi
Arabia which applies a strict version of Islamic law. 37 were executed in
2006.

Rape, murder, apostasy, armed robbery and drug trafficking can all carry
the death penalty in the kingdom, where executions are usually carried out
in public.

(source: Agence France Presse)






CHINA:

Uyghur Christian faces possible execution for Subversion of National
Government

Alimujiang Yimiti, a Uyghur Christian and father of two, may soon face
execution in Xinjiang Province China. China Aid Association (CAA) says
officials charged Alimujiang last September with "illegal religious
activities" and took him into custody this January, accusing him of
"Subversion of the National Government and endangering national security,"
a crime punishable by death.

Officials are expected to announce Alimujiangs sentence by the end of
April. Charges such as committing crimes against the State or revealing
State secrets are commonly leveled against anyone considered to be an
enemy of the State. Alimujiangs family fears he will be found guilty of
such crimes and subjected to capital punishment.

In a media release, CAA states : Alimujiang is neither a separatist nor a
terrorist, local sources say. He has told officials many times during
interrogation that as a Christian he loves and supports the Chinese
government, something many young Uyghurs struggle with as Han Chinese
culture becomes increasingly dominant in Xinjiang. As a loyal Chinese
citizen and business entrepreneur, Alimujiang has held to high standards,
paying his taxes faithfully and avoiding a common local custom of paying
bribes for business favors. He has also done his best to assimilate into
Chinese culture, making the unusual decision to send his children to a
Chinese language school in a predominantly Uyghur area.

CAA says friends say Alimujiang simply wants the freedom to quietly
express his faith, a right guaranteed to him in the Chinese constitution.

Currently however, it is illegal for Alimujiang to own a Uyghur Bible. He
is also unable to attend services at any Three Self Church in Xinjiang due
to articles in the Xinjiang constitution that contradict China's national
constitution. Neither can he pray with foreign Christians.

Simple Faith A Crime ?

Alimujiang, who comes from a Muslim background, converted to Christianity
over 10 years ago and became active among the growing Uyghur church.

According to CAA, on 1997 an American-owned company, the Xinjiang
Taipingyang Nongye Gongsi, employed Alimujiang as an interpreter because
of his firm grasp of Chinese, English and Uyghur. Appreciative of his
unique linguistic and technical skills, the company later offered him a
full-time job at their premises in Hetian. While no religious activities
were permitted during working hours, the company allowed Alimujiang and
other staff members  whether Muslim, Christian or otherwise  to pursue
their own religious beliefs without interference  in contrast to
government companies. State officials also searched his house regularly
and seized his personal computer. Alimujiang made numerous complaints to
the State Security Bureau headquarters in Urumqi, the provincial capital.
He also documented bruises from rough treatment and brought this to the
attention of the bureau. Eventually Alimujiang left the company in Hetian
and moved back to Urumqi, where he was hired as project manager for the
Xinjiang Jiaerhao Foodstuff Company.

CAA says that during his employment with the American-owned company and
subsequently the UK-owned Xinjiang Jiaerhao Foodstuff Company, the local
State Security Bureau - responsible for matters of national security
regularly called Alimujiang in for interrogation. Day or night, he was
expected to comply. Officials however forbade him to discuss the subject
of these interrogations with anyone, as this would be equivalent to
"leaking state secrets."

In late Febuary of this year Mr. Zhang Kai Alimujiang's lawyer, travelled
to Kashi from Beijing but was denied a meeting with him by the Bureau of
State Security of Xinjiang on Feb 25 for a so-called "national secret"
reason. Alimujiang is currently being held in Kashi detention center His
arrest, totally unexpected, has shocked friends and family who describe
Alimujiang as an honest businessman and loyal citizen of China. 2
companies of Alimujiangs former employment were closed due to suspicion of
'foreign religious infiltration.'

(source: Assist News Service)






SOUTH AFRICA:

Zuma endorsement of Shabangu in stark contrast to ANC policy on death
penalty


You have to admit that Msholozi and Deputy Safety and Security Minister
Susan Shabangu's calls to shoot the criminals and kill the bastards make
you feel kinda warm all over. Let's face it, South Africans are sick and
tired of criminals and the sooner this blight on our country is brought
under control, the better.

This does not detract, however, from the fact that culling the criminal
herd, in the manner suggested, is illegal. It crosses too many laws and
boundaries to cover here, save to iterate that the deputy minister,
particularly one whose portfolio is safety and security, cannot be seen to
be telling the police to break the law.

Don't confuse this with the rights which the police and other parties
have, in terms of the law, to defend themselves when they are under
attack. The law already provides for deadly force in certain defined
circumstances. If you shoot at the police or pull a gun on them, they will
take you out of the game and with justification.

This call by the minister, which is receiving enormous support, I have to
concede, goes way beyond that.

A point of interest: if the ANC is adamant that the death penalty remains
off the statute books, how can it condone a "death penalty" that is
inflicted without any due process of law?

In the ordinary course a criminal is convicted, appeals  perhaps several
times  and then, having exhausted all avenues left open to him or her, is
executed in countries where capital punishment is an acceptable penalty.
This is considered wholly unacceptable to the ANC and, if officials are to
be believed, not even up for debate.

Yet here we have an instruction to ignore all that  dont pass go, dont
collect $200, move directly to the death penalty before the suspect, which
is all that he or she is at the time in question, is even arrested and
charged.

A death penalty for suspects while convicted murderers are safely tucked
up in their prison cells?

Incredibly you come across people who are adamant that the death penalty
is an archaic, barbaric act carried on by people with a Nazi-like
mentality, yet, I shit you not, confirm that they are happy to see the
minister finally having a full go at criminals. I assume, therefore, by
archaic and barbaric they refer to the trial and appeals, because it seems
as if they have no problems shooting the "bastards" before they're even
convicted as criminals!

Reminds me of that skit they did in Not the 9 Oclock News, a British
comedy that poked fun at everything and everyone. In one scene they have
an "esteemed" panel discussing what to do with English football hooligans.
One expert, regardless of the scenario put to her, had only one solution:
"Cut off their goolies!" Maybe she died and was reincarnated as a deputy
minister for sa  but I digress.

Of course what many forget is that statute and the common law as
underpinned by precedent set out an awful lot of crimes. Which ones are
worthy of the pre-arrest death penalty would be anyones guess. You might
hate robbers while your neighbour is adamant that the abalone stocks need
guarding. Some might like the idea of a blanket culling of all
undesirables.

While I reject the idea with the contempt that it deserves, if people feel
that it must progress, might I just mention my bank manager in passing? I
know that he hasnt paid his TV licence and while Id hate to be the
whistleblower

Perhaps a list that President Mbeki's finest can carry in their pockets of
"shoot the bastards" versus "worthy of arresting."

I would love to be at the scene of a crime in progress when our boys in
blue arrive:

"Wie het die misdaad-skietlys?"

"Eish, Inspector, I left it at the station!"

"Reg manne, luister nou mooi  skiet almal!"

South Africans, you are the greatest guys and gals on the planet  your
passion and zeal in dealing with issues is why I could never leave this
country.

Sod the pompous and the know-alls, we are heart-on-your-sleeve
reactionaries and somehow we're going to emerge as the rainbow nation
Madiba envisaged.

Or die trying

(source: Mail & Guardian)