Jan. 30
IRAN----executions
2 prisoners were executed in northern Iran today
2 prisoners were hanged in the prieon of Semnan north of Iran today.
According to the official websiet of the Iranian judiciary the prisoners were
identified as "M. J. " (49 year-old) and "H. A." (47 year-old) and were
convicted of carrying more than 1100 grams of pure heorin and 6180 grams of
concentrated heroin respectively.
The charges have not been confirmed by independent sources.
(source: Iran Human Rights)
SAUDI ARABIA----execution
Pakistani beheaded for heroin trafficking
A Pakistani man convicted of trafficking in heroin was beheaded Monday in
eastern Saudi Arabia, according to the official Saudi Press Agency.
Salman Khan Taj Mohamma was executed in the city of Dammam, bringing to 5 the
number of people put to death in Saudi Arabia since the beginning of the year.
Saudi Arabia came under fire in October when the United Nations called on the
Kingdom to better respect international standards that provide safeguards to
ensure protection of the rights of those facing the death penalty. The UN said
it was "deeply distressed" after eight Bangladeshi migrant workers found guilty
of a 2007 murder were beheaded in public in the capital, Riyadh.
Saudi Arabia, China, Iran, the United States and Yemen are the countries that
executive the highest numbers of people, according to human rights group
Amnesty International.
Iraq may enter the fray with dozens of recent executions.
(source: AKI)
PAKISTAN:
Pakistan's high court to hear murder charges against spy agencies
Pakistan's military spy agencies face unprecedented public scrutiny when the
country's Supreme Court on Monday begins hearing charges that operatives
murdered suspected militants in custody.
The court in late February also will take up charges that military spies bribed
politicians to overthrow two elected governments in the 1990s. The cases will
take Pakistani politics into uncharted territory by holding to account under
civilian laws the military's Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) directorate —
virtually a parallel state since 1977, when the military staged the 3rd of 4
coups.
The military has ruled Pakistan directly for half its 64-year history and
continues to violate the constitution and national laws with impunity because
the elected politicians aren't powerful enough to rein it in, politicians,
analysts and human rights activists said.
The Supreme Court will receive written explanations from the ISI and military
intelligence, the army's spy wing, for the deaths of 4 civilians while in
military custody during the 2nd half of last year. The 4 were suspected of
being linked to the Taliban.
The bodies of 3 of the 4 dead men were dumped at the side of a road in the
northwest city of Peshawar, lawyers representing the men's families told the
Supreme Court on Wednesday.
The victims included three brothers, partners in a family publishing business
in the eastern city of Lahore, who printed copies of the Quran and books on
Islamic jurisprudence for the Red Mosque in Islamabad while it was under the
control of militants in 2007.
More than 400 militants and seminary students were killed when security forces
stormed the Red Mosque in 2007. The incident sparked a Taliban insurgency in
northwest Pakistan that has claimed the lives of more than 30,000 Pakistanis.
Previously, intelligence operatives left the bodies of other suspects who
allegedly died of torture during interrogation at a morgue for the families to
collect for burial, the lawyers said.
The brothers had been acquitted of terrorism charges by a High Court, but went
missing while awaiting release from jail in Rawalpindi, a city bordering
Islamabad that houses army headquarters.
But lawyers representing the military have acknowledged, under questioning by
the Supreme Court chief justice, Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry, that the men had
been taken into custody by intelligence operatives and recharged under military
laws that aren't usually applicable to civilians.
If the Supreme Court finds any military officers were involved in the murder of
the 4 men, they could face the death penalty under the same military laws.
Politicians and human rights activists say the Supreme Court hearing has set an
important precedent for hundreds of other so-called "missing persons" cases.
The government has acknowledged some 400 such cases of Pakistanis kidnapped by
military intelligence operatives on suspicion of involvement in 2 insurgencies
— one by the Taliban in the northwest tribal areas bordering Afghanistan, and
the other by secular separatists in the western province of Baluchistan
bordering Iran.
Politicians based in Baluchistan said that the corpses of suspected insurgents
have turned up since 2009 with such regularity that the public there could tell
who had killed them by the location of fatal wounds.
"If it's a bullet in the forehead, that's personal enmity. If it's a bullet in
the temple or heart, that the intelligence agencies," said Hasil Bizenjo, a
veteran Baluchistan politician opposed to the insurgency.
The politicians and activists put the number of missing persons at well over
1,000.
A veteran human rights lawyer told McClatchy that the ISI had created and
funded human rights organizations to "represent" missing persons in its
custody.
"I have, while visiting clients at ISI facilities, seen these supposed rights
activists trying to convince the detainees to admit the charges against them
and cooperate with the authorities," said the lawyer, who spoke on condition of
anonymity to protect clients still in custody.
Such admissions of guilt enabled the ISI to formally charge the detainees and
secure guilty verdicts from the courts.
The Supreme Court has been hearing missing persons cases since 2009, but
notices issued to military intelligence authorities to testify largely had been
stonewalled or completely ignored.
However, the court's decision last month to investigate charges which
characterized the Pakistani government as treacherously plotting with the U.S.
to avert a 5th military coup last May raised questions about its neutrality.
Public pressure has subsequently built for the Supreme Court also to take up
cases against the military, including charges that it bribed politicians and
journalists to overthrow elected governments in 1990 and 1996.
It will hear those charges in late February.
The Pakistani Senate last week unanimously passed a resolution calling for
Pervez Musharraf, who ruled Pakistan as a military dictator from 1999 to 2008,
to be tried for treason.
He also faces murder charges for the December 2007 assassination of Benazir
Bhutto, a former 2-time prime minister and wife of Asif Ali Zardari, the
Pakistani president.
Bhutto headed both the governments overthrown by military conspiracy in the
1990s.
Yousaf Raza Gilani, the prime minister, on Friday said Musharraf would
"certainly" be arrested and prosecuted if he returned to Pakistan from the
United Kingdom, where he has been based since being forced to resign as
president in September 2008.
Musharraf last week called off plans to return to Pakistan by the end of
January to contest elections due to be held in the next 12 months.
None of Pakistan 3 previous military rulers have ever been tried, because they
obtained the cover of rulings from the Supreme Court when it was weak.
The court asserted its independence in February 2007 after Musharraf sacked the
chief justice, who is widely credited for his downfall.
(source: Miami Herald)
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