Feb. 20
SAUDI ARABIA:
Saudi withdraws Sri Lanka envoy in execution tiff; Countries at odds since
January beheading of domestic worker convicted for murder
Saudi Arabia says it has recalled its ambassador to Sri Lanka following a
similar move by the South Asian nation to protest the kingdom's beheading of a
Sri Lankan domestic worker last month.
The 2 countries have been at odds since the January execution of Rizana Nafeek,
who was convicted in the death of a Saudi baby in her care in 2005.
The case spurred global appeals for leniency because she was 17 at the time of
the infant's death. She had denied strangling the 4-month-old boy.
The official Saudi Press Agency said on Wednesday that the ambassador was
called to Riyadh for consultations. Sri Lanka withdrew its ambassador to the
Gulf kingdom after the execution.
The UN's human rights body had expressed "deep dismay" at the beheading, and
the European Union said it had asked the Saudi authorities to commute the death
penalty.
Saudi Arabia "deplored" world reaction to the beheading at the time. The
government spokesman condemned what he called "wrong information on the case,"
and denied that the maid was a minor when she committed the crime.
As per her passport, she was 21 years old when she committed the crime," he
said, adding that "the kingdom does not allow minors to be brought as workers."
He said the authorities had tried hard to convince the baby's family to accept
"blood money" but they rejected any amnesty and insisted that the maid be
executed.
Human Rights Watch said Nafeek had retracted "a confession" that she said was
made under duress. She said the baby accidentally choked to death while
drinking from a bottle.
(source: Gulf News)
**************************************
Prosecution demands death penalty for Tala's murderer
The prosecution called for the death penalty for a housemaid who was accused of
decapitating a 4-year-old girl with a cleaver in Yanbu last September.
Tala Al-Shehri's father said he would never forgive the housemaid for what she
did to his daughter. He also said justice should be served, criticizing the
slow proceedings of the case.
He added he and his family would never forget that black Wednesday in September
when they saw their little girl's headless corpse lying in a pool of blood.
Tala's mother, a teacher, fainted and was admitted to hospital while Tala's
sisters were treated for shock.
Tala's relatives said they could not understand the housemaid's horrific action
for they had always treated her well.
The Indonesian Embassy in Riyadh appointed 3 Saudi lawyers last October to
defend the maid, who is in prison.
Ibrahim Al-Mihayani of the Human Rights Commission in Yanbu said a team from
the rights watchdog visited the maid in prison.
"The team found that the woman seemed unperturbed by her heinous action, and
she tried to win the visitors' sympathy," Al-Mihayani said.
"She said she does not have any remorse for what she did. She cited messages
from Tala's sisters that said she was to be deported as the reason for
committing the crime," he said.
Dr. Khalid Al-Oufi, consultant psychiatrist and medical director of Al-Amal
Hospital in Jeddah, described her as a mentally-troubled person who suffers
from internal conflicts and a desire to kill with vengeance and without any
remorse. "Her desire reflects nothing but sadism," he added.
Al-Oufi urged psychologists and social and family counselors to conduct
extensive studies into why some housemaids commit these horrific crimes.
Recently there has been an increase in the number of incidence in which maids
were found to have abused wards of families they worked for.
The most celebrated case was that of the Sri Lankan housemaid, who was executed
in January for murdering her employer's baby after exhausting all appeals and
mercy petitions.
Rizana Nafeek smothered the infant to death after an argument with the child's
mother, her employer. She was executed in Dawadmi near Riyadh.
In another case, a Dammam court ruled out the death penalty for an Indonesian
maid accused of poisoning Mishari, a 4-month-old infant, to death.
The child's parents said they would appeal the verdict.
The verdict was issued by a 3-judge panel after a protracted trial that
involved 43 court sessions over a period of 3 years.
The prosecutor, the defendant, her lawyer, 2 members of the National Society
for Human Rights (NSHR) and translators were present in the court room when the
verdict was read out.
The maid had admitted in court to the ghastly deed of adding rat poison to the
infant???s milk, but she retracted the statement saying she had confessed under
duress.
However, she told the court at a later hearing that she had confessed of her
own accord and was guilty of the crime.
(source: Saudi Gazette)
IRAN:
42 prisoners on death row only in Karaj prisons
Iran has confirmed the death sentences of 42 prisoners at 3 of the regime's
most notoriously brutal prisons in the city of Karaj, central Iran.
The prisoners are being held in Gohardasht Prison, Ghezel Hesar prison in Keraj
and the Karaj central prison - where tens of thousands of political prisoners
have been put to death over the past 3 decades.
According to Iranian resistance information, death sentences for 12 prisoners
were confirmed at Gohardasht prison on Monday 18th of February, and the men
were transferred to solitary confinement at the same day.
In Ghezel Hesar Karaj, 25 prisoners whose death sentences had been previously
cancelled have been once again sentenced to die. All 25 were transferred to
Ward 2 of Ghezel Hesar prison on the evening of Sunday 17th of February, where
they will be held on death row until the sentence is carried out.
And in Karaj central prison, 5 prisoners have also been sentenced to death by
the order of Azamieh Court in the city of Karaj.
On the other hand, families and friends of political prisoners gathered in
front of Evin Prison, in Tehran and demanded a clear condition of their loved
ones, on Monday, February 18.
(source: National Council of Resistance of Iran - Foreign Affairs Committee)
LEBANON:
Former Lebanon Minister and Syrian Co-Defendant Could Face Death Penalty
A Lebanese military court judge on Wednesday charged a former government
information minister and his suspected Syrian accomplice of a conspiracy to
kill Lebanese political and religious leaders and foment sectarian strife,
recommending the death penalty for both.
The announcement about the defendants, Michel Samaha, the former minister, and
Mr. Mamlouk, a Syrian security official, came amid increased sectarian tensions
in Lebanon that are directly tied to the nearly 2-year-old conflict in
neighboring Syria, which occupied Lebanon for nearly 3 decades until 2005 and
still deeply polarizes Lebanese politics.
Lebanese officials have said explosives were found in a car belonging to Mr.
Samaha, who was arrested on Aug. 9. Mr. Mamlouk was accused of plotting with
Mr. Samaha to transport the explosives into the country. An arrest warrant for
Mr. Mamlouk was issued this month. His whereabouts is unclear.
It also was unclear how long a trial would last or whether the judge's
recommendations of punishment would be followed if the pair were found guilty.
But the Lebanese government's handling of the politically sensitive case
carries its own risks of aggravating sectarian tensions in this country.
On Tuesday, a group claiming to represent a faction of Syrian rebels threatened
to lob mortar shells into Lebanon to attack Hezbollah, the Shiite militia that
is also Lebanon's most powerful political party, in retaliation for what rebels
say is a Hezbollah military campaign against rebels in Syria. The statement
warned Lebanese citizens, especially in the Shiite, pro-Hezbollah border town
of Hermel, to stay away from Hezbollah positions that it said were shelling the
rebels across the border.
A cross-border skirmish between Hezbollah and Syrian rebels could be a
dangerous escalation in Lebanon, which has struggled to stay out of the
conflict in Syria.
Representatives of the main group of rebel fighters, the Free Syrian Army,
issued conflicting statements, with one saying the threat was a provocation
fabricated by Hezbollah, and another confirming it and giving Hezbollah 48
hours to end its attacks or face retaliation.
Hezbollah is closely allied to the Syrian government, while its Sunni rivals in
Lebanon largely support the majority Sunni rebels. Rebels say Hezbollah has
stepped up its military activity inside Syria, taking over numerous villages
near the border. Hezbollah says its fighters have been active only in Syrian
villages where Lebanese citizens live and are defending themselves.
With the Syrian conflict threatening to destabilize the region, Russia's
foreign minister said on Wednesday that his country would work with the Arab
League to bring about direct talks between Syria's government and the armed
opposition in a bid to end the deadly civil war.
Speaking after a meeting with Arab League officials in Moscow, the minister,
Sergey V. Lavrov, told reporters there were "signs of tendencies for dialogue
from both the side of the government and the opposition," Agence France-Presse
reported.
Russia has long called for a political solution, but Mr. Lavrov's statement
seemed to indicate a new level of engagement in pushing for talks. Syria's
foreign minister, Walid al-Moallam, is scheduled to visit Moscow on Monday for
talks, and the president of Syria's main opposition coalition, Moaz al-Khatib,
is expected to visit Moscow in March, Mr. Lavrov said.
Yet it is unclear whether Mr. Moallem and Mr. Khatib have the full backing of
their own sides for talks. Mr. Khatib's group, the National Coalition of Syrian
Revolution and Opposition Forces, insists that it will speak only with members
of Mr. Assad's government without "blood on their hands." Lakhdar Brahimi, the
special Syria peace envoy representing the United Nations and the Arab League,
has appeared to support Mr. Khatib's position, calling on the government to
send an "acceptable delegation."
But on Wednesday, Mr. Lavrov said that the 2 sides should not impose
preconditions or "say that I am going to talk to this person but not that one."
He was speaking after a meeting of the Russia-Arab Forum from which the
representatives of the rebels' main Arab backers, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, were
absent.
In Syria on Wednesday, rebel shells appeared to reach new areas in Damascus,
activists and witnesses reported. Goran Tomasevic, a photographer for The
Associated Press who has recently produced images of fighting in the Damascus
suburbs as one of the few foreign journalists with rebel fighters there,
described a deadly stalemate between 2 well-coordinated fighting forces that he
said was reminiscent of wars that gutted cities like Sarajevo and Stalingrad.
"Rebel fighters in Damascus are disciplined, skilled and brave," he wrote in an
account published on Wednesday. "In a month on the front-line, I saw them
defend a swath of suburbs in the Syrian capital, mount complex mass attacks,
manage logistics, treat their wounded."
But, he added, "as constant, punishingly accurate, mortar, tank and sniper fire
attested," government soldiers, often fighting at close range, "are also well
drilled, courageous - and much better armed."
Both state media and opposition activists reported on Wednesday that mortar
rounds had hit the Tishreen sports stadium in the downtown neighborhood of
Baramkeh. The state news agency, SANA, said the explosion killed an athlete
from the Homs-based Al Wathba soccer team as he was practicing.
Government forces hit a rebel command center in a suburb east of the capital on
Wednesday, injuring a founder of the Liwaa al-Islam brigade, Sheik Zahran
Alloush, the brigade said in a statement.
It said the attack "won't stop or weaken the will of the battalion" and asked
for "God's help to reach the criminals for retribution."
(source: New York Times)
****************************
Lebanon seeks death penalty for ex-minister in Syria plot
A Lebanese judge Wednesday demanded the death penalty for ex-minister Michel
Samaha and Syrian security chief Ali Mamlouk, who face charges of plotting
attacks on political and religious figures in Lebanon.
Military magistrate Riad Abu Ghida said Samaha and Mamlouk should be given the
ultimate punishment "for transporting explosives from Syria to Lebanon in an
attempt to assassinate Lebanese political and religious leaders," according to
a copy of the indictment received by AFP.
(source: Agence France-Presse)
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES:
Death penalty upheld for maid, lover in employer murder case
A housemaid and her boyfriend who strangled a handicapped woman at her home in
Khorfakkan have had their death sentences confirmed. The Federal Supreme Court
in Abu Dhabi upheld the execution ruling of the criminal court and the court of
appeal in Khorfakkan after the Asian defendants were found guilty of murdering
the Emirati woman before they robbed her.
Court records show that the 42-year-old victim, identified as Lailah, was
strangled using a headscarf in the bedroom of her house in Al Lu' Luiya during
2011.
The woman was living at the house with the maid, who had served her for more
than 2 years. Prosecutors said the maid planned the murder with her boyfriend.
Officers said the woman waited for her boss' brother and his family, who were
staying in their neighbourhood, to go to a wedding in Sharjah. She then went
into the victim's bedroom, tied her up and strangled her with the help of her
lover.
The pair then stole about Dhs20,000, which was inside the bedroom and the
woman's jewellery before they fled the scene.
The Emirati's family informed police about the murder after they returned from
the wedding and found her body tied with a rope and lying in the middle of her
bedroom. A headscarf, usually worn by the maid, was also found next to the
victim's body.
Police later arrested the maid in Dubai, where she was hiding.
Prosecutors said the defendant admitted to killing her boss with the help of
her boyfriend after officers confronted her with evidence during her interview.
Police tracked down her boyfriend in Abu Dhabi and arrested him.
The woman told prosecutors she killed her employer because of frequent
arguments and fights between them.
(source: 7daysindubai.com)
***********************************
'We were tortured in Dubai desert:' British tourists arrested for possession of
cannabis could face death penalty after being 'beaten up and given electric
shocks by police'
3 British men were tortured with electric shocks and beaten by police after
being arrested for possessing cannabis while on holiday in Dubai, it was
claimed today.
Grant Cameron and Karl Williams, both 25 and from London, and Suneet Jeerh, 25,
from Essex, say they were subjected to a terrifying ordeal after being taken
into custody 7 months ago.
In a harrowing account of his ordeal, Mr Williams described how he was
allegedly blindfolded with a towel before police applied electric shocks to his
testicles. He then says he had a gun held to his head and believed he was going
to die.
All 3 men are still being held in the UAE and, if found guilty of attempting to
traffic or promote the use of drugs, could face the death penalty.
Their accounts of their treatment are detailed in draft witness statements,
drawn up by Reprieve lawyer Marc Calcutt following conversations with the 3 men
in Dubai.
The torture took place in the desert, where the men were initially taken after
their arrest, and subsequently in a hotel room.
Mr Williams' statement describes how he was tortured in the hotel: 'I remember
that the police put a towel on my face so I could not see.
'They kept telling me I was going to die. I was so scared. Once I had been
knocked to the ground, the police picked me up and put me on the bed.
'They pulled down my trousers, spread my legs and started to electrocute my
testicles.
'It was unbelievably painful. I was so scared.
'Then they took off the towel and I could see that there was a gun pointed at
my head.
'All I could think was that the gun in my face could go off if the policeman
slipped, and it would kill me.
'I started to believe that I was going to die in that room.'
The men were arrested on July 10 last year by police who claimed to have found
1 kilogram of a synthetic cannabis known as 'spice' in their car.
They have each been charged with consumption and possession with intent to
distribute.
If found guilty of consumption, the minimum punishment is 4 years.
The minimum prison sentence for possession is 10 years.
But if they are found guilty of trafficking or promoting the use of drugs, they
could be given the death penalty, Reprieve said.
They have pleaded not guilty to the charges, and will appear at their 1st
hearing tomorrow.
However, all 3 have signed documents in Arabic - a language none of them
understands. It is unclear if these were confessions.
Mr Calcutt said: 'The idea that young British tourists on holiday can find
themselves arrested and tortured in this way is truly appalling. 'Being
electrocuted in the testicles is about as brutal a torture as can be imagined.
'The Dubai authorities need to immediately drop the charges against the men and
conduct an independent investigation into how these terrible events occurred.
'If they do not, I am sure this story will linger in people???s memories -
particularly when it comes to booking their holidays.'
Reprieve campaigns for the human rights of prisoners and promote the rule of
law around the world.
(source: Daily Mail)
KENYA:
DCJ Candidate Opposed to Death Penalty
Interviews seeking a candidate to fill the position of Deputy Chief Justice
entered the 2nd day on Tuesday, with Rachael Omamo being the 1st one questioned
over her suitability.
Omamo, who appeared before the 10-member panel was put to task over how she
would handle contentious sections of the Constitution such as the death
penalty, abortion and same sex relationships, if she got the job.
She told the committee that she would rule to abolish the death penalty because
it infringed the right to life but did not foresee a situation where future
Parliaments would pass a Bill allowing abortion under any circumstances.
"If I was sitting in the Supreme Court, I would look at it and probably rule in
favour of furthering the right to life; of furthering principles that are
internationally held on human rights conventions so I would abolish the death
penalty," she said.
Even though Attorney General Githu Muigai, who had asked the question, put her
to task over her contentious position Omamo stuck to her guns.
Muigai even reminded her how countries like the United States and India
grappled with the topic that remained a thorn in the flesh in most judicial
settings.
"This question has been in the Supreme Court for over 100 years and the US
Supreme Court has refused to say that the death penalty is inhuman or
degrading," he said.
"That is why they have gone from hanging, to chopping, to injecting and trying
to change the method but not the end."
Omamo, who has a rich resume in the private, public and diplomatic sectors, has
worked and studied in several countries including France, Spain, Portugal,
Serbia and the Vatican.
She also served in the taskforce that bore the Truth, Justice and
Reconciliation Commission as well as the Ndung'u land commission and has been a
Permanent Representative in UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and
Cultural Organisation).
She has however not completed her Master's Degree programme and her PhD.
"I have been a chairperson of many non-profits boards and I am fortunate to
have been one of the founding members of the Federation of Women Lawyers," she
told the panellists.
She further told the panel that she would open communication channels between
the public and the Judiciary to make it more accessible.
Omamo also had to defend herself when she said that she didn't like the rigid
interpretation of the law.
"I am not a textuarist. I look at a text but it does not necessarily dominate
my full thinking because I want to contextualise it," she explained.
Muigai had earlier countered her non formal approach telling her that every
lawyer was a textuarist.
"The law is about text. You cannot begin by denouncing the text; you cannot be
a believer if you take the Bible or the Koran and say 'I am not a textuarist I
want to engage with God through another medium'," he countered.
Issues around the radical judicial surgery of 2003, by Justice Aaron Ringera
also came up.
Omamo said it did not reflect the reforms that had been sought noting that
judges were denied an opportunity to respond to any adverse criticism against
them.
Ringera released a report highlighting gross misconduct by certain judges; some
decided to be investigated before resuming their duties while others opted to
resign.
"The radical surgery was a brutal process and I don't feel that Judges were
given a fair hearing. Some of them were condemned unheard and I don't think it
represented the spirit that the Judiciary stands for," she said.
(source: All Africa News)
_______________________________________________
DeathPenalty mailing list
[email protected]
http://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/listinfo/deathpenalty
Search the Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A free service of WashLaw
http://washlaw.edu
(785)670.1088
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
