March 13
SAUDI ARABIA:
Saudi Ministry of Interior : death peanlty meted out on seven convicts in Abha
City
The Saudi Ministry of Interior issued a statement published by the official
Saudi News Agency (SPA) today stating that death penalty was meted out on seven
culprits in the city of Abha in Asir region who had been convicted of having
committed various crimes of armed robbery, banditry and theft.
The Ministry statement stated that the following seven convicts - et alia - had
formed a gang and committed a series of crimes of armed robbery, banditry and
theft:
1- Sarhan bin Ahmed bin Abdullah Al-Mashayikh.
2- Saeed bin Hassan Ahmed Al-Amry.
3- Ali bin Mohammed Hizam Al-Shahary.
4- Nasser bin Saeed Saad Al-Qahtani.
5- Saeed bin Nasser Mohammed Al-Shaharni.
6- Abdulaziz bin Saleh Mohammed Al-Amry; and,
7- Ali bin Hadi Saeed Al-Qahtani.
The statement added that the security authorities were able to arrest the
above-mentioned criminals and that investigations with them resulted in
charging them with committing their crime. After referring them to the General
Court, a legal writ was issued versus them which confirmed their charges and
adjudicated with a death penalty in order to deter similar criminals.
The Court verdict was upheld by both the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court.
Their accomplices received various prison sentences with whip lashings.
A Royal Ordinance was issued for the purpose of implementing the court verdicts
on the aforementioned convicts which have been issued and ratified by the
competent courts.
The death penalty has been implemented on the aforesaid convicts today
(Wednesday: 13 March 2014 corresponding to: 1-5-1434H) in Abha city in Asir
region.
The Saudi Ministry of Interior accentuated in its statement today to the public
keenness on the part of the Government of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques
on maintaining security and accomplishing justice in compliance with the
provisions of Sharia Law on anyone who dares assault the physical safety or
sheds the blood of other people or sexually assaults them.
The Ministry warned anyone who contemplates to commit such crimes that a legal
punishment will be his ultimate fate and destiny.(IY)
(source: Bahrain News Agency)
***************
Saudi- Filipinos race to save compatriot on death row
The Philippine government expressed its gratitude to the Kingdom for the second
extension of the deadline of execution of Overseas Filipino Worker (OFW)
Joselito Zapanta, who remains on death row.
Ambassador Ezzedin H. Tago told Arab News yesterday that the "Philippine
Embassy is thankful to Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah and the
Emir's Office for their efforts in facilitating the amicable settlement."
"We also thank King Abdullah and the Emir's Office for the forgiveness, as well
as the extension of the deadlines, allowing the maximum period of settlement of
the amount," the Filipino envoy said.
King Abdullah had earlier ordered the postponement of the execution of Zapanta
for killing a Sudanese national in 2009.
With King Abdullah's order, Zapanta has been given a three-month reprieve.
This means that since the second deadline was yesterday, the new three-month
moratorium will end on June 8. "The postponement of the execution gives time
for the family to comply with the terms of forgiveness. May Allah keep the
Custodian of the Two Mosques in good health so that he'll achieve more
success," the Filipino envoy said.
The deferment would give Zapanta's family more time to raise the needed
P44-million blood money required to save his life. So far, only P10 million has
been raised.
Tago also thanked King Abdullah for having earlier pledged SR 2.3 million as
part of the blood money to be paid to the family of Mohamad Qahtani, an Arab
national, who was killed in June 2000 by Don Don Lanuza who claimed
self-defense.
Benny Quaimbao, area commander for the order of the Knights of Rizal of Saudi
Arabia, said it would be difficult to come up with the blood money.
"The amount is too much to be raised in three months but we are keeping our
fingers crossed," he said.
Alex Bellow, president of the OFW Congress in Riyadh, echoed Quaimbao's
concerns. "I am skeptical that the funds can be raised."
The Philippine ambassador said that in connection with Zapanta's case, he and
other Philippine Embassy officials met with Abdulaziz Abdulrahman Al-Gaeit,
assistant to the Undersecretary for Public Rights of the Emir's Office.
It is believed that the three-month moratorium on death sentence may be due to
the fact that there is a new governor.
Saudi tradition dictates that no death sentence will be carried out for a
maximum of three months into the new governor's term.
In Manila, presidential adviser on OFW issues and Task Force OFW head
Vice-President Jejomar Binay hailed the humanitarian gesture of King Abdullah
and the Emir's Office.
"Because of the King's order to defer all the execution of all qizas or death
penalty, Zapanta has been given another three-month reprieve," he said.
Binay also cited the efforts of the Philippine government, the Philippine
Embassy in Riyadh and the assistance of the Philippine Department of Foreign
Affairs (DFA) under the leadership of Secretary Alberto del Rosario.
Earlier yesterday, Assistant Secretary Raul Hernandez, DFA spokesman, said the
government had requested for the extension of the deadline for the blood money
payment to save Zapanta's life.
Presidential deputy spokesperson Abigal Valte said in a text message to the
media on Monday that President Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino lll had also sent a
letter dated March 5, to King Abdullah for the deferment of Zapanta's sentence.
Zapanta's mother also sent a letter to King Abdullah.
(source: MENAFN--Arab News)
*****************************
UN human rights experts outraged at Saudi execution of seven men by firing
squad
2 independent United Nations human rights experts today voiced outrage at the
execution by firing squad this morning of 7 men in Saudi Arabia, despite
repeated calls by the UN and civil society organizations not to carry out the
death sentences.
“I deeply regret that Saudi Arabia executed seven individuals today despite my
and other experts’ appeal not to do so,” said the UN Special Rapporteur on
extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Christof Heyns.
“I reiterate that any death sentence undertaken in contravention of a State’s
international obligations is tantamount to an arbitrary execution, and is
unlawful.”
In an urgent joint appeal yesterday, Mr. Heyns and fellow UN experts called on
Saudi authorities to halt the execution of the men, who were allegedly not
given fair trials.
According to reports, the men were charged with organizing a criminal group,
armed robbery and raiding and breaking into jewellery stores in 2005, and then
sentenced to death in 2009.
The UN Special Rapporteur on torture, Juan E. Méndez, expressed deep concern
over allegations that the seven individuals were subjected to torture and other
ill-treatment in detention, and were forced to sign confessions.
“This is not only in breach of Saudi Arabia’s international obligations under
international law, which imposes an outright prohibition on torture, it is also
in breach of the Government’s international obligation under the Convention
against Torture that explicitly forbids the use of all forms of torture for the
purpose of extracting confessions or acquiring information,” he reiterated.
(source: UN News Centre)
MALAWI:
Malawi politicians in 'coup plot' charged
12 Malawian politicians who were arrested for plotting to oust President Joyce
Banda have been formally charged with treason which could carry the death
penalty.
The men appeared at Lilongwe Magistrate's Court amid tight security following
rioting over their arrest.
Their lawyer Kalekeni Kaphale said the case would be transferred to the High
Court on Thursday for bail hearing, as the "Magistrate's Court has no
jurisdiction over treason cases".
The plot is alleged to have taken place amid the chaos following president
Bingu wa Mutharika's death on April 5 last year, before Banda, then his deputy,
was installed as president after backroom dealings.
Among the arrested is Mutharika's brother Peter, a former foreign minister whom
the deceased president had groomed to succeed him.
Goodall Gondwe, current minister of economic planning, is the only member of
Banda's cabinet arrested.
Gondwe, Peter Mutharika and Bright Msaka, the chief secretary to the
government, face additional charges of inciting mutiny, conspiracy to commit a
felony and giving false evidence to a commission of inquiry into the death of
the late president.
Last week an inquest ruled that Mutharika died of a heart attack on the way to
hospital after collapsing at State House.
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES:
Woman spared death penalty after killing compatriot
A female visitor who stabbed her compatriot driver to death escaped the death
penalty on Monday after arguing that the deceased was trying to rape her at the
time of the incident.
The Ugandan convict EK, 28 will serve three years in jail to be followed by
deportation, pronounced Judge Wajdi Ibrahim Al Minyawi who ordered that the
knife be confiscated.
At Dubai Criminal Court EK had been facing the charge of intentionally
murdering her compatriot driver SK, 26, at an apartment in Frij Al Murar on the
morning of April 7 last year.
EK had argued during all throughout the questioning that while she was lying on
her bed, SK sneaked into her bedroom and sat next to her. He threw her mobile
when she tried to contact for help.
He had rushed after her to the kitchen and she picked a knife. When he
allegedly chased her back to the bedroom and tried to grab her, she stabbed him
in self-defence, she added.
“I did not intend to kill him. I even rushed to Naif Police Station and
informed them I had assaulted someone. I asked them to rush him to hospital if
he was hurt or else demand from him the reason why he entered my house,” she
told Judge Hamad Abdul Jawwad on July 16 last year.
On Feb.21, EK told Judge Ali Atiyya Saad that the deceased was a member of a
group of human traffickers who lured her to come and work as a maid. And on
that day he wanted to rape her.
She and her female lawyer insisted that SK fell on the knife as he attempted to
seize and rape her, while she was brandishing it to chase him away. They
besought utmost leniency.
In prosecution records, the prime witness BR, 27, a Ugandan security guard,
said he did not know the reason why EK had assaulted SK.
Both Emirati Major AA, 33, and Lieutenant DS, 52, confirmed EK herself went to
the police station and turned herself in for having killed someone who tried to
physically abuse her.
And that she stabbed him to defend her honour. Records showed she directed the
police to where she had stashed the knife. The verdict is subject to appeal.
*************
Abu Dhabi appeals court spares condemned man - Manslaughter accused to pay
blood money and serve 5-year term on revised charges
A man evaded the death penalty after the Abu Dhabi Criminal Court of Appeals
waived the sentence and ordered that he be imprisoned for five years instead
for beating an older man to death.
During the hearing, the appeals court changed the charges against the suspect
from manslaughter to beating which led to death, and ordered him to pay blood
money.
The case relates to an incident in which the police received a report about a
two-car collision and a fight between three men, namely the suspect, his
brother and the victim.
Approaching policemen with a bloodied face, the victim told the officials that
the two brothers had intentionally rammed his car and beat him with a stick for
not making way for them on the road.
Consequently, an ambulance transported both the suspect and the victim to the
hospital. The defendant was treated first for suffering partial paralysis on
his right side while the victim remained in the Emergency Room for 90 minutes
until he collapsed and died.
The medical report revealed that the man died due to internal wounds in his
brain, kidney and ribs. The Public Prosecution then referred both brothers to
the criminal court on the count of manslaughter, where one was sentenced to
death and the other was cleared of the charge.
The court of appeals finally decided that the suspect did not intend on killing
the victim but merely retaliated to an initial collision which the elder man
directed at him. The suspect was not aware of the fact that he had hit the
other person in a sensitive part of his body, the court ruled. The court also
took into account the fact that the ambulance was said to have come for the
suspect, not the victim, since his injuries appeared more severe.
(source for both: Gulf News)
YEMEN:
Yemen Still Sentences Children to Death by Firing Squad; The country is one of
only four left on Earth that still allows capital punishment for minors.
On Saturday, Mohammed Haza'a was put to death by the Yemeni government despite
legitimate questions as to whether he was under the age of 18 when he committed
an alleged murder.
In 1999, Mohammed shot an intruder at his home in the central Yemeni city of
Tiaz. The man later died of his wounds. Various judges, including the one who
made the initial ruling, determined that the killing was self-defense and that
Mohammed was underage at the time of the crime. Ignoring these concerns, an
appeals court eventually sentenced him to death.
George Abu Al-Zulof, a child protection specialist at UNICEF, describes in
chilling detail how firing squads carry out their orders. "They put them on the
ground, they cover them with the blanket and then a doctor comes and points
around the heart from the back side. Then they shoot three to four bullets
[into] the heart."
Mohammed's execution was denounced by the European Union and comes on the heels
of a Human Rights Watch (HRW) report condemning the Yemeni government's use of
the juvenile death penalty. Released last week, the report makes clear that
international law, to which Yemen is a signatory, "prohibits, without
exception, the execution of individuals for crimes committed before they turn
18."
Nevertheless, Bede Sheppard, a senior researcher at HRW, said that there is
still a "very small and unpleasant club" made up of four countries - Iran,
Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Sudan -which continue to carry out the practice. The
United States could be included in that group until as recently as 2005, when
the Supreme Court finally outlawed the death penalty for minors.
Since 1994, Yemen's penal code has prohibited executing anyone under 18, while
at the same time referring those over the age of 15 to adult courts. This has
created a situation where, as Alison Parker, the chief of communications for
UNICEF in Yemen, puts it "between the ages of 15 and 17 there is sort of this
grey area."
Over the last six years, Yemen has executed 16 people who claimed to have been
underage at the time of their alleged crime. The HRW report lists over twenty
children across Yemen still on death row and says that prosecutors have called
for the death penalty in 186 additional cases.
Nadim al-'Azaazi is another casualty of this loophole-riddled system. On
January 26, a Yemeni judge sentenced now eighteen-year-old Nadim to death.
After his arrest three years ago on murder charges, Nadim endured weeks of
beatings and interrogation at local police stations before being transferred to
the central prison in the capital Sana'a, where he currently awaits unlawful
execution.
Speaking from the group cell he shares with nearly forty other young men, Nadim
describes what happened when the judge received a medical report putting his
age at 15 when he allegedly committed murder. "The court didn't reject it, the
family of the victim didn't reject it, and the prosecutor didn't reject it.
With that, they sentenced me to death."
The problem in Yemen appears to be two fold. One major issue is determining the
age of prisoners in a country where the birth registration rate stands at only
22 percent, the other is a dysfunctional judiciary. Experts say that both the
age verification process and Yemeni courts are plagued by unprofessionalism,
bias, and corruption.
According to the HRW report, age certification is conducted using questionable
methods and inadequately trained staff. "Forensic doctors" rely on wrist or arm
x-rays to make their determinations, a technique that has a margin of error of
up to two years in either direction. In poverty stricken Yemen, the fact that
"bone-age assessments may be influenced by factors including socio-economic
background and nutrition," further compounds concerns over the accuracy of the
tests.
Even when the defendant's age is determined correctly, they face an uphill
battle. The victims' families, especially influential ones, are said to
pressure prosecutors and judges, who in turn often act with impunity. As
Mohammed Al-Awadai, the manager of juvenile administration in Yemen's prison
authority, understands it, "In the Yemeni law, the judge has the right to be
discretionary."
A spokesperson for Yemen's Human Rights Ministry said that, although it does
what it can to voice its objection to the juvenile death penalty, the judiciary
bears the brunt of responsibility. The justice ministry, however, has "been
known to deny that any juvenile has ever been executed in Yemen," said Priyanka
Motaparthy, a HRW researcher "which is astonishing in light of the size of
scope of this problem."
Al-Awadai is against the execution, and all but last resort imprisonment, of
children, in part, because he believes that "[kids] get more problems - mental
problems - inside the prison." The case of Abdul Aziz - a pseudonym used to
protect his identity - is particularly illustrative of the challenges facing
child inmates in Yemen.
Abdul Aziz had three doctors assess his age as 16, but ever since a fourth
unilaterally revised the figure upwards to 19, he has been in imminent danger
of being put to death. To make matters worse, his family disowned him following
his arrest.
"They gave up on me," he mumbled, on the verge of tears. "No visits, they
didn't bring lawyer, they never came to the court, nothing. I hope that they
visit me, and get me a lawyer."
Abu Al-Zulof of UNICEF adds, "You can notice the trauma on his face. He needs
support, he needs rehab, he needs physco-social support and this cannot be
provided in the central prison"
The glimmer of hope provided by officials like Alwdai has begun to shine
brighter over the last few months. It started on a low note, with the Yemeni
government's December execution of a juvenile offender named Hind al-Barati;
the first to be carried out during the Presidency of Abdu Rabo Mansour Hadi.
But this served as a wake up call for other incarcerated children frightened of
meeting the same fate.
A month later, when Nadim al-'Azaazi was sentenced, his fellow juvenile inmates
at the Sana'a central prison went on a solidarity hunger strike. Nearly half of
the 77 young men are at high risk of being put to death. Walid Haikal, 26, has
already spent more than a decade in prison and could be killed at any moment.
Desperate for change, he asserted, "I am ready to [strike] for my entire life,
ready to give blood."
Progress came more quickly than expected. After less than a week President Hadi
delayed a scheduled execution in Ibb province and the strike was stopped. The
mood was cautiously optimistic. However, Saturday's execution proves that while
the hunger strike and an accompanying push by the international community has
brought much needed attention to this issue, the children are not out of the
woods yet.
"There wasn't any political will to halt [Saturday's] execution," said Abu
Al-Zulof of UNICEF. But with any luck this becomes the exception rather than
the norm. "After the Catherine Ashton statement yesterday, and the execution of
Mohammed Haza'a, [the government is] taking it much more seriously."
The President, who must sign all execution orders, will be key to stopping
juvenile executions. Parker of UNICEF saw President Hadi's suspension of the
execution in Ibb as a rare positive development, and Motaparthy of HRW is
hopeful that his office will follow through on a promise to reexamine the cases
brought to its attention.
"At the highest level, at least we're able to get the ear of the President,
which is not always the case in other countries," Parker said. "That provides
some sort of a light at the end of the tunnel."
(source: The Atlantic)
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