Sept. 5
IRAQ:
UN: At least 52 Iranian opposition members executed in Camp Ashraf massacre
At least 52 members of an Iranian opposition group exiled in Iraq were executed
over the weekend, the United Nations said Tuesday, drawing loud condemnations
from supporters in Washington, who have called on the United States to find a
safe haven for the group's members.
The attack Sunday on a camp north of Baghdad was the latest targeting members
of the Mujahideen-e Khalq, a group once aligned with Saddam Hussein, whose
members disarmed following the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq after getting
assurances from the U.S. military that they would be protected. Their fate
since the U.S. military withdrawal in 2011 has been one of the most dramatic
and violent subplots of the post-American era in Iraq.
Iraq's Shiite-led government, which has long loathed the group, has been widely
suspected of involvement or acquiescence in a string of attacks against the
group - also known as the MEK - for which no one has been held responsible.
Sunday's was particularly brutal, according to photos, which showed the corpses
of several men shot in the head and back, some with their hands bound.
Gyorgy Busztin, a U.N. envoy in Baghdad, visited the camp in Diyala province a
day after the killings and spoke to survivors. In a statement, he expressed
"his outrage at the brutal killing of the camp's residents" and called on the
Iraqi government to launch an investigation and "acknowledge its responsibility
for the safety of the camp's residents."
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki ordered an investigation into the
killings, according to news reports in Baghdad.
Former Pennsylvania governor Ed Rendell, who is among the prominent Americans
who champion the cause of the MEK, said he was horrified that the United
Nations and the United States haven't done more to get the Iranians out of
Iraq.
"We are a joke when it comes to living up to our moral obligations," Rendell
said. "It is our legal and moral obligation to protect them."
Rendell and the other prominent American MEK supporters have received speaking
fees from the group, but the former governor said they were making the latest
lobbying effort pro bono.
The status and fate of the MEK has long been a thorny issue for U.S. officials
in Baghdad. After the invasion, most members lived in Camp Ashraf, a sprawling
compound where the Iranians grew their own food, plotted to overthrow the
Iranian government and lived according to strict behavioral edicts, including
abstaining from sex.
Because of its militant past, the MEK was labeled a terrorist organization by
the United States until last year.
The government in Baghdad sought for years to expel the group from Camp Ashraf,
but that goal became possible only after the U.S. military pulled out of Iraq
at the end of 2011. Most members of the group were transferred to a former U.S.
military base in Baghdad called Camp Liberty, where they have come under attack
a handful of times.
The members killed over the weekend were among the 100 or so who remained in
Diyala province.
The State Department on Sunday called "on Iraqi authorities to act with urgency
to immediately ensure medical assistance to the wounded and to secure the camp
against any further violence or harm to the residents."
(source: National Council of Resistance of Iran)
PAKISTAN:
Pak police arrest mother on blasphemy charges; Woman accused of distributing
pamplets carring contemptuous remarks
Pakistani police have arrested a mother-of-four on blasphemy charges after she
allegedly called herself a prophet of Islam, police and a cleric said Tuesday.
The woman was arrested in the eastern city of Lahore, capital of the Punjab
province where a serving governor was shot dead in 2011 for wanting to reform
the blasphemy law. "Police arrested a 40-year-old woman, Salma alias Fatima, on
Monday and sent her to prison on blasphemy charges," senior police official
Tariq Aziz told AFP. Aziz said local cleric Qari Iftikhar Ahmed Raza had
accused the woman of distributing a pamphlet carrying "contemptuous" remarks.
"There is no direct claim of prophethood in the pamphlet, however, the
complainant accuses her of it," Aziz said. Muslims believe that the Prophet
Mohammed (PBUH) was the last messenger of God.
Blasphemy is an extremely sensitive issue in Pakistan, where 97 percent of the
population is Muslim, and insulting the Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) can be punished
by death under the country's penal code. Even unproven allegations can provoke
a violent public response, and critics say the law is often used to settle
personal scores. According to police, the cleric and the woman appeared to have
argued over the distribution of food provided by charity in their area. Raza,
the cleric, told AFP that the Salma had been criticising the local clerics and
they had urged her to stop but she refused.
He added that she distributed the pamphlet containing the alleged blasphemy on
Monday, after which he and other imams called the police. "She has claimed to
be a prophet and deserves the death penalty under Pakistani law," Raza said,
adding that the woman was mentally fit and taught mathematics to school
children. Residents in the area said that Salma's family had fled from their
home and told AFP that she became deeply religious after going on a pilgrimage
to Makkah 3 years ago. The mother-of-4 is also a principal of a private school
according to police, who have requested she undergo a psychological
examination.
(source: Arab Times)
AUSTRIA:
Stronach's Death-Penalty Backing Upends Austrian Vote Support
Frank Stronach, the 80-year-old Austrian billionaire campaigning in this
month's federal election, upset supporters by saying he backs the death
penalty.
"For professional hit men there should be a death penalty because they are a
threat to society," Stronach said, according to a transcript of a
question-and-answer session published today by the Vorarlberger Nachrichten
newspaper. The remarks prompted Stronach's own party to distance itself from
the candidate.
"We personally think that it is seriously dangerous to even think about
instituting the death penalty in our country because of legal, moral and
ethical reasons," said a statement issued today by Team Stronach, the
Carinthian chapter of the political party set up last year to elevate the
founder of Magna International Inc. (MG) to power.
Voters go to the polls on Sept. 29 to decide whether to give the ruling Social
Democratic and Austrian People's Party a new mandate to govern the country of
8.4 million. The Socialists lead the polls with 27 % while the People's party
is 2nd at 24 %. Team Stronach, with 7 %, joins the Pirate Party and the
Austrian Neos as newcomers on the ballot.
Capital punishment has been outlawed in Austria since 1950. The country has
adopted United Nations and European Union conventions outlawing the death
penalty. Authorities in the southern city of Graz stripped Arnold
Schwarzenegger's name from its soccer stadium in 2005 because the ex-California
governor, who grew up in Austria, refused to pardon a death-row inmate.
Stronach's campaign issued a statement that the candidate was expressing his
personal opinions about the death penalty and that they aren't part of his
party's platform.
Stronach is worth about 2.35 billion euros ($3.1 billion) according to Trend
magazine.
(source: Bloomberg News)
ZAMBIA:
Lusaka man escapes noose
The Supreme Court has reduced the death sentence of a Lusaka man to a 30-year
jail term.
The High Court had sentenced Lackson Ngosa, 36, of Zingalume Township in Lusaka
to death on 2 counts of aggravated robbery but he appealed against the
sentence.
Supreme Court Judge Elizabeth Muyovwe, sitting in Ndola, replaced the death
penalty with a 30-year jail term.
The appellant was convicted and sentenced to death by the lower court for 2
counts of aggravated robbery contrary to the Laws of Zambia.
The appellant on June 15, 2009 in Lusaka, while armed with a gun, did steal 1
television set, a DVD player and a cellular phone valued at K1, 750, all
property of Mukuba Chimweka.
In the 2nd count on the same date and place, while armed with a gun, he stole a
television set, a DVD player and 2 cellular phones from Muyembe Njovu.
The evidence was that the appellant on June 15, 2009 at about 17:00 hours went
to the 1st complainant's house and pointed a gun at him and his mother who were
in the house.
He then gagged the 2 and tied their legs before getting away with the said
items.
Despite the appellant covering his face with a head soack when committing the
offence, the complainant, who was one of the witnesses, told the court that he
recognised him by his voice as he had worked for him for a period of 2 years
and identified him as Ngosa.
The 2nd complainant testified that the appellant on the same day wore a mask on
his face when he came to her house with a gun which pointed at her before
stealing her properties.
She testified that before the appellant stole, she managed to identify him as
Ngosa a man she knew for a long time because he had once worked for her at the
farm.
In passing the Judgment, Ms Justice Muyovwe said the trial court erred in the
judgment of aggravated robbery. She said the court did not take the gun used
for ballistic examinations to determine whether it was the fire arm used or
not.
"A mere use of a firearm does not mean aggravated robbery unless the firearm in
question is examined under the Firearm Act," she said.
She then sentenced the appellant to 30 years in prison with hard labour
effective from the day of his arrest.
(source: The Times of Zambia)
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