Sept. 10
LIBYA:
Saif-al-Islam Gadhafi to be tried in Libya in September
Late Libyan leader Col. Moammar Gadhafi's son and his spy chief were charged on
August 27 with murder in relation to the country's 2011 civil war and are set
to stand trial, said Libya's general prosecutor.
Abdel-Qader Radwan told reporters that the trial will start Sept. 19 on alleged
crimes committed during Col. Gadhafi's 42-year rule and during the 8-month-long
civil war that deposed him.
The defendants are former intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senoussi and Saif
al-Islam Gadhafi, the heir apparent and only son of the former leader who is in
custody. A total of 28 former cabinet members will face trial that day on
various charges ranging from murder, forming armed groups in violation of the
law, inciting rape and kidnappings.
Mr. Radwan said Libyan authorities have issued more than 280 arrest warrants
for those wanted on similar charges.
Radwan's aide, al-Seddik al-Sur, said spy chief al-Senoussi has confessed to
collaborating on producing car bombs in the city of Benghazi, the birthplace of
the 2011 uprising.
He added that "defendants were not subject to any form of pressure to extract
confessions."
The International Criminal Court charged Saif al-Islam Gadhafi with murder and
persecution of civilians during the early days of the uprising. If convicted in
that court, he would have faced a maximum sentence of life imprisonment,
because it does not have the death penalty. This summer, the international
court judges had ruled that Libya cannot give Saif al-Islam a fair trial and
asked authorities to hand him over to The Hague.
Nonetheless, Col. Gadhafi's son remains held by a militia group that captured
him in the Western mountain town of Zintan as he was fleeing to neighboring
Niger after rebel forces took Libya's capital.
He is also being tried on separate charges of harming state security,
attempting to escape prison and insulting Libya's new flag. The charges are
linked to his 2012 meeting with an international court delegation accused of
smuggling documents and a camera to him in his cell. Zintan rebels held the
4-member team but released them after the court apologized and pledged to
investigate the incident.
According to filings by defense lawyers at the court, Saif al-Islam said he
wants to be tried for alleged war crimes in the Netherlands, claiming that a
Libyan trial would be tantamount to murder.
The rest of Saif al-Islam's family, including his mother, sister, 2 brothers
and others, were granted asylum in Oman in 2012, moving there from Algeria,
where they found refuge during the civil war.
The rule of law is still weak in Libya after decades of rule by Col. Gadhafi.
Courts are still paralyzed and security remains tenuous as unruly militias
proliferate.
The state, however, relies heavily on militias to serve as security forces
since the police and military remain a shambles. Successive governments have
been too weak to either secure Saif al-Islam's imprisonment in the capital,
Tripoli, or put pressure on militia groups to hand him over to the government.
(source: The Final Call)
INDIA:
'If they don't get death penalty, my daughter won't get justice'
A Delhi court on Tuesday pronounced all the remaining 4 accused guilty for the
brutal rape and murder of a 23-year-old woman in a moving bus on the night of
December 16 last year.
Immediately after the pronouncement, demonstrations broke out outside Saket
court demanding death sentence for the 4 convicts.
The physiotherapy student's parents who have been at the forefront of calls for
the accused to be hanged were also present in the court premises.
"We are happy with the conviction. Now we expect the judge to sentence all of
them to death," victim's father said after the verdict. "We will get complete
closure only if all the accused are wiped off from the face of the earth. This
is what they did to our daughter most brutally," he added.
The family had been insisting on the death sentence since the inception of the
case. "We will not accept anything below the death penalty," the victim's
father told in an interview last week.
"If they do not get death sentence, my daughter would not get justice, and in
the days to come, this crime will take dangerous form," he added.
A juvenile has already been sentenced to three years in a correctional
facility, while a fifth adult defendant, bus driver Ram Singh, was found
hanging in his prison cell in March while awaiting trial.
The student's family were bitterly disappointed with the 3-year sentence handed
down last month on the youngest defendant, the maximum allowed by law as he was
only 17 at the time of the attack.
(source: Hindustan Times)
***********************
4 guilty of bus gang rape that sickened India
An Indian court convicted 4 men Thursday of the gang rape and murder of a
physiotherapy student on board a moving bus in a crime that sickened the
nation.
Judge Yogesh Khanna said the men, who could now face the death penalty, were
guilty of murdering a "helpless victim" as he announced that arguments for
sentencing of the four will be held on Wednesday.
"I convict all of the accused," Khanna said.
"They have been found guilty of gang rape, unnatural offences, destruction of
evidence... and for committing the murder of the helpless victim."
The 4 -- Mukesh Singh, Akshay Thakur, Pawan Gupta and Vinay Sharma -- had all
pleaded not guilty to the charges, which included murder, gang rape and theft.
The victim's parents, who wept in court as the verdict was announced, have led
the calls for them to be hanged, saying that they could only have closure once
the 4 were executed.
Their 23-year-old daughter, who cannot be named for legal reasons, died of her
injuries on December 29 in a Singapore hospital.
Amid emotional scenes outside the courtroom, the lawyer of Mukesh Singh said
that his client would launch an immediate appeal.
"My client was simply driving the bus. He confessed fairly that he was driving
the bus but he did not know what went on inside," V.K. Anand told reporters.
"We will appeal this verdict in the High Court in a month's time. But we will
see what happens tomorrow after arguments and the quantum of punishment."
Mukesh Singh's mother, draped in a beige saree, fell to Anand's feet and broke
down in tears outside the courtroom. The lawyer and her husband both tried to
pick her up.
A.P. Singh, the lawyer for Akshay Thakur and Vinay Sharma, said both his
clients would also appeal.
"We will now go to the High Court with our appeal... This is a political
conviction," he told a scrum of reporters.
Any subsequent appeal by the defendants is likely to take years in India's
notoriously slow legal system.
A juvenile has already been sentenced to three years in a correctional
facility, while a 5th adult defendant, bus driver Ram Singh, was found hanging
in his prison cell in March while awaiting trial.
"We will not accept anything below the death penalty," the victim's father told
AFP from his home in southwestern Delhi in an interview last week.
"If all 4 are sentenced to death, I can't imagine anything being better than
that... We will get closure."
The 7-month trial has been held in a special fast-track court in south Delhi,
with more than 100 witnesses called to give evidence, including 85 for the
prosecution.
Despite an initial gagging order on the trial, the case has drawn huge interest
and about 20 TV trucks were outside the court on Tuesday morning while dozens
of journalists queued to get inside.
During the trial, the prosecution produced DNA evidence, the victim's dying
testimony and statements from a male companion who was beaten up during the
attack.
The victim and her companion had spent the evening watching a movie at a mall
in south Delhi when they were picked up by one of the many private buses plying
the streets.
But rather than take them home, the group subjected the pair to a horrifying
45-minute ordeal that ended with both of them thrown out of the bus, virtually
unconscious and naked.
In an interview ahead of the verdict, the 28-year-old companion told AFP that
the assault was beyond a nightmare.
"I never imagined that one human being could treat another so badly," he said.
The student's family were bitterly disappointed with the 3-year sentence handed
down last month on the youngest defendant, the maximum allowed by law as he was
only 17 at the time of the attack.
India has the death sentence for the "rarest of rare crimes", but does not
often carry out executions.
The attack sparked weeks of sometimes violent street protests across India with
seething public anger about sex crimes against women.
It also led to tougher laws for sex offenders, including the death penalty for
rapists whose victims die or are left in a vegetative state.
But savage attacks against women are still reported daily in India's newspapers
and the gang rape of a photographer last month near an upmarket area of Mumbai
rekindled public disgust.
(source: Global Post)
PAKISTAN:
Campaign Launched to Free Pakistan Mother on Death Row 'For Drinking Water'
A UK-based human rights organisation is calling for the release of a mother of
5 currently on death row in Pakistan for allegedly blaspheming during an
argument over drinking water.
The Global Minorities Alliance (GMA) has launched a worldwide awareness raising
campaign to free Aasia (also known as Asia) Bibi, the first woman in Pakistan's
history to receive a death sentence under blasphemy laws.
As well as aiming to gather half a million signatures for a petition against
the sentence, GMA has also launched a song to raise awareness of her plight at
a well-attended event at Wellington Church in Glasgow on Saturday 7 September,
where noted guests included John Mason, MSP for Shettleston.
The song, called "Free Aasia Bibi", is a call for her release as well as a
message to the world about Pakistan's discriminatory blasphemy laws.
It is now available for download on iTunes:
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/free-aasia-bibi-single/id700915773
The song, written by GMA's Vice-Chairperson Shahid Khan, composed and produced
by musician Sam Gallagher and performed by the GMA Band, is a call for
solidarity to demonstrate how people across the world are standing with her as
the 3rd anniversary of her death sentence approaches.
"The song is the expression of the inner most feelings of concerned people
across the world who share in the pain and sufferings of Aasia, along with her
family who is currently in hiding in Pakistan due to the threats and fears from
the extremists," said Mr Shahid Khan.
"We continue to stand with the persecuted that are subject to violations,
oppression and tyranny. Music is our way and message to the world to treat
other human beings with love, honor and dignity regardless of anything else."
In June 2009, Aasia Bibi, a Christian farm hand and mother of five from the
small village of Ittianwali in Sheikhupura District of Punjab, Pakistan, had a
heated argument with her fellow labourers over a seemingly trivial matter of
drinking water from the same glass as them. Bibi was then accused of using
derogatory words about the prophet Mohammed and was subsequently arrested.
According to some reports she had a noose put around her neck and was dragged
through the streets by the village men before taken into police custody where a
First Investigation Report (FIR) was lodged which cited Section 295-C of
Pakistan's blasphemy laws for her arrest:
"Whoever by words, either spoken or written or by visible representation, or by
any imputation, innuendo, or insinuation, directly or indirectly, defiles the
sacred name of the Holy Prophet Mohammed (Peace Be Upon Him) shall be punished
with death, or imprisonment for life, and shall also be liable to fine."
Following pressure from influential Muslims in the area, she was convicted of
blasphemy and sentenced to death in November 2010.
Later Bibi applied for clemency under Article 45 of the Constitution of
Pakistan, which allows the President of Pakistan to pardon any sentence passed
by any court, tribunal or authority. Bibi's case is currently pending an appeal
at Lahore High Court, and despite of the international outcry against the
misuse of Pakistan's blasphemy laws and countless pleas from human rights
organizations, religious leaders and politicians across the world, she is still
kept in solitary confinement in Multan women's prison.
She was moved there from Shiekhupura jail amid security issues following prison
breaks by militants in North West Pakistan; however, there are still fears for
her safety as other blasphemy convicts have died by having their food poisoned
during their incarceration.
"We are extremely concerned about the safety of Aasia Bibi in light of the
prison breaks in Pakistan and the threats from militants who want to take away
her life," said Mr Manassi Bernard, GMA's Chief Executive.
"She is facing threats not only from the outside but also from within prison,
which is making us more concerned about her safety," he added. GMA has recently
launched an online petition and is aiming to gather 500,000 signatures
demanding the release of Bibi. The petition will later be presented to Pakistan
Consulate in Glasgow, both to further Aasia's cause and to urge the Pakistan
Government to stop the widespread misuse of Pakistan blasphemy laws.
The petition is available at www.globalminorities.co.uk/FreeAasia.
GMA has vowed to work against persecution, such as the kind Aasia Bibi is
currently facing, by working through national and international ambassadors in
countries of concern such as Pakistan, Egypt, Nigeria, Iran and Indonesia where
members of minorities are made prisoners of persecution by harassment,
imprisonment or killing.
GMA is also advocating for Rohingya Muslims and Iranian Baha'is, and is
currently planning parliamentary sessions, both in Holyrood and Westminster.
GMA has also recently visited Berlin to speak to German parliamentarians about
human rights violations the world over, and also holds awareness-raising
sessions in the UK to advocate for persecuted communities.
"Our message to the world is of hope and love. There is enough pain, death and
suffering in our world and we continue to spread our message of love and light
to the far corners of the world through the work of the Global Minorities
Alliance, be that through our peace education project or becoming a voice for
the persecuted communities around the world," said Mr Shahid Khan.
You can sign and share the petition by clicking going to
http://www.globalminorities.co.uk/FreeAasia.
The song is available to download at
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/free-aasia-bibi-single/id700915773.
For a preview of the song, go to
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nV17GI_j_2s&feature=youtu.be
(source: Global Post)
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