Jan. 6
DR CONGO:
Former British soldier on death row in the Congo to go on trial for 'murder' of
best friend----Joshua French is accused of killing pal Tjostolv Moland while
they were both in prison for another murder
A British man waiting on death row in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)
will face trial tomorrow, accused of the murder of his cellmate and best
friend.
Former soldier Joshua French and Tjostolv Moland were sentenced to death in
2009 after being found guilty of espionage and murder.
Both men maintained their innocence, but were convicted for a 2nd time of the
same offences in June 2010 following a military retrial branded a "farce" by
campaigners.
But Mr French, who served in the Parachute Regiment, now faces a fresh murder
charge after Mr Moland was found dead in the prison cell they shared on August
18 last year, despite an initial inquiry which found he had taken his own life.
Legal charity Reprieve has now written to Prime Minister David Cameron, calling
on the British Government to intervene to prevent the trial.
At very least, they say the case should be transferred to a civilian court as
it is set to be held in a military court, in violation of the DRC's
constitution and international law.
It is understood that discussions had been taking place to transfer Mr French
to a prison in Norway, but the latest court proceedings have thrown this in to
jeopardy.
Mr French's mother, Kari Hilde, said: "Joshua has already lost his best friend
and nearly 5 years of his life. Now he's being falsely accused of murder. How
much more will he have to endure before the British Government takes serious
action?"
Reprieve said a post-mortem examination conducted jointly by Congolese Police
and the Norwegian police agency Kripos confirmed that Mr Moland had committed
suicide.
Mr Moland's father has written to the Congolese authorities asking for the
charges against Mr French to be dropped but the request has not been answered.
Maya Foa, director of Reprieve's death penalty team, said: "The Government has
already tarried too long.
"These are sham charges and the Prime Minister needs to intervene without delay
to protect the rights of British citizen, Joshua French. If the trial goes
ahead in a military court, Joshua may well be given a death sentence, and all
hopes of him leaving the prison alive will be dashed."
Mr French and Mr Moland were convicted of murdering Abedi Kasongo, who had been
hired to drive the 2 former soldiers after their motorbike broke down in April
2009. The 47-year-old driver was shot in the head 70 miles (113km) east of
Kisangani.
French and Moland denied responsibility. They claimed that unknown gunmen
ambushed them in the middle of a dense rainforest.
The trial saw witnesses provide conflicting testimonies and lacked physical
evidence, Reprieve said.
It is also claimed that Mr French was beaten and subjected to a mock execution
before being forced to sign a confession.
The prosecution told the courts that Mr Moland wrote a letter confessing he was
a spy and was responsible for killing Mr Kasongo.
But the letter has never been given to his defence team.
At the retrial, both men were forced to stand for more than 6 hours in heat
upwards of 40C (104F), it was claimed.
Mr French, who spent his childhood in Margate, Kent, trained as a British
paratrooper before serving in the Norwegian army, where he met Mr Moland.
Both men left the forces in 2007 and worked as security guards in a number of
locations.
(source: Daily Mail)
GHANA:
Don't lynch gays, we're not in the jungle - Presby Moderator
Lynching gays is akin to jungle barbarism, the staunch anti-gay Moderator of
the Presbyterian Church of Ghana has said.
Describing homosexuality as a "sickness", Reverend Prof Emmanuel Martey said,
even though same-sex relationships are "filthy, un-African and un-biblical", no
one had the right to pronounce instant justice or arbitrary death penalty on
self-confessed gays.
"...If somebody confesses to be a homosexual or somebody comes out of the
closet, as they say, that doesn't mean that the person should be lynched; that
doesn't mean that the person should be killed. We are not in the jungle", he
admonished.
Rev Martey said gays, just as witches, are "sick" people who need healing not
killing.
"...Witchcraft is a sickness and homosexuality is also a sickness and you help
the sick person to get healed so why should you rather kill", he wondered.
"...I am against homosexuality but that doesn't mean that homosexuals should be
lynched or should be maltreated; no that is not what the Bible teaches", the
Presby Moderator told Joy FM Monday.
(source: GhanaWeb)
MALAYSIA:
Trial Opens Against 30 Over Terrorism Activities, High Court Sits In Prisons
Dept
A trial opened Monday in the High Court, which sat in the Sabah Prisons
Department, where 3 Malaysians and 27 Filipinos are charged mainly with waging
war against the Yang di-Pertuan Agong and activities related to terrorism in
Sabah early last year.
The prosecution's first witness, former deputy director of the Internal
Security and Public Order Department (Special Operations Command) Bukit Aman,
Datuk Abdul Rashid Harun, told the court he noticed a difference in the number
of 'intruders' in Kampung Tanduo, Lahad Datu, when he entered the village twice
on different dates.
"The majority of them were different from the ones I saw the day before. But,
they were all wearing the same type of uniform with camouflage prints and they
were armed," he said.
Not only was there a drop in the number of intruders, there were new faces
compared to the ones he saw and met on his 1st visit, he added.
Abdul Rashid, who is now the director of the Security and Public Order Division
of the Eastern Sabah Security Command (ESSCOM) in Lahad Datu, said that on the
1st day of his visit on Feb 15, he was disguised as a police personnel with the
rank of sergeant major.
Abdul Rashid said he did not take part in the negotiations between ACP Zulkifli
Abd Aziz, who was the deputy chief of Special Branch 1 in Sabah, and leader of
the intruders, Datu Agbimuddin Kiram.
He said the purpose of his joining the visit to Kampung Tanduo was to conduct
'ground appreciation' to gather information on the intruders, including
evaluating the enemies' strength and the weapons they had.
Earlier, the prosecution amended the date of all the charges from Feb 9 to Feb
12 last year.
Of the 30 individuals being jointly tried for various offences in relation to
terrorism activities in Sabah between Feb 12 and April 10, 22, including 2
Malaysian men, are charged with being members of a terrorist group, punishable
with life imprisonment and a fine, and waging war against the Yang di-Pertuan
Agong, which carries the death penalty or life imprisonment upon conviction.
Of the 22, 1 faces 2 additional charges of recruiting members of a terrorist
group and harbouring persons knowing that they were members of a terrorist
group.
Of the remaining 8, 5 are accused of being members of a terrorist group; one of
them, the sole woman of the 30 and a Malaysian citizen, is charged with
harbouring persons knowing they were members of a terrorist group, while 2 are
charged with attempting to harbour persons knowing they were members of a
terrorist group.
The rest are Filipino nationals.
The hearing, before Justice Stephen Chung, is aided by a prosecuting team of
seven led by Attorney-General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail, while a total of 10
counsel appeared for the accused, including a team of 6 led by peninsular-based
lawyer Datuk N. Sivananthan for 28 of the individuals.
The hearing continues Tuesday.
(source: Bernama)
SOMALIA:
Military tribunal executes member of Somali Army
A military tribunal in Somalia has ordered to execute a soldier of the Federal
Government National Army in Mogadishu on Monday for the killing of a high
school student a year before, RBC Radio reports.
A firing squad consisting of 5 men from the military and the police forces have
fired the soldier named Maslah Isse at an open ground near the Police Academy
in Harjajab district of Mogadishu.
The execution happened early on Monday as Military Court officials, members of
the executed soldier, family of the murdered student and crowd of people
gathered at the scene early morning.
The Military Court officials said after long investigations on the case of the
killing the student and gathering all necessary confession the court ruled a
death penalty against the soldier executed today.
(source: raxanreeb.com)
IRAN----executions
1 Prisoners Was Hanged in Northern Iran
1 prisoner was hanged in the prison of Sari (Northern Iran) today, Sunday
January 5, reported the official Iranian news agency IRNA. The prisoner was
identified as "A. J." (30 year old) and was convicted of murdering "A. M." said
the report.
(source: Iran Human Rights)
*********
3 political prisoners fall into coma after 63-day hunger strike
3 Sunni political prisoners have fallen into a coma on the 63rd day of a hunger
strike at Iran's Ghezel-Hesar prison.
Jamshid Dehghan, Kamal Malaii and Hamed Ahmadi were all transferred to the
prison's clinic after going into a coma on January 4.
They were returned to their cells after regaining consciousness, before Mr
Dehghan lost consciousness for a 2nd time.
The 3 are among 6 prisoners who have refused food for more than 2 months at the
prison.
The 6 Sunni political prisoners went on hunger strike from November 4 and are
still demanding a revised trial in public and their return to their previous
prison ward in Rajaii-Shahr prison in Karaj.
Despite requests from human rights organizations to break their strike, the
political prisoners emphasized on its continuation as the only means to make
their voices heard.
Meanwhile Report from Political prisoner Zaniyar Moradi, who is on death row at
the prison say that he is currently being deprived of medical treatment for
infection of the vertebrae resulting from torture.
Prison chiefs have said there is no budget dedicated to medical care for
prisoners sentenced to death.
The doctors have said that they will face death continuing with their hunger
strike.
***********
A young man hanged in northern city
The Iranian regime's henchmen hanged a young man in the main prison in the
northern city of Sari.
The prisoner was identified by his initials as A.Y. but no other information
was given about the victim.
Since the beginning of 2013 till December 31, execution of at least 660
prisoners was registered in Iran with 430 of them executed after the June 14
election.
This is while news on many executions never finds its way out of the prisons.
25 of those executed were women.
Public execution of 2 young men of 20 and 23 years old for stealing the
equivalent of 35 Euros, execution of 3 youngsters who were 12, 15 and 17 years
old at the time of their arrests, hanging a bleeding 28 year old who a few
hours prior to his execution had committed suicide, hanging the body of a 23
year old in Zahedan who had already died a few hours back of a heart attack,
hanging of Ms. Geitei Marami, 34, whose body was bleeding due to 100 lashes she
received prior to her execution, emphasizing on the execution of a wretched
prisoner who had come alive after his execution in the mortuary, are but a
minute segment of mullahs' regime record replete with crimes in 2013.
On December 11, head of regime's judiciary system Mullah SadeqLarijani called
reports by international bodies on degrading condition of human rights in Iran
as fabricated and prejudiced and said: "Opposing the death sentence is opposing
Islam's orders."
(source for both: NCR-Iran)
SINGAPORE:
2nd man escapes death penalty for drug trafficking
A 2nd man on death row for drug trafficking has escaped the gallows after the
High Court ruled that he had only been acting as a courier.
Instead, 30-year-old Subashkaran Pragasam has been sentenced to life
imprisonment and 15 strokes of the cane.
Under amendments to the Misuse of Drugs Act last year, judges no longer have to
impose the death penalty for certain types of homicide and drug trafficking
offences.
The Attorney-General's Chambers certified that Subashkaran had substantively
assisted the Central Narcotics Bureau to disrupt drug-trafficking activities.
The 1st to escape the death penalty after being convicted of drug trafficking
was Malaysian Yong Vui Kong. He had his sentence reduced to life imprisonment
in November last year.
(source: ChannelNewsAsia)
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