April 26
IRAN----executions
Iran Hangs 3 Men Convicted Of Killing Prosecutor
Iran's state news agency says 3 men convicted of killing a prosecutor in the
country's restive border region with Pakistan have been executed.
IRNA says Omid Piri, Alireza Dahmardeh, and Iman Galavi were hanged publicly on
April 26 in front of the family of the slain prosecutor and residents of Zabol,
a town in Iran's southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchistan.
IRNA says the executions took place at the same spot where public prosecutor
Mousa Nouri was gunned down in November along with his driver.
The case had been reviewed by Iran's Supreme Court, which upheld the verdict
against the 3.
Nouri had been considered one of the toughest prosecutors fighting against
opium and other drug-smuggling networks that use routes leading from Pakistan
and Afghanistan over Iran's rugged hills and deserts.
(source: Radio Free Euopre / Radio Liberty)
********************
3 Balouchis prisoner hanged in Zabol
The Iranian regime's hangmen in city of Zabol on Saturday hanged three
prisoners in public for alleged killing of Zabol's atrocious Public Prosecutor.
The victims had been condemned to death by the regime's judiciary without
having a lawyer and a fair judicial process.
The 3 Balouchis men were identified as Amir Piri, Iman Goalvi, and Alireza
Dehmorde.
On October 26, 2013 upon orders from the regime's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei,
the regime's henchmen collectively hanged 16 Balouchi political prisoners in
Zahedan Prison. The state-run news outlets published the pictures of the
victims who were cruelly hanged using cranes.
Regime's public prosecutor in Zahedan blatantly said: "These individuals are
being executed in revenge for the martyrdom of border guards." (Tasnim news
agency, affiliated with the Qods Force - October 26, 2013)
The collective and clandestine execution of 15 other Balouchi prisoners on
February 5 in Chahbahar's prison and hanging the body of Ahmad Eissa Zehi, a
23-year-old prisoner who had died of a heart attack before his execution (in
October 2013) are among other disclosed crimes of the mullahs against the
deprived people of Balouchistan.
Execution of prisoners, especially the political prisoners, has surged since
Hassan Rouhani has taken office as the president of the clerical regime.
On April 19, Hassan Rouhani approved the anti-human and anti-Islamic executions
in Iran as being "God's commandments" or "laws of the people".
Speaking to commanders of the Iranian regime's State Security Forces on
Saturday, he said: "when someone is condemned to death and he comes to the
gallows according to the law, the law has condemned him and he is punished and
this has nothing to do with us. It is either the commandment of God or a law
approved by the parliament that belongs to the people and we only execute it
(Tasnim news agency, affiliated with the Qods Force - April 19).
***************
29 prisoners executed in 6 days, including 3 juvenile offenders
The antihuman regime of mullahs sent to gallows 8 inmates collectively. They
were imprisoned in the Dizel-Abad prison in Kermanshah, one of the most
gruesome prisons of Iran. One of them was Vali Khan Nazari who had spent 19
years in prison.On April 22, 5 prisoners were executed in the Gohadasht prison.
On April 21, 6 inmates, including a 20 year old prisoner, were hanged in the
Ghezel-Hessar prison in Karaj.
On the same day, 3 inmates, 1 of whom 20, were executed in Mashhad.
On April 17, 4 prisoners were hanged in Bandar-Abbas prison. 3 of the executed
were Ahmad Rahimi, Ali Fouladi and Ali Sharifiwho were 17, 16 and 14
respectively when they were arrested.
On the same day, SamkouKhorshidi, 32, a Kurd prisoner, was sent to gallows in
Kermanshah on the charge of 'Moharebeh' (enmity against God).
2 inmates by the names of Rasoul Fakhireh, 50, and Ali Arab, 32, were also
hanged in Zahedan's central prison on April 19 and April 22.
Accordingly, since the brutal attack on political prisoners in Evin on April
17, 29 inmates have been executed in various cities. At least 3 of them were
juveniles at the time of apprehension.
(source for both: NCR-Iran)
*******************
Iranian mother who spared her son's killer: 'Vengeance has left my
heart'----Samereh Alinejad tells the Guardian she had no intention of sparing
her son's killer, Balal, until the moment she asked for the noose to be removed
from his neck
The idea she might pardon her son's killer first came to Samereh Alinejad in a
dream. It was a message she didn't want to hear.
Abdollah Hosseinzadeh was stabbed and killed in a street brawl in the autumn of
2007 when he was only 18. He had known his killer, Balal. The 2, barely out of
their teens at the time, had played football together. Abdollah was the 2nd son
Alinejad had lost, her youngest died as a boy in a motorbike accident when he
was 11. Furious in her grief, she was determined Balal would hang.
But as Balal's execution date drew nearer, Abdollah appeared to his mother in a
series of vivid dreams.
"10 days before the execution was due, I saw my son in a dream asking me not to
take revenge, but I couldn't convince myself to forgive," she told the
Guardian. "2 nights before that day, I saw him in the dream once again, but
this time he refused to speak to me."
Speaking by phone from Iran's northern Mazandaran province, on the Caspian Sea,
Alinejad said she had no intention of sparing Balal's life until the moment she
asked for the noose to be removed from his neck. Her last-minute pardon was a
remarkable act of humanity that moved hearts across Iran - and the world - but
it took Alinejad by surprise as much as it did Balal, his relatives and her own
family.
A stream of relatives, her brother and her mother, flowed through her house the
night before the execution. Painfully aware of the grief she had carried in the
7 years since her son was killed, none of them attempted to change her mind. "I
stood very firm in my belief that I want him punished, so they didn't expect me
to forgive."
As Abdollah's legal guardian, Alinejad's husband Abdolghani had the power under
Iranian law to overturn the death penalty, but he had relinquished that
responsibility to his wife.
"We couldn't sleep that night, we were all awake until morning. Until the last
minute, I didn't want to forgive. I had told my husband just two days before
that I can't forgive this man, but maybe there would be a possibility, but I
couldn't persuade myself to forgive." Alinejad had been assured: "My husband
said, look to God and let's see what happens."
In the early hours of last Tuesday, Alinejad was outside the gates of Nour
prison, among the crowd gathered for Balal's execution.
"You have the final say, my husband had said," she recalled. "He said you've
suffered too much, we'll do as you say." After recitation from the Qur'an was
read, prison guards had hooked a rope around Balal's neck as he stood on a
chair blindfolded, his hands tied behind his back. Iran's Islamic penal code
allows the victim's heir - "walli-ye-dam" - to personally execute the condemned
man as Qisas (retribution) - in this case by pushing away the chair he was
standing on.
Seconds away from what could have been his final breath, Balal pleaded for his
life and called out for mercy. "Please forgive," he shouted, "if only for my
mum and dad," Alinejad recalled. "I was angry, I shouted back how can I
forgive, did you show mercy to my son's mum and dad?"
Others in the crowd watching the scene in anguish also called out for the
family to spare Balal's life. "Amoo Ghani (uncle Ghani), forgive," they
shouted, calling the victim's father by his 1st name.
Balal's fate then took an unexpected turn. Alinejad clambered up on a stool and
rather than pushing away his chair, slapped him across the face.
"After that, I felt as if rage vanished within my heart. I felt as if the blood
in my veins began to flow again," she said. "I burst into tears and I called my
husband and asked him to come up and remove the noose." Within seconds, as
Abdolghani unhooked the rope from Balal's neck, he was declared pardoned.
Balal's mother Kobra, sobbing, reached across the fence separating the crowd
from the execution site, and embraced Alinejad before reaching to kiss her feet
- a gesture of respect and gratitude. "I didn't allow her to do that, I took
her arm and made her stand up ... she was just a mother like me, after all."
Arash Khamoushi, a photographer for Iranian news agency Isna, captured the
extraordinary scene in a series of pictures that flooded internet sites,
newspapers and television sets across the world. Among the most poignant images
is of the mothers, facing each other for the 1st time, holding one another in
their arms.
"She was extremely happy, it was as if someone had given her wings to fly,"
Alinejad said. Hours ulater, after sparing one woman's child, she went to visit
her own son's grave.
Abdollah was brought up in a religious family. Alinejad is a housewife,
Abdolghani is a retired labourer who works as football coach in the local club
where both Abdollah and Balal used to play. Having lost both their sons, the
couple now have only their daughter. Balal remains in jail. A victim's family
can only save a killer's life, they can't lift a jail sentence, which is at the
discretion of the judiciary in Iran, which has the worst record for executions
worldwide after China.
Alinejad has not spoken to Balal's family other than when they met at Nour
prison. "I didn't utter a single word to them in all these years, nor complain
directly about why their son killed mine," she said. "But they're in touch with
our relatives.
"Balal was naive. He didn't want to kill, it wasn't in his nature, he was angry
in seconds and had a knife in his hand."
Finding herself suddenly a figure of inspiration for people across the world,
Alinejad has one lesson she hopes her tragedy will help others to learn: "For
young people not to carry knives when they're going out. When they kill a
person, they don't just kill that person, mums and dads die too as a result."
She is pleased, she said, so many people were happy with her decision: "I'm
glad when people now call me their mum."
One week after pardoning Balal, Alinejad has found a peace lost since her son's
death. "Losing a child is like losing a part of your body. All these years, I
felt like a moving dead body," she said. "But now, I feel very calm, I feel I'm
at peace. I feel that vengeance has left my heart."
(source: The Guardian)
INDIA:
Nitish Katara murder: Arguments on sentencing to begin on May 16
The arguments on the quantum of sentence to be awarded to the 3 convicted of
the murder of Nitish Katara will be heard from May 16.
The bench of the Delhi High Court had earlier this month upheld the conviction
of the three. It was scheduled to begin hearing arguments on a plea for
enhancement of sentence filed by Nitish's mother Neelam Katara from Friday. She
had sought that the life imprisonment awarded to the three be enhanced to death
penalty. On Friday, the bench of Justice Gita Mittal and Justice J R Midha
allowed a plea for adjournment on the ground that the public prosecutor was in
personal difficulty and would not be able to argue the case.
P K Dey, the counsel for Neelam, and defence counsel Sumeet Verma, appearing
for Vikas Yadav, filed their written synopses in support of their pleas on
quantum of sentence before the court.
Dey sought death penalty on various grounds, including that the convicts have
committed honour killing, a "rarest of rare" crime.
Verma, on the other hand, cited case laws, including a recent HC verdict on
honour killing in which 3 of 5 death row convicts were awarded life term and 2
were acquitted. "If there are any possibility of reformation of convicts, then
death penalty cannot be awarded," Verma said.
Cousins Vikas and Vishal Yadav and employee Sukhdev Pehalwan were convicted of
the abduction and murder of Nitish Katara, the son of an IAS officer, on
February 16-17, 2002. He was killed allegedly for having an affair with Vikas'
sister Bharti and Yadav's family did not approve of this relationship.
(source: Indian Express)
***********************
Abu Azmi defends remarks, says sex outside marriage should be punished
Samajwadi Party leader Abu Azmi yesterday defended his remark that a woman and
a man entering into a sexual relationship outside marriage should be punished,
before the Maharashtra State Commission for Women (MSCW).
Abu Azmi had said that rape was punishable by death in Islam.
"Our religion does not allow women to have sexual relations with anyone except
her husband. If a man and a woman decide to have sexual relations with consent,
then both of them should be punished," he stated in his reply submitted to the
MSCW.
The commission had asked him to explain his earlier statement that women who
have sex outside their marriage must be punished, too. The controversy arose
after a set of bizarre statements Azmi made to mid-day, saying rape was
punishable by death in Islam, and that a woman, married or unmarried, who has
sex with or without consent, must be sent to the gallows.
Invoking Islam, the MLA, who appeared before the Commission Friday, said that a
woman in an illicit relationship should be punished along with the man
involved. Azmi said that at times, the law is misused by women. "If a woman
voluntarily enters into a relationship with a man, and later complains against
him, it can have disastrous consequences."
Reacting to Azmi's reply, MSCW Chairperson Sushiben Shah said it was not right
on part of the SP leader to cite religion and deprive women of their rights.
"The Constitution of India, the Supreme Court and the Protection Against
Domestic Violence Act have given acceptance to live-in relationships and
provided protection to women, including Muslim women," Shah said.
"The law of the land should be applicable to all women irrespective of their
religion, caste or creed," Shah added. She said that since Azmi has raised a
religious matter, she would examine and act accordingly. "We would like to see
that regressive remarks are not made by people sitting on high positions in
society."
(source: mid-day)
*************************
Dealing with 'wolves' and 'beasts'
Amidst cries for vengeance, the Shakti Mills judgment, awarding death to 3, was
cheered in some quarters. But this blood thirst has its own worrying
ramifications.
The accused have totally violated all the canons of human behaviour, tenets of
human dignity and, therefore, one may say that this offence assumes [a more]
serious nature than murder because of the brutality and gruesome nature with
which it was committed. - Dr. Mrs. Shalini S. Phansalkar-Joshi, Principal
Judge, Bombay City Civil Court & Sessions Judge, Greater Bombay
Agreeing with the prosecution view that the 3 repeat rapists in the Shakti
Mills cases were "sex-starved wolves," Judge Phansalkar-Joshi decreed on April
4 that "each of them be hanged by the neck until they are dead."
The judge, like others, had no doubt about the heinous nature of the offence
committed and decided to award the death penalty under the new Section 376E of
the Indian Penal Code.
In tune with the cries for extreme vengeance that have been heard since
December 16, 2012, Delhi rape (and murder) case, the judgment, the 1st under
the new law, was cheered in some quarters.
But this blood thirst has its own worrying ramifications. Murder and rape
cannot and should not be equated. It would - as women's activists fear and
repeatedly stressed - have a bearing on the further safety of the woman who has
been raped. Moreover, this is based on the presumption that rape is indeed the
end of life.
The notion of 'honour'
The notion of "honour," activists have long argued, flows from patriarchal
paradigms that are embedded in our society. The changes in law relating to
sexual offences were an effort to move beyond the paradigm, but the Shakti
Mills judgment brings the issue back to square one.
Judge Phansalkar-Joshi devoted much effort to point out that (even though it
was not a murder case), it fell in the rarest of rare category and, so, death
for Vijay Jadhav, Qasim Sheikh and Salim Ansari was the only option.
In her 232-page judgment, the Judge relied heavily on the contention of Ujjwal
Nikam, special public prosecutor in the case, who argued that any leniency
shown to the "sex-starved wolves" would be a "mockery of justice."
Mr. Nikam also argued that rape was an offence, which was "fundamentally and
materially different from other offences. It leaves [a] permanent scar on the
victim." According to him, "injury of the body can be healed but injury to the
mind and honour of the victim can never be healed." Echoing the sentiment, the
judge pointed out that in a previous rape offence, also at Shakti Mills, the 3
accused had already been sentenced to life imprisonment.
"Hence, to emphasize on gravity of the offence of gang rape being committed
repeatedly, if the legislative intent of treating it as a graver offence is to
be given effect to, then also no lesser punishment than death can meet the ends
of justice. There is no other alternative left in this case except to impose
the death penalty, in the large public interest and to maintain integrity of
human dignity,??? she argued (emphasis added).
The judge also felt that there was no chance for reformation of the accused, 2
of whom - Vijay and Qasim - had been twice held guilty on charges of theft by
the Juvenile Justice Board - but were released on the bond of good behaviour.
"With the growing age, the accused have become worse. The moment they became
major, they started indulging in sexual offences...the question is how many
times such opportunity is to be given if they are misusing it and meanwhile
subjecting the victims to untold trauma and creating a feeling of insecurity in
the entire women folk as such?" she demanded to know.
It was this very public "hang them" demand following the December 16 case that
led to substantive changes in the law, much of it incorporated at the instance
of sensitive activists and lawyers.
Not everyone who protested after the gruesome incident was for the death
penalty in rape cases, but the executive and Parliament went ahead and
introduced the extreme punishment.
'A regressive step'
Keen to douse public anger after a slow response, the government went beyond
the recommendations of the Verma Commission, which was set up in the wake of
the Delhi rape-and-murder case, and did not recommend the death penalty in rape
cases.
"In our considered view...seeking of death penalty would be a regressive step
in the field of sentencing and reformation," the commission said.
"Undoubtedly, rape deserves serious punishment...Rape is very often accompanied
by physical injury to the victim and can also inflict mental and psychological
damage...However, we believe that such offences need to be graded. There are
instances where the victim/survivor ...can... overcome the trauma and lead a
normal life," the Commission said.
In India, the notion of "honour" is not far from what "khaps" and their
so-called panchayats decree. This medieval form of lynch mob justice has no
place in modern India. The quicker we move away from invoking "honour" in
sexual offences, the easier it will be for us to tackle the problem.
Restoring harmony?
Analysing the Delhi rape-and-murder judgment of September 2013, Aparna Chandra,
who teaches at the National Law University, Delhi, argued, "Courts can pick and
choose their law from a menu of competing formulations of the rarest of rare
doctrine and contradictory standards of which factors are relevant and/or
determinative of aggravating and mitigating circumstances."
The 4 sentenced to death in the Delhi rape-and-murder case were described as
"beasts" (read wolves in the Shakti Mills matter) - which makes their
"extermination" by the State more palatable - Ms. Chandra wrote in her piece.
"Retributive theories of punishment work on the assumption that the crime is a
disruption of social harmony, and that this harmony will be restored and
justice will be served by visiting an equally strong punishment on the
offender. In restoring status quo ante, however, we forget that such status quo
is not necessarily harmonious or just," Ms. Chandra added.
By sounding the death knell in the name of sending out a strong signal,
including in the Shakti Mills and Delhi cases, judges seem to be addressing the
society's collective conscience. Just like the convicts in the Delhi
rape-and-murder, those sentenced to death in the Shakti Mills rape cases are
the dregs of our society - they are persons our society has no time or
inclination to correct or reform.
Harsh, dramatic sentences are not going to alter societal behaviour or usher in
a culture of equality and respect for women. They are unlikely to deter
potential rapists either.
(source: Opinion, The Hindu)
VIETNAM:
Execution ground closes, thousands of anonymous remains left----The execution
ground of Long Binh, in Tan Phu Ward, District 9, HCM City, has been cleared
for an urban construction project, but thousands of prisoners' remains have yet
to be claimed by their families.
Several thousands of sets of remains of prisoners, most of them anonymous, are
still at the Long Binh execution ground.
Several thousands of sets of remains of prisoners, most of them anonymous, are
still at the execution ground. Most of the prisoners were buried a long time
ago.
Among these cases, Mr. Ba Son, a former worker at the Long Binh execution
ground, visited the homes of some dead prisoners to inform their families about
the locations of their tombs, but not all of these families have collected the
remains yet.
"Even after more than a year since I informed them of the tombs, many families
remain indifferent. They did not even pick up the phone when I called or send a
reply message," says Ba Son.
According to Ba Son, many families don't want to collect the remains of their
relatives, out of fears that they will face troubles or lose face. Therefore,
some sets of prisoner remains were cremated and kept at a nearby temple in
District 9 - these will forever remain anonymous.
"This makes me and other former workers at the execution ground feel
unsettled," Ba Son says.
The biggest worry of Ba Son is that he is old now and once he dies, nobody can
help the families of dead prisoners to find the right tombs. "Now I just wish
that all dead prisoners in the Long Binh execution ground are taken home by
their families so their souls may rest forever," Ba Son says.
For the convenience of the relatives of prisoners, Ba Son has made a list of
full names, date of execution and the tomb locations of executed prisoners. If
the relatives call the right names and birthday of the prisoners, he will help
them to find the tombs.
Ba Son and some former workers at the execution ground gave the remains of such
infamous prisoners as Nam Cam and Tang Minh Phung to their families for burial.
The execution ground today
Previously, the Long Binh execution ground was a secluded valley, where no one
dared to visit, except for burial workers like Ba Son. After the state decided
to implement the death penalty by lethal injection, this ground was closed and
fenced.
Currently, the Long Binh execution ground has been leveled. All prisoner tombs
from 1976 have been removed to another site.
Ba Son took reporters to the execution ground. He pointed to a piece of land
that had been leveled and said: "In the past, the area around the execution
ground was full of earth mounds. At night, people could only hear the ravens
cry. A few months ago, burial workers were summoned to remove the tombs of
prisoners to another place."
Currently Long Binh is being leveled by a construction firm. It is expected
that in the next few years, this area will become a vibrant urban area. Around
the execution ground, some homes have already been built. The road along the
grounds has now been expanded and asphalted.
According to Ba Son, before the execution ground was leveled, there were
several thousand graves of prisoners. Ba Son and his co-workers exhumed the
remains, cleaned them and placed them in earthen containers. Some remains were
noted with names and hometowns.
Mr. Nguyen Van Thanh, Vice Chair of District 9, says all the remains of
prisoners at Long Binh execution ground will be buried at the Phuc An Vien
cemetery in Long Thanh My Ward, District 9, and relatives of prisoners can
contact the Department of Natural Resources and Environment of District 9 to
claim the remains.
(source: Vietnam Net)
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