June 15
BANGLADESH:
Nur Hossain's death penalty demanded
Family members and relatives of Narayanganj city panel mayor Nazrul Islam and6
other victims, who were abducted and killed in Narayanganj in April, today
demanded death penalty for prime suspect Nur Hossain.
Hours after the arrest of Nur Hossain by Kolkata police, the family members and
relatives formed a human chain on Dhaka-Chittagong highway at Mouchak in
Narayanganj city around 11:00am.
They also brought out a procession in the area, reports our Narayanganj
correspondent.
Nur Hossain has been made prime accused in a murder case filed by Nazrul's wife
Selina Islam.
On April 27, Nazrul along with his driver and 3 aides and senior lawyer Chandan
Sarker and his driver was abducted. On April 30, bodies of the 6 abductees were
found floating on the Sitalakkhya river and another body on the following day.
In the morning, Narayanganj Superintendent of Police Khandaker Mahid Uddin
confirmed to The Daily Star that Nur Hossain was arrested by an anti-terrorism
squad of Kolkata police in India.
(source: The Daily Star)
IRAQ:
Iraq Isis Crisis: PM Announces Death Penalty for Deserting Troops
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has announced that the troops will face
the death penalty if they fail to fight the advancing Sunni militants in the
country.
The announcement comes in the backdrop of desertions by security personnel even
as the militants of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isis) are posing
a major threat to the Shiite-led administration.
"If soldiers who have left their bases don't rejoin the nearest unit, this will
be considered a crime that could merit the death penalty," said the Iraqi
premier.
The march by the Isis Islamists is said to have slowed down after Iran and the
US vowed to thwart the militants' attempts to seize power.
"We have regained the initiative and will not stop at liberating Mosul from
Isis terrorists, but all other parts," said Major General Qassim al-Moussawi,
spokesperson for the Iraqi military's commander-in-chief.
The Iraqi troops and police personnel have come under fire for not putting up a
fight against the insurgents, allowing them to seize key towns.
The al-Qaida splinter group had even managed to capture the town of Diyala,
about 100kms from Baghdad, as the Iraqi forces quickly withdrew.
The failure of the Iraqi forces also forced the Iraqi administration and senior
Shiite clerics to call for civilian volunteers to take up arms.
About 750,000 people of various age groups are said to have sought arms to
fight the militants.
The UN has also expressed serious concern about the sectarian conflict.
(source: IB Times)
IRAN----executions
10 prisoners hanged in different prisons during 5 days
At least 10 prisoners have been hanged between 8th and 11th of June.
According to the report of Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), a
prisoner was hanged on charge of murder in Rajai Shahr Prison in Karaj on June
9th.
He was identified as Jalal Azarmehr.
Another prisoner was hanged in the Central Prison of Zahedan the next day and
on the same charge. He has been serving 5 years in prison before the execution.
At the same day, Mehr News Agency reported the execution of a prisoner in the
Central Prison of Qazvin. He was charged with drug trafficking.
Fars News Agency also reported the execution of a prisoner charged with murder
in the prison of Sari.
On June 11th, 3 prisoners were hanged on charge of murder in Rajai Shahr Prison
in Karaj. 2 of them were identified as Rasoul Azizi and Mehdi Ashouri, told an
informed source to HRANA's reporter.
3 other prisoners were executed on charge of drug trafficking in the prison of
Bandar Abbas on June 8th. These prisoners are identified as: Davoud Sotvani,
Kourosh Roustai and Mahmoud Ebrahimi.
(source: HRA News Agency)
***********************
Amnesty International - Iran: Halt execution of 4 Sunni men
Iranian authorities must immediately halt the execution scheduled for today of
4 Sunni death row prisoners who were convicted after grossly unfair trials,
Amnesty International said.
The 4 men - Hamed Ahmadi, Jahangir Dehghani, Jamshid Dehghani and Kamal Molaee
- are set to be executed on charges of "enmity against God" (moharebeh) on 15
June.
"The execution of these men must be stopped immediately. The Iranian
authorities are executing them over charges that appear to be fabricated and
after grossly unfair trials where basic safeguards, such as rights of defense,
were ignored," said Hassiba Hadj Saharoui, Amnesty International's Deputy
Director for the Middle East and North Africa.
"This is just another example of the Iranian authorities using the death
penalty to deal with minorities rather than guarantying the rights of all
Iranians."
The 4 men are accused of killing a senior Sunni cleric with links to the
Iranian authorities in September 2009. But the men claim they were arrested
months before the killing, and that they are targeted simply for practicing or
promoting their faith.
(source: NCR-Iran)
ISRAEL:
Rabbi Aviner: Institute death penalty to dissuade terror
One of the leading national-religious figures in the national-religious
community Rabbi Shlomo Aviner called on Sunday for the imposition of the death
penalty for Palestinians involved in terror activity as a way of preventing
future kidnappings and other terrorist attacks.
Speaking to The Jerusalem Post, Aviner, who heads the Ateret Yerushalayim
yeshiva in the Old City of Jerusalem and is the rabbi of the Beit El
settlement, said that the solution to the issue of kidnappings could not simply
be particularistic, but must address root causes.
"Terrorists need to know that it is not worthwhile to participate in terrorist
activities and that if he does so he will pay dearly, that he and all those
involved in the crime will pay dearly," said the rabbi, who is part of the
conservative wing of the national religious movement.
Citing the medieval rabbi and codifier Maimonides, Aviner said that harsher
measures of dissuasion should be used to deter terrorists.
"Bowing down to terror only brings more terror... The death penalty should be
used as a way of dissuading terrorism. At the moment, terrorists who are caught
sit in jail, eat good food, study for university degrees and then are released
and hailed as national heroes," the rabbi said.
Aviner also echoed a call made earlier on Sunday by another senior
national-religious figure Rabbi Haim Druckman for people to stop hitch hiking.
Hitchhiking is widely used around the settlements of Judea and Samaria as an
alternative to public transport and the issue of whether or not to halt the
practice has become sensitive, with some settlers viewing such a reaction as a
capitulation to terrorism.
Aviner said people should only hitch hike if know the driver or are 100 %
certain that it is safe.
Speaking earlier to Galei Yisrael Radio, Rabbi Druckman, also called for people
not to hitchhike because of the danger of kidnapping.
"We must avoid hitchhiking," Druckman said on Galei Yisrael radio Sunday
afternoon. "We live in a certain reality, it didn't begin today, but we need to
overcome it and do everything not to enter into danger as much as we can."
The rabbi insisted he was not in any way blaming the 3 kidnapped boys for their
abduction, but said that "in the reality we live in, and the difficulties we
have we need to be careful."
In addition to the prayer rally at the Western Wall on Sunday evening, 2
national-religious rabbinical associations, Tzohar and Beit Hillel, issued a
joint statement on Sunday calling on religious and secular people alike to
attend a prayer rally in Givat Shmuel, close to Tel Aviv.
Chief Rabbi David Lau was expected to attend, along with Tzohar Chairman Rabbi
David Stav, Beit Hillel Chairman Meir Nehorai, and other rabbinical leaders.
Tzohar also issued a map detailing the times and places of prayer rallies
around the country scheduled for Sunday night and Monday.
On Saturday night, Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, another leading figure in the
conservative wing of the national religious movement and the chief rabbi of
Safed, described the kidnappings as an attempt to hurt the Jewish People as a
whole and said that the Palestinians wanted to wipe out the Jewish people.
"This is why we all feel as one... everyone is hear as one person with one
heart... they want to throw all of us into the sea, as they say explicitly from
time to time," Eliyahu told the media Saturday night after a prayer rally at
the Western Wall.
The rabbi prayed that the biblical verses ascribed to King David when he chased
and defeated his enemies be fulfilled for the current circumstances, saying
that "this verse should be fulfilled for us in our generation and that the
soldiers of the IDF should chase them, and smite them and not leave a remnant
of them."
Writing on his Facebook page on Saturday night, Deputy Minister for Religious
Services Eli Ben-Dahan called for the "harshest possible measures" to be taken
against the Palestinian Authority in response to the kidnapping, and called on
the public to pray for the 3 boys.
(source: Jerusalem Post)
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