July 3
IRAN:
Executions Iranian Style
Which of the following is true about executions in Iran?:
1. You can be executed if the main or only "evidence" against you is a
confession extracted under torture;
2. You can be executed if the crime you are accused of occurred when you were a
juvenile;
3. You can be executed if the alleged crime occurred while you were already
sitting in prison;
4. Your family may not be informed of your execution beforehand, and may not be
able to bury and mourn you.
The answer is all of the above.
Iran continues to be the number 2 executioner in the world after China, a
distinction it has held now for many years running. Last year was a very bad
year. Amnesty International believes that at least 704 people were executed in
2013. But as of the middle of June of this year, at least 354 people have been
executed in Iran. At this rate, 2014 will exceed 2013 in numbers of people
executed.
Most people executed in Iran have been accused of drug-related offenses. A
couple of current cases in particular illustrate the horrible cruelty and
unfairness of Iran's execution system involving 2 classes of individuals:
juvenile offenders and those accused of politically-motivated offenses.
Razieh Ebrahimi has been sentenced to death for murdering her husband when she
was just 17 years old. She had endured 3 years of his physical and
psychological abuse after being married off at the age of only 14.
Iran is one of the tiny handful of countries that still execute juvenile
offenders. Amnesty International believes at least 11 of those executed in 2013
could have been juveniles at the time of their alleged crimes. Even though
changes under a new penal code would mean that juveniles can no longer be
executed for crimes such as involvement in drugs, they can still be executed
for murder.
According to Iranian law, Razieh Ebrahimi was sentenced to Qesas or
"retribution." Iranian authorities claim that the sentence is mandated by Islam
and that only the family of the person who was murdered can prevent the
execution by accepting a Diyeh (payment of financial compensation). In fact,
Iranian authorities are fully responsible for executions carried out under
Qesas. They carry out the arrest, detention, interrogation, and trial of the
defendants and also carry out the subsequent executions.
In another case, 4 Iranian Kurdish men - Hamed Ahmadi, Jahangir Dehghani,
Jamshid Dehghani and Kamal Molaee - are at great risk of being executed at any
time. They were sentenced to death after grossly unfair judicial proceedings
for killing a Sunni cleric who had ties to the Iranian government.
This despite the fact that the four had been arrested in early summer 2009 and
were detained in prison at the time the killing occurred in September 2009.
Although they were later acquitted of that charge, they were still sentenced to
death for "moharebeh" (enmity against God) for acting against national security
by supporting illegal Kurdish political parties.
The 4 men, as well as 29 other Sunnis sentenced to death for politically
motivated offenses, claim they were not involved in violence at all, and were
targeted because of their participation in peaceful religious activities, such
as taking part in religious seminars and distributing religious materials. They
have reportedly been subjected to mock executions.
Ethnic and religious minorities in Iran are particularly liable to be sentenced
to death for politically motivated offenses after manifestly unfair trials in
Revolutionary Courts, in the absence of evidence proving their involvement in
any crimes, and where confessions extracted under duress are routinely
accepted.
Just recently 2 ethnic Arab men, Ali Chabishat and Khaled Mousavi, were
executed in secret for supposedly blowing up an oil pipeline, even though the
explosion had been declared an accident. They had been tortured in detention
and forced to make confessions which were broadcast on Iranian television.
Their families were informed of the executions after the fact on June 12, 2014.
They were not told when the executions had taken place and were forbidden to
carry out the usual mourning ceremonies.
The Iranian authorities are racing ahead against the global trend that has seen
an overall decrease of countries that carry out executions. The U.N. Special
Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran has
criticized the use of the death penalty in Iran and specifically urged the
Iranian government to end the practice of juvenile executions.
(source: Elise Auerbach, Amnesty International USA, blog)
SRI LANKA:
6 sentenced to death from Tangalle and Kaluthara.
The Kalutara and Tangalle High courts passed death penalties on 6 individuals
today who were found guilty for 2 murder cases.
2 individuals were given death penalties by the Tangalle high court while
giving the verdict of a case where a woman was murdered in the Mudarawana area
in Walasmulla in 1998, due to a land dispute.
The verdict was given by the Tangalle high court judge Lalith Wijesekara.
The 2 individuals facing the death penalty are 57 and 54 year old brothers,
from the same area.
Meanwhile the death sentence was imposed by the Kalutara high court on 4
individuals who were suspects of a murder which took place in the Mahagama area
in Bulathsinhala, Kalutara.
The murder had taken place on the 4th of July 2012.
The case was filed by the Attorney General stating that the suspected
individuals have killed the person by attacking him with a sharp weapon and
stoning.
The deceased was identified as Galhenkandage Lal Gunawardena.
The case was taken before the Kalutara high court judge P. Padman Suresan
today.
(source: Hiru News)
BANGLADESH:
5 get death for killing 4
A Bagerhat court has sentenced 5 people to death for the murder of 4 members of
a family.
Bagerhat District judge S S Solaiman read out the sentence on Thursday.
Abdul Quddus, Shahid Sarder aka Shahidul Haque Sarder, Shahid's wife Mafila
Begum, Alim Fakir, and Ohidul aka Shahidul have been handed down the death
penalty.
State Prosecutor Sheikh Mohammad Ali said the convicts went to Gazi
Shahabuddin's house in Lakurtola village in Sharankhola on the night of Mar 9,
2009, carrying sweets laced with sleep-inducing drugs.
Once the members of the family lost consciousness after eating the sweets, the
criminals looted Tk 80,000, jewellery, and other valuables. Before leaving,
they killed Manir, Shahbuddin, his wife Tahmina Khatun, and 1 of the 2
daughters, Lili Akhter.
Shiuli Khatun, the other daughter, though gravely injured, managed to survive
the gruesome attack.
The following morning, neighbours discovered the bodies and rescued Shiuli
alive. The survivor was admitted to a hospital.
Shahabuddin's brother-in-law, Ilyas Hossain, had filed murder case at the
Sharankhola Police Station the following day.
(source: benews24.com)
LEBANON:
Judge Demands Death Penalty for Female Syrian National
Military Examining Magistrate Imad al-Zein demanded on Thursday the death
penalty for a Syrian female for the possession of detonators and handing them
over to another compatriot, the state-run National News Agency reported.
The NNA said that al-Zein issued his verdict against Syrian national,
identified as Samia Sh., for the possession of detonators and delivering them
to another, who is yet to be identified.
A search warrant was issued against Samia's accomplice,
The defendant, who has an arrest warrant against her, was referred to the
permanent military court.
In January, the Lebanese army arrested several Syrians for the possession of
detonators in the eastern Bekaa Valley.
Some of the suspects admitted to having entered Lebanon illegally and of being
in contact with security and military leaders in the Syrian opposition.
(source: Neharnet.com)
UNITED NATIONS:
'Death Penalty Has No Place In 21st Century,' Declares UN Chief
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has declared that the death
penalty has no place in the 21st century, and called on all States to take
concrete steps towards abolishing or no longer practicing this form of
punishment.
"Together, we can finally end this cruel and inhumane practice everywhere
around the world," said Ban on Wednesday in opening remarks to the special
event "Best practices and challenges in implementing a moratorium on the death
penalty," co-organized at UN Headquarters by the Office of the UN High
Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and the Permanent Mission of Italy to the
UN.
The special event is being held "in the spirit" of the aims of the annual
resolution of the UN General Assembly on "Moratorium on the use of the death
penalty" first adopted in 2007. That broad and inclusive text does not impose
the abolition of the death penalty but rather proposes a moratorium on
executions - de jure or de facto - with a view to abolishing the death penalty
in the future.
At the event, which was moderated by Assistant Secretary-General for Human
Rights Ivan Simonovic, Ban noted that the Assembly will soon take up the
resolution again. The efforts generated by the text have won a progressively
broader margin of support from Member States, representing a variety of legal
systems, traditions, cultures and religious backgrounds.
The UN chief said he remains "very concerned, however, about shortcomings with
respect to international human rights standards in countries that still apply
the death penalty," he said. Ban added that he is particularly troubled by the
application of the death penalty for offences that do not meet the threshold
under international human rights law of 'most serious crimes,' including
drug-related offences, consensual sexual acts and apostasy.
The UN chief went on to express concern about legislation in 14 States that
permits the death penalty on children as well as the new phenomenon of
sentencing large groups of individuals to death in mass trials.
(source: RTT news)
INDIA:
SC commutes death sentence of 26-year-old youth
The Supreme Court today commuted the death sentence of a 26-year-old youth to
life term for killing a woman and her son saying that the convict is an
educated person so there are chances of his reform.
A bench of Justices H L Dattu and S J Mukhopadhaya commuted the death awarded
to Santosh Kumar Singh on the ground that the case does not fall within the
realms of "rarest of the rare category".
"It is true that the accused has committed a heinous crime, but it cannot be
held with certainty that this case falls in the rarest of the rare category.
"On appreciation of evidence on record and keeping in mind the facts and
circumstances of the case, we are of the view that sentence of death penalty
would be extensive and unduly harsh," the bench said.
"Accordingly, we commute the death sentence of appellant to life imprisonment.
The conviction and rest part of the sentence are affirmed," the bench said.
The bench noted that the accused was a tutor in the family and was known to
every member of the household and there is nothing specific to suggest the
motive for committing the crime except the articles and cash taken away by him.
Further, it said, "It is not the case of the prosecution that the appellant
cannot be reformed or that the accused is a social menace. Apart from the
incident in question there is no criminal antecedent of the appellant.
According to police, Santosh was known to the family of one Gulam Mohd as he
used to come to their house to teach the children.
On May 7, 2010, he came to their house in Singrauli in Madhya Pradesh and
returned after sometime and attacked Gulam's wife and their children with an
iron hammer.
Thereafter, he looted cash and jewellery from their house. The woman died on
the spot while their son succumbed to injuries later.
The trial court had awarded death sentence to Santosh and the sentence was also
upheld by the Madhya Pradesh High Court.
(source: Business-Standard)
**********************
Sentencing in Pallavi Purkayastha case on July 7
Arguing on the quantum of sentence in the Pallavi Purkayastha murder case, the
prosecution on Thursday sought death sentence for the watchman who was
convicted by the sessions court on Monday for killing the 25 year old lawyer
inside her Central Mumbai apartment in 2012. The court will decide on the
sentence on July 7.
On June 30, the court had pronounced the accused, Sajjad Mugal guilty of
molestation, trespass and murder. The court will pronounce the sentence on July
7th.
Pallavi nd her fiance had rented an apartment in Bhakti Park in June 2012.
According to the police Mugal was aware Pallavi as alone on the night of August
9, 2012, when he disconnected the power supply to the 16floor flat. He
attempted to rape her and when she resisted, killed her, the chargesheet said.
"The victim was totally defenceless and alone when Sajjad, who was gripped with
lust, attacked her. He is a pervert and a sadist person," Special public
prosecutor Ujjawal Nikam argued while seeking the maximum penalty. Mr. Nikam
also referred Sajjad as a 'Shaitaan' (satan) during the course of his argument.
"He has no repentance or shows no remorse for the heinous crime he had
committed. A man who was hired to protect the society members, killed one of
them and therefore nothing less than a death sentence will serve as deterrence
to like-minded criminals," he added.
The defense however argued that the case did not merit 'the rarest of the rare'
argument and therefore capital punishment must not be awarded.
"Capital punishment is awarded only in cases where the accused has no chance of
reformation. The court should consider his young age and the fact that of
medical report had stated that of the 16 injuries inflicted on the victim only
one was fatal in nature," Wahab Khan, the counsel for the accused told the
court.
(source: The Hindu)
***********************
HC upholds death penalty to minor's rapist-killer
Madhya Pradesh high court has upheld death sentence awarded to Vijay Raikwar of
Sagar district, who is charged with rape and murder of a 7-year old girl.
In the judgment, court of Justice Ajit Singh and Justice N K Gupta said the act
was not only heinous but is shameful for entire humanity.
On December 7, 2012 naked body of the girl was found in Rehli. The girl who was
sister of the accused's friend came to Raikwar's house to play with her
companion when, Raikwar lured her with a coin and took her to a separate room
and raped her. After the act, Raikwar strangulated her to conceal his act. The
coin which was given by Raikwar was also found along with the body of the girl,
prosecution sources said.
(source: The Tims of India)
TANZANIA:
Judge Underpins Right to Life in Death Sentence
Meting out a death sentence is not an easy task. Some justices of the Court of
Appeal have different views on whether the punishment befits the offence or
violates the Constitution and indeed human rights. This is evident in a case
involving Dominick Damian, a resident of Bukoba. Staff Writer FAUSTINE KAPAMA
reports:
On August 27, 2007, at around 6.00 am, while asleep, one Tereza Tryphone heard
a woman crying for a help.
She woke up and rushed to a neighbour's house to see what was happening. Tereza
saw a woman lying on the ground being assaulted by her 2 children, one was
Damian ( the appellant in a murder case) and his brother.
She was bleeding profusely. When Tereza asked what was the matter, she was told
to mind her own business. She raised an alarm and people in the
neighbourhood.woke up. Damian's brother had gathered some dry banana leaves and
wrapped them around her mother, ready to set her on fire.
Tereza gave him a kick. Another neighbour arrived and Damian and his brother
took to their heels. Tereza and her neighbour reported the matter to a chairman
of the hamlet who rushed to the scene of crime. The victim was asked to name
the attackers.
She named her 2 children; Damian and his brother. When her husband arrived, she
asked the dying woman who the attackers were, and she named the same people.
Shortly afterwards, she passed away. Damian was arrested 2 weeks later after
escaping from his homestead and was charged with murder, while his brother
remained at large and was never apprehended.
The High Court Judge, Gadi Mjemmas was assigned to preside over the murder
trial and after considering the evidence produced by prosecution witnesses, he
convicted Damian and sentenced him to the statutory sentence of death by
hanging. Having been aggrieved by the High Court findings, Damian crossed over
to the Court of Appeal.
3 justices, Engela Kileo, Bernard Luanda and Kipenka Mussa, were assigned to
determine the appeal. They came to a conclusion that the appeal was devoid of
merits. However, the justices did not come to a common conclusion on the proper
sentence to be imposed on the murder convict.
While Justices Luanda and Mussa upheld the death sentence, Justice Engela Kileo
gave a dissenting judgment and proposed a life sentence to meet justice ends.
"Death sentence is unconstitutional," says Justice Kileo. She adds that death
penalty was inherently an inhuman and degrading punishment and is also so in
its execution that defies Article 13 (6) (c) and (d) of the Constitution of
United Republic of Tanzania.
According to Article 13 (6) (c), "No person shall be punished for any act
which, at the time of commission, was an offence under the law, and also no
penalty which is heavier than the penalty in force at the time the offence was
committed, shall be imposed."
While Sub-Article (d) states: "For the purposes of preserving the rights or
equality of human beings, human dignity shall be protected in all activities
pertaining to criminal investigations and process and in any other matters for
which a person is restrained or in the execution of a sentence."
What was of utmost concern with Just Kileo was the fact that once the penalty
had been executed, it could not be reversed. "Admittedly, we are human beings,
we are not perfect and sometimes we make errors," she says. She also points out
that there is a system whereby in certain situations, a person may appeal from
the Primary Court to the Court of Appeal.
But it was not so for a person charged with murder as he or she has just one
level of appeal, that is from the High Court to Court of Appeal. Justice Kileo
says that death was one penalty which makes an error irreversible, and the
chance of erring was inescapable, basing on human judgment.
An English jurist William Blackstone once said, "Better that 10 guilty persons
escape than that 1 innocent suffers." In Tanzania, she says, "We cannot boast
to have a perfect investigation, prosecution and trial system. We may have
condemned people to death who did not commit the crime."
Another aspect which the lady justice was concerned with, was the fact that
death sentence is the only penalty which judges or adjudicators issue to the
culprit, according to what he or she committed, that is, an eye for an eye. "In
my humble opinion, we are reducing ourselves to the level of the accused. It is
like saying 'he killed and we must kill him.'
Yet we do not do likewise for those who rob, steal, rape, among others. We do
not do to them what they did," she says. Justice Kileo points out that the
death penalty is premeditated and cold-blooded killing of a human being by the
state. It is a cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment.
Such punishment, she further observes, violates the right to life as proclaimed
in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, as well as the right to life
which is protected in the country's Constitution. "I am of the humble view also
that since we do not give life, then we have no right to take it, no matter
what the other person has done.
It is only God who gives life and it is Him alone who should take it," she
says. A lawyer and protection officer for Tanzania Human Rights Defenders
Coalition, one Benedict Ishabakaki had once been quoted as saying that every
human being has the inherent right to life and this right must be protected by
law.
He says that the right to life is a supreme right without which, other rights
become insignificant. The fundamental nature of the right is also clear from
the fact that it is non-negotiable; that is to say, it must not be denied even
in public emergencies such as war and other acts threatening the life of the
nation.
International human rights instrument has guaranteed this right as the most
sacrosanct in a number of treaties and international instruments including the
African Charter on Human and People's Rights (ACHPR), 1981 and the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights.
He says that even the mother law, the Constitution of the United Republic of
Tanzania, 1977, guarantees the right to life, yet such right to life continues
to be violated through laws that impose the death penalty. 2/3 of the world's
nations have abolished the death penalty either in law or in practice, but
there are still many countries still performing executions.
According to Amnesty International, in 2010, about 23 countries carried out
executions and imposed death sentences. Tanzania still retains death penalty in
law, but has had a de facto moratorium on executions since 1994. Despite such
move, the government remained undecided on the question of abolishing death
penalty.
For a long time, hundreds of prisoners convicted to death penalty have
continued to be on death row waiting to be hanged. Human rights activists view
this as mental and psychological torture inflicted to prisoners on death row.
It is reported that by December 2010, Tanzania had 295 males and 11 females on
the death row.
Modes of executing the death penalty amongst the states, according to Amnesty
International, include beheading, electrocuting, hanging, lethal injection and
shooting. The death sentence in Tanzania, according to Criminal Procedure Act,
Cap 21 of the 1985, is executed by hanging to death.
The law requires the heads of state of countries in which the death sentence is
still in practice to use their powers of signing death warrants, pardoning the
convicts or ordering the sentences to be substituted and commuted for any other
punishment.
Most supporters believe the death penalty is justifiable on 1 or more of the
following grounds: as a means of retribution, as a deterrent to others, as a
prevention of the danger of re-offending and as a cheapest way of keeping
inmates.
The Statistics of Bureau of Justice laments that the support for the death
penalty keeps increasing, as between 60 and 70 % of murder convicts have either
directly or indirectly committed similar crime. When a killer repeats the
crime, psychologists refer to it as recidivism - a tendency to return to a
previous pattern of behaviour, especially a criminal one.
(source: Tanzania Daily News)
NIGERIA:
Group seeks review of capital punishment
Human Rights Group, Avocats Sans Frontieres France, has urged the Federal
Government to immediately review the use of the capital punishment and join
other democracies of the world to abolish death penalty.
Speaking at its Saving Lives (SALI) fourth and final practical workshop for
judicial stakeholders in the criminal justice system recently in Lagos, Head,
Nigeria Office of Avocats Sans Frontieres, France, Angela Uwandu, said the
world is treading towards the abolition of death penalty, as the act of
sentencing persons to death has been described as an inhuman and degrading
treatment by a majority of lawyers.
According to her, "there is the need for Nigeria to urgently repeal the regime
of capital punishment that dispenses death penalty as a punitive measure in the
country's legal framework".
She noted that the group's position on death penalty is premised on high
statistical data of wrongful convictions and sentencing of innocent persons to
death in Nigeria and around the world.
"From our experience, we have come across several detained persons on death
rows, who were convicted based on confessional statements because we have a
faulty investigative system in Nigeria. As long as it continues to be faulty,
it would have an impact on the judgment that would be delivered at the end of
the day.
"Our judges act mainly on evidence that are put before them and witnesses that
are gotten by the police. As we continue in this system, we have people getting
convicted on evidence based on confessional statements obtained under duress.
It goes to say that execution, once carried out, is irreversible. If we don't
get our investigation right on that basis, we are meting out the death penalty,
when we are not even sure that the persons we are giving that maximum penalty,
are actually culpable of the offence".
"It is also to remind governments of their responsibility to preserve life and
not take it", she added.
Uwandu further called for more enlightenment on the issue of death sentence, as
well as the sociological implications, thereby encouraging all parties to
ensure that all rights of appeal were adequately exhausted when death sentence
was passed on any convict, no matter how bad the case might be.
The group, therefore, called for an immediate official moratorium on death
penalty pending when full abolition could be actualised in Nigeria.
The workshop, organised in partnership with National Human Rights Commission,
the Human Rights Institute of the Nigerian Bar Association and Access to
Justice, had participants drawn from Lagos State Judiciary, Ministry of
Justice, Prisons, Police, Legal Aid Council of Nigeria and human rights groups.
(source: The Guardian)
PAPUA NEW GUINEA:
Papua police detain arms smugglers
The Papua Police have arrested 3 people for allegedly smuggling arms into Papua
by sea. The 3 suspects have been detained at the Papua Police headquarters. The
seized weapons comprised 2 SS1 assault rifles, 1 FN rifle and 123 bullets for
various firearms.
Papua Police chief Insp. Gen. Tito Karnavian told reporters on Thursday that
the 3 suspects were arrested in Sorong, West Papua, as they were about to
depart for Nabire, Papua, by boat on June 30.
Suspect Simon Kararbo from Papua was tasked with contacting suspects Manase
Wesara and Roger Koloba from Tobelo, North Maluku, to look for firearms to hand
over to an armed criminal group in Paniai led by a man called Leo Yogi.
Tito said the weapons were to be used for the group's activities, such as
extortion and instilling unrest. Furthermore, Tito said the suspects had
admitted that the weapons were left over from the conflict in Ambon more than a
decade ago.
"The suspects admitted that the weapons were from the Ambon conflict, but
several weapons were also smuggled from the Philippines," he said.
The suspects have been detained under the law on firearms and could face the
death penalty if found guilty.
Deputy police chief Brig. Gen. Pol Paulus Waterpau said he was worried that
arms trafficking in Papua could influence children to drop out of school as
they may think that owning firearms would get them what they wanted
(source: The Jakarta Post)
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