July 9
SOMALIA:
Makkah Al-Mukarama Hotel Bombing Suspect Sentenced to Death
A Somali military court sentenced al-Shabaab member Awiye Ahmed Jama to death
Monday (July 7th) after determining he was involved in the bombing of Makkah
Al-Mukarama Hotel in November, Somalia's Alshahid reported.
"Awiye Ahmed Jama told to court he is member of al-Shabaab. He also
acknowledged that he was behind an explosion in hotel Makkah Al-Mukarama,"
Somali military court chairman Colonel Liban Ali Yarow said. "He is criminal so
the court sentenced him [to] death penalty."
Jama, 25, had trained for nine months in the al-Shabaab-held town of Bulo Marer
before attempting to carry out the attack, the court said according to
Somalia's Mareeg.
Jama was arrested November 8, 2013, after trying to blow himself up inside the
hotel using an explosive-laden laptop. Minutes before his arrest, al-Shabaab
carried out a car bomb explosion outside the hotel, killing 4 people and
wounding 15.
Among the dead was one of Somalia's top diplomats, former acting ambassador to
London Abdulkadir Aden Ali "Dhuub".
(source: All Africa News)
CHINA:
Chinese executions amd international law
2 Ugandans have recently been executed in the People's Republic of China for
offences relating to drug trafficking. My condolences go out to the families of
the deceased.
In Uganda there has been a public outcry on whether this was right and what our
Government in particular ministry of foreign affairs can do to save the other
Ugandans on death row and those incarcerated in Chinese Prisons.
Whereas I do not condone the death penalty because it is inhuman and degrading
and other personal sentiments, I pray we look at the issue objectively and in
light of international law principles.
The International Convention on Civil and Political Rights ("ICCPR") to which
Uganda and China are a party, spells out the principles in International law
that member states adhere to. I will highlight 2 principles that are the
subject of my discussion.
The 1st is the principle of sovereignty of states. This is a far and wide
principle but it includes the fact that a country is free to do what is lawful
in its territorial jurisdiction without interference from the outside world.
Territorial sovereignty is particularly enshrined under article 1 of the
Convention which states "All peoples have the right of self-determination. By
virtue of that right they freely determine their political status and freely
pursue their economic, social and cultural development."
This issue is married to Article 2(1) of the ICCPR which provides that Each
State Party to the present Covenant undertakes to respect and to ensure to all
individuals within its territory and subject to its jurisdiction the rights
recognized in the present Covenant, without distinction of any kind, such as
race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or
social origin, property, birth or other status. This means that as long as you
cross into the boundaries of the State, the laws of that State are applicable
to you regardless of sex, nationality or other status. The Chinese people have
exercised this right of self-determination and have gone ahead to provide in
their laws for punishments such as death for economic crimes such as drug
trafficking, embezzlement and bribery. That is their law and when caught at the
other end of the law, the consequences although inhumane according to some
scholars, they are lawful according to the Chinese people and legislation.
The Second Principle is that of the inherent right to life. In this respect,
the ICCPR has provided for the right to life and the death penalty has not
survived mention in the ICCPR. Article 6(1) and (2) provide that
Every human being has the inherent right to life. This right shall be protected
by law. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his life.
Clause 2 of the same article 6 provides that in countries which have not
abolished the death penalty, sentence of death may be imposed only for the most
serious crimes in accordance with the law in force at the time of the
commission of the crime (emphasis mine) and not contrary to the provisions of
the present Covenant and to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of
the Crime of Genocide. This penalty can only be carried out pursuant to a final
judgement rendered by a competent court.
This literally means that whereas the right to life is inherent, it can be
taken away lawfully by the state. The ICCPR recognizes that some states may not
completely do away with the death penalty and emphasizes that if it MUST be
carried out, it should be done lawfully and after final judgement rendered by a
competent court.
I have taken some time to look at the judicial system in China and how these
executions are finally carried out. It is not as draconian as the ordinary man
is made to think. The Republic of China actually confirms the death penalty
through the highest court of the land which is the Supreme Court and no one is
executed until the Supreme Court affirms this sentence. It is also a mechanism
in the Chinese laws that an appeal all the way upto the Supreme Court is
automatic even if the convict is unwilling to appeal. It is a system of double
appeals that is a MUST.
In addition there is usually a 2 year probation after the confirmation of the
sentence where ones sentence may be converted to life imprisonment.
With the principle of state sovereignty and the right to life, China has
exercised this right and drafted laws that call for execution where one is
convicted of a crime such as drug trafficking and where this is lawfully
carried out, the Republic is not to blame and ordinarily other states should
not interfere with such a decision.
(source: Ian Mutibwa, New Vision)
SOUTH KOREA:
Report: S. Korean ferry operators prioritized profits over safety
The operators of the sunken Sewol ferry prioritized profit over safety, and the
vessel was licensed based on falsified documents, South Korean investigators
said in an interim report.
At least 292 people, including more than 200 high school students, died after
the ferry sank in April. 11 people remain missing.
Ferry CEO charged with negligence The government's Audit and Inspection Board
said the disaster was a man-made accident. It added that the Korean Register of
Shipping licensed the modified vessel based on falsified documents. It didn't
elaborate.
Investigators have said a vast amount of cargo, more than double the ferry's
limit, and the failure to tie it down properly were partly responsible for the
capsizing of the Sewol, which was carrying 476 passengers and crew.
The board said it is planning to reprimand officials from the Korean Register
of Shipping, the Maritime Ministry and the Korea Shipping Association, which
were found to have not performed properly safety protocols on the Sewol.
The board also said officials from the Coast Guard and Ministry of Security and
Public Administration performed poorly in the initial response to the disaster.
The Sewol ferry was headed from Incheon to Jeju island on April 16 when it
capsized. Most of the passengers were high school students on a field trip.
The captain, Lee Joon-seok, and three of his crew members face murder charges.
If convicted, they could face the death penalty, although it has been nearly 2
decades since capital punishment was last carried out in South Korea.
Lee has pleaded not guilty. His attorney has said the captain is already living
with guilt because he left the ferry before everybody was rescued.
Other crew members have been indicted on charges of abandonment and violating a
ship safety act.
(source: CNN)
QATAR:
Doha court postpones Jennifer Brown murder trial until November
Following lengthy delays, the trial of a Kenyan security guard accused of
killing American teacher Jennifer Brown has once again been adjourned, this
time for 4 months.
The court will pick the case back up on Nov. 10, about 2 years after the
40-year-old was killed in her Al Sadd apartment in 2012.
A Kenyan security guard is on trial for her murder, but one of the reasons for
the delay has involved his difficulty in retaining a lawyer.
A public defender appointed to him quit the case some months ago, and another
lawyer the defendant hired dropped out shortly before a hearing last month
convened.
The defendant now has new legal counsel, who today requested more time to get
up to speed on the case, and to cross-examine witnesses.
When reached by phone at their home in Pennsylvania, Brown's parents both
expressed dismay at the latest adjournment.
Robert Brown said, "It's just disappointing, you know. I don't know what else
to say. This doesn't seem right."
His wife, Mary Brown, said: "All I can say is that I hope he gets what he
deserves. He took my little girl away from me. She was my little girl."
The absence of key witnesses is another factor that has contributed to the
lengthy trial, which began in June 2013. At that time, a psychiatric evaluation
was ordered for the defendant.
However, a year later, the doctor who spoke with the defendant has not appeared
in court despite being summoned nearly half a dozen times.
The trial's pace is markedly different than that of Lauren Patterson's, a
British teacher whose killer was sentenced to death in March, only five months
after he and his accomplice were arrested. The case is now in appeals court.
Both teachers' cases, which may have involved sexual assault as well as murder,
have been closely watched by many of Qatar's residents, especially single
female expats.
If found guilty, the guard, like Patterson's murderer, faces the death penalty
- though notably, Qatar has not carried out any executions in over a decade.
According to previous witness testimony, the security guard was arrested and
reportedly confessed to the crime a few days after Brown???s body was found in
her apartment, half-naked and wrapped in a comforter on her bed.
When the hearings resume in November, a police officer and forensic examiner
are expected to testify.
(source: Doha News)
THAILAND:
Girl's killing unleashes media storm for law reform; SRT chief under pressure
to quit
Social media has been in overdrive since midnight Monday when Wanchai Sangkhao,
22, an employee of the State Railway of Thailand, allegedly confessed that he
had raped, murdered and thrown a 13-year-old girl from a train.
By early morning yesterday, social media was flooded with comments on the
rape-and-murder case after the body of the girl - who went missing between
Surat Thani and Bangkok - was found near the railway track in Prachuab Khiri
Khan's Pran Buri district.
Comments showed that many people had been deeply saddened by this criminal
case, with several calling for the laws to be changed and rapists and murderers
to be given the death sentence. Several people in show business launched a "put
rapists and murderers to death" demand on Instagram.
For instance, Panadda Wongphudee (@boompanadda) launched a campaign for 100,000
names to push for the death sentence and won a lot of support.
Other actors and actresses, like Chermarn Boonyasak (@Chermarn), TOP
Ddaraneenute (@topdaraneenute), kiksuwatjaneeetrin Wattanasin (@jjetrin),
Sheranut Yusananda (@namcha_tea), and Sarawit Subun (@kong_sarawit), joined
Instagram a campaign "rape = put to death punishment".
Even Miss Thailand World 2014, Nonthawan "Maeya" Thongleng (@maeyagirl_mtw2014)
signed up.
It is not just the celebrities who are pushing for a change in the law. Many
social-media users say that death should be the only penalty for rapists and
murderers - posts that have received many "likes" and "shares".
In fact, some even proposed that the rapist's penis be cut off so they do not
rape again, but not everybody agreed. Some even said that cutting off the penis
would not help as "they can potentially rape with other things".
On the other hand, some comments rejected this campaign, reasoning that the
death penalty might not be the answer as a rapist may decide to murder his
victim, as the penalty is the same for either offence.
Instead, they said, there should be a strict enforcement of law and the
punishment for murder should never be reduced even if the murderers confess.
They also said rape scenes depicted in television soap operas should be
censored.
Many people have also called on the governor of State Railway of Thailand,
Prapat Chongsanguan, to step down and take responsibility for this case. Many
were strident about his early messages that contradicted the evidence, saying
"nothing had disappeared" following the discovery of clothes and bloodstained
bed sheets.
Prapat also declared "the murderer was not an employee of State Railway of
Thailand but worked for a private company as an outsourcer to State Railway of
Thailand".
A document containing Wanchai's name on the list of employees of State Railway
of Thailand was posted and shared on social media, and many people called for
Prapat to be sacked.
People also complained about the poor quality of rail services, including old
trains, bad and inefficient railway employees. Many even brought up a similar
rape case on a train in 2001.
Separately, many journalists on social media shared a warning issued by the
Thai Journalists Association yesterday for members of the media to
professionally follow the code of conduct and keep in mind the child-protection
law and human rights.
People have also been warned to not share any information or images that would
damage the victim or the family.
(source: Phuket Gazette)
****************
Rape-and-murder convicts must face death: netizens
Amid furore over the grisly fate of 13yearold on a train, pressure mounts on
SRT governor to resign
Concerned citizens have called for mandatory death sentence for rape-and-murder
crimes, in an angry and swift reaction to the tragic rape and murder on Sunday
night of a 13-year-old victim by a State Railway of Thailand employee on a
moving train.
Administrators and members of many Facebook pages have launched campaigns to
rally public support for the legal-amendment drive, while similar attempts were
under way on the online petition service www.change.org even before Sunday's
tragedy.
A Facebook account with more than 6,000 members has arranged a public gathering
in front of Siam Paragon shopping mall in downtown Bangkok at 11am on Saturday.
Attendees have been urged to dress in black in memory of the victim, an unnamed
eighth-grade student identified by the nickname of Kaem, who studied at a
Nonthaburi school.
The campaign site www.change.org had drawn more than 21,000 signatures out of a
total of 50,000 required to push for a legal amendment after a rape-and-murder
case in Bangkok last year. Some other activities on Change.org include
campaigns to ensure that producers of television series do not play up scripts
about sexual offences against females in their shows, and stricter supervision
in this area by the broadcast regulator.
The reaction on social media and a public rally are a rare swift response in
Thailand over a sexual crime. The response is comparable to the uproar in India
last year over the gang rape of a woman on a bus, who was later thrown off the
moving vehicle.
Apart from seeking mandatory execution of rape-and-murder convicts, the
campaigners also called on the judicial authorities not to pardon or commute
prison terms of convicted sexual offenders.
The Criminal Code sentences rapists to jail terms from four to 20 years in
general cases of rape, while aggravated offences in which the rape victim is
killed on purpose or where death is caused through violent sex acts are
punishable by death. The campaigners, however, want rape-and-murder convicts to
face the death penalty without exception.
A number of female celebrities posted messages on their social-media sites
offering their condolences to the victim and her family while joining awareness
campaigns and the drive for legal amendment.
Former Miss Thailand Panadda Wongphudee issued a statement calling on
sympathisers to supply photocopies of their identity cards to push for the
amendment to increase penalties for convicted sex offenders.
The Women and Men Progressive Movement Foundation demanded that SRT governor
Prapat Chongsanguan take responsibility and resign. Director Chadet Chaowilai
said the crime was not acceptable and would cause great concern among Thai and
foreign passengers.
The StopDrink organisation said the sale of alcohol on the trains was deemed
one of the reasons behind nuisances, quarrels, accidents and sexual violations
that affected general passengers, citing a survey it conducted late last year
on 1,160 respondents. A large majority of the respondents backed a ban on
alcohol consumption on trains and the sale of liquor at train stations, said
Theera Watcharapranee.
Child-rights activist Wallop Tangkhananurak voiced his support for heavier
penalties. He also opposed pardon or reduced prison sentences for convicted sex
offenders on auspicious occasions. He said the SRT could give no excuses for
such an incident and in other countries senior officials would have handed in
their resignations.
The National Council for Peace and Order has assigned military and police units
to take care of security measures on trains. NCPO spokesman Colonel Winthai
Suvari said that although yesterday's meeting did not discuss the murder in
particular, the junta leadership expressed concern over the issue.
(source: The Nation)
****************
Thailand horrified after 13-year-old girl raped, thrown from train
The distraught mother of a 13-year-old girl raped and thrown from a sleeper
train en route to Bangkok has told of her daughter's dreams for the future,
amid angry calls for a mandatory death penalty for child rapists.
"She wanted to be an angel, she wanted to be an air hostess," her mother said
of Nong Kaem. "If she was still here I would do everything to support her, but
now I have nothing left."
Kaem's sister, one of two who was traveling with her on the overnight train
from southern Thailand on Saturday, wrote on Facebook of her guilt at not being
able to protect her. "Kaem, I am so sorry that I failed to look after you. I am
a terrible sister. Please forgive me," she wrote, according to the Bangkok
Post.
Journey turned to horror
It was Kaem's 1st time on a train.
She was returning from the city of Surat Thai with her 2 sisters and 1 of their
boyfriends to the Thai capital Bangkok, a popular route for tourists going to
and from the country's popular southern beaches.
They were sharing a sleeping carriage, and turned in for the night. By the
morning Kaem was gone.
Police searched the train and the track as the teenager's frantic family turned
to the media for help in finding her.
3 days later, her body was found naked near the track; she'd been raped,
suffocated and tossed out of a window by her attacker who told police he had
been drinking and was high on methamphetamine, according to Police Major
General Thanet Soonthornsuk.
To design or change a law base on emotions and hatred will never produce
effective law.
Police named Kaem's alleged murderer as 22-year-old railway employee Wanchai
Saengkhao.
They said he confessed to the crime after he was tracked down via his victim's
mobile phone. Wanchai sold the girl's phone to a shop owner in Bangkok, who
took a copy of his I.D. which was later passed to police.
Police said Wanchai admitted carrying the sleeping child to another carriage
where he raped and strangled her, before throwing her lifeless body out the
window as the train passed through the Pranburi District in Prachuabkirikan
Province.
Wanchai has been charged with murder, rape of a child under 15 years old and
theft, police said.
He faces possible execution for the murder charge, but activists are using the
case to call for tougher charges for child rape, which currently carries a jail
term of 4 to 20 years and a fine of up to 40,000 baht ($1,200).
Rage vented online
The reaction on social media was swift and scathing as angry Thais bombarded
Wanchai's Facebook page with abusive messages. The page is no longer available.
Junta leader, army chief General Prayuth Chan-ocha, expressed his sorrow, and
the former transport minister, Chatchart Sitthipan, said he took the blame for
failing to do more when he was in charge of the railway.
"It is the worst news in many years for the State Railway of Thailand and the
Ministry of Transport. I feel that I am also responsible for this event,
because I did not do my job well enough when I was the Minister," Chatchart
said.
As word spread that Kaem had gone missing, Thai actress and former Miss
Thailand, Panadda Wongphudee, posted a message on Instagram urging people to
back a campaign to change the law under the slogan, "Rape, will be executed."
A Change.org petition was set up calling for the tougher penalties - "no more
sentence reduction, parole or pardon" - which at the time of writing had more
than 25,000 signatories.
There were also calls for State Railway of Thailand governor Prapas
Chongsanguan to step down, as officials scrambled to assure passengers the
trains were safe. A ban would be slapped on the sale of alcohol on all trains,
they said, and background checks would be stepped up for all employees.
Are new laws the answer?
Amid the anger, some called for calm.
"We have to listen to this news with full consciousness. To design or change a
law base on emotions and hatred will never produce effective law. It will only
promote more hatred in society," said Dejudom Krairit, Chairman of Lawyers
Council of Thailand.
Writing in the Bangkok Post, columnist Sanitsuda Ekachai said: "I seriously
doubt if the angry calls for the death penalty as the only punishment for child
rapists and rapists/murderers will make our society any safer.
"These calls stem from the belief that this heinous crime was possible because
the punishment is not heavy enough. This is not new. We hear such calls every
time a shocking rape or murder happens."
(source: CNN)
MALAYSIA:
Malaysian Sentenced to Death for French Tourist Murder
A Malaysian shopkeeper on Wednesday was sentenced to death after a court found
him guilty of murdering a French tourist on a popular resort island.
Stephanie Foray, 30, went missing on Tioman island off the east coast state of
Pahang in May 2011.
Her partially mummified remains were found some 3 months later buried in a cave
on the island.
The verdict comes just weeks after another foreign tourist, British backpacker
Gareth Huntley, went missing on the same island during a trek in circumstances
that have yet to be fully explained.
A high court in Pahang's capital Kuantan found Asni Omar, 39, who operated a
shop selling beach gear on the island, guilty of killing Foray.
After the death sentence was handed down, Foray's mother, Irene Mortel, got up,
looked at Asni and wept.
"I was hoping for nothing else. That's all... I know it can't change anything,"
she said of the verdict as she left the court, together with Foray's father,
Joel, who travelled to Malaysia with her.
In delivering the verdict, judge Mariana Yahya said the defence failed to raise
reasonable doubt, adding Asni had "weakened his own defence" by merely
presenting a "well arranged story" to deny his guilt.
"Therefore I find the defendant guilty as charged. There is only 1
punishment... which is death by hanging," she said.
Asni, who was sitting in dock with short shaved hair and wearing a dark blue
shirt with white stripes and jeans, was hugged by crying family members before
being led out of the court by police.
Murder carries the mandatory death penalty by hanging in Malaysia.
Asni's lawyers said they would appeal the sentence to a higher court.
Asni was accused of killing Foray, a French civil service employee, after she
spurned his advances.
The murder of Foray shocked people in the Muslim-majority country where violent
crime against tourists is rare.
Foray had arrived in Malaysia in May 2011 after quitting her job and spending
several months in India and Sri Lanka. She took a ferry to Tioman 5 days later
and disappeared shortly afterwards.
In another deadly incident on the same island, Huntley went missing while
trekking to a jungle waterfall on May 27 this year.
His body was found a week later by a stream not far from a turtle research site
where he was volunteering.
Police are still investigating what caused Huntley's death.
(source: NDTV)
ISRAEL:
Yes to death penalty in Israel, in extreme cases
When the bodies of the 3 kidnapped youths - Eyal, Gilad and Naftali were found
- I was touring the D-Day beaches in France with 2 of my children. I wanted to
commemorate the 70th anniversary of Operation Overlord by explaining to my
children that the world had sunk into madness not that long ago, and that we
owe our freedom to the foresight of a few leaders and to the sacrifice of many
soldiers.
Shortly after leaving the Normandy American cemetery, the terrible news from
Israel reached us. As my children and I were coping with the grief, I couldn't
help wondering if I hadn't misled them with my lectures on freedom: how free
can you claim to be when you can still be murdered for who you are in your own
country?
The next day I watched the heartbreaking scene of the three fathers saying the
Kaddish prayer for their murdered sons, and of the devastated faces of the
bereaved mothers. In the darkness of this inconsolable pain, the unity and
dignity of our nation was an almost comforting ray of light. There was a
feeling, if not certainty, that we Jews would never go down the road of our
enemies thanks to our values and principles. But with the appalling murder of
the Palestinian teen Mohamed Abu Khdeir, even that certainty was shattered.
Sherri Mandell, whose son Kobi was murdered by Arab terrorists in 2001, asked
the murderers of Mohamed question that is hard to answer: "What can we believe
about our own society now that you have weakened our integrity?"
True, our thugs and killers are a minority reviled by the mainstream. True, our
government (unlike the Palestinian Authority) will not pay a monthly income to
their parents and will not name streets and summer camps after them. There
still is, thankfully, a moral gap between our enemies and us. But that is no
consolation and no excuse. The murder should be a wake-up call for our society.
In addition to soul-searching, we must ask ourselves if we punish murderers
adequately. Less than three months ago, on April 14, Baruch Mizrahi was
murdered in front of his wife and five children by Ziad Awed, who was among the
1,027 terrorists freed by Israel in exchange for the liberation of soldier
Gilad Shalit from Hamas captivity. The freed terrorists also included Ali
al-Nasser Yataima, convicted of planning the 2002 Passover massacre, in which
30 civilians were killed and 140 were wounded; Walid Abd al-Aziz, who took part
in the execution of the 2002 bombings at Cafe Moment (11 killed), at the Hebrew
University (9 killed), and in the town of Rishon-LeZion (16 killed); Maedh Waal
Taleb Abu Sharakh, Majdi Muhammad Ahmed Amr and Fadi Muhammad Ibrahim al-Jaaba,
who are responsible for the attack on bus No. 37 in Haifa in 2002 (17 killed).
This macabre list is much longer. These people are now walking around free.
They spent less than a decade in jail and they now get a nice salary from the
Palestinian Authority.
The death penalty is often said to be immoral. But I fail to understand, for
the life of me, what is moral about these people walking around free. Precisely
because Israel has freed such terrorists in the past and will likely and
unfortunately do so again in the future, the time has come to discuss the
implementation of the death penalty in Israel.
In 1954 Israel passed a law restricting the death penalty to convicted
perpetrators of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, crimes against
the Jewish people, and high treason in time of war. The penalty was
administered to the architect of Hitler's Final Solution, Adolph Eichmann, in
1962. Military tribunals in Israel can administer the death penalty, but
military death sentences have always been commuted to imprisonment. In 2003,
the prosecution sought death for the Palestinian "policeman" responsible for
the lynch of 2 Israeli soldiers in Ramallah in October 2000. Only 2 of the 3
judges agreed, short of the unanimous verdict required by law. The author of
the lynch was sent to jail, and since then the Israeli military prosecution has
never asked for the death penalty - not even for the murderers of the Fogel
family (a father, mother, and 3 young children, including a baby, murdered in
their sleep on the 11th of March 2011). The murderer, Amjad Awad, is in jail.
Like other murderers before him, he might be freed in a future swap of
prisoners.
Because of the unfathomable cruelty of the murders, and because of Israel's
immoral release of murderers, administering the death penalty in extreme cases
such as the ones we just witnessed is actually the moral thing to do - whether
the murderer is Arab or Jewish.
(source: Opinion; Emmanuel Navon chairs the political science and communication
department at the Jerusalem Orthodox College, and teaches international
relations at Tel-Aviv University and at the Herzliya Interdisciplinary Center.
He is a senior fellow at the Kohelet Policy Forum---- i24News)
IRAN:
411 Executions in the First Half of 2014
At least 411 prisoners have been executed in Iran from the beginning of January
2014 to the end of June of the same year. This indicates that the execution
wave, which recommenced after the most recent Iranian presidential election, is
continuing. According to reports by Iran Human Rights (IHR), more than 870
people have been executed since the election of Mr. Hassan Rouhani in June
2013. IHR calls on the international community to take serious measures to stop
the execution wave in Iran.
1 year after the Iranian presidential election of June 2013, and despite
improvements in relations between the international community and Iran, a
recent report by Iran Human Rights (IHR) shows that the use of the death
penalty is higher now than in 2 decades. According to the latest report by IHR,
at least 411 people have been executed in the first 6 months of 2014, and at
least 870 people have been executed during the 1st year after the presidential
elections (between July 1, July 2013 and June 30, 2014). This is an average of
more than 2 executions in Iran every day. Among those executed so far in 2014,
there have been at least 8 juvenile offenders and 6 political and civil
activists.
IHR calls on the international community to take serious measures to stop the
execution wave in Iran. Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, the spokesperson of IHR says:
"The increase in the number of executions after the Iranian presidential
election of June 2013 is dramatic and needs special attention from the
international community. We support Ms. Navi Pillay's call to include human
rights in the nuclear talks taking place between the 5+1 and Iran."
Amiry-Moghaddam added: "The arbitrary executions going on in Iran must have
consequences for the Iranian authorities."
Last week the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay
said: "Talks between Iran and 6 world powers aimed at clinching a deal on
Iran's contested nuclear program should include human rights concerns."
In November 2013, World Coalition against the Death Penalty called on the UN
and EU to put the death penalty on top of the agenda on Iran talks.
According to IHR's report on the death penalty, in the first half of this year
166 executions have been announced by official Iranian sources while 245
additional executions have been reported by human rights groups and confirmed
by several independent sources. 43% of the executions in Iran are reportedly
based on murder and 42% of the executions are reportedly due to drug-related
charges. At least 8 of those executed in 2014 were juveniles (under 18 the age
of 18) at the time of committing the alleged offence.
Last year at least 687 people were executed, according to IHR's 2013 annual
report on the death penalty. 68% of these executions took place after the
election of Hassan Rouhani.
(source: Iran Human Rights)
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