July 15
IRAN:
Youth at risk of hanging amid disturbing rise in juvenile executions
The Iranian authorities must halt the execution of a young man who was still a
child at the time of his alleged crime, and reverse a disturbing rise in the
execution of juvenile offenders which has resulted in at least 8 individuals
being put to death in the 1st half of 2014, for crimes allegedly committed when
they were below the age of 18, Amnesty International urged today.
Rasoul Holoumi, now 22, was sentenced to death in October 2010 for the alleged
killing of a boy during a group-fight in 2009, when he was 17 years old. The
execution could be carried out at any time at the request of the victim's
family, under the Islamic law principle of qesas (retribution-in-kind).
"It is cruel and inhumane to hang any person but it is particularly
reprehensible for Iran to do so when the person was a child at the time of the
alleged crime, and the execution takes place after a flawed investigation
process that violates fair trial standards," said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Deputy
Middle East and North Africa Programme Director at Amnesty International.
Iran is among a handful of countries that still execute juvenile offenders.
Amnesty International has recorded at least 8 juvenile executions in the 1st
half of 2014; equivalent to the total number of juvenile executions in Iran
during the whole of 2013.
"The execution of Rasoul Holoumi will be a deplorable addition to Iran's grim
tally of executions. Whatever argument the authorities might use, this is a
flagrant violation of international law. Rasoul Holoumi was a child at the time
of his alleged offence and his death sentence must be quashed," said Hassiba
Hadj Sahraoui.
Branch 17 of the Criminal Court in Iran's western Khuzestan Province sentenced
Rasoul Holoumi to death in October 2010 for murder. The conviction was based on
allegations that, during a fight involving multiple people in September 2009,
he had thrown a hard object at Nasim Nouri Maleki, resulting in fatal head
injuries. The allegations appear to have been made by several of the people who
were themselves involved in the fight.
Rasoul Holoumi was not given access to a lawyer during the investigation nor
was he given adequate time and resources to prepare and defend himself before
and during trial. Although he admitted to the charges when he was first
summoned by the police, he retracted this admission after several weeks, making
statements which raised doubts about the events leading to the victim's death -
or whether he was even there at the time.
On 30 September 2009, Rasoul Holoumi said that he had been at home when the
fight broke out and had only confessed to the crime because he felt sorry for
another child who had confided to him that he had hit Nasim Nouri Maleki during
the fight. On 2 October 2009, he said that he had picked up and thrown a hard
object when he saw some of the people involved in the fight coming towards him,
but the blow was not intentional. On 5 October 2009, he denied that he had ever
thrown the hard object. Additional doubts have been raised by reports that
there was a history of hostility between the family of Rasoul Holoumi and the
principal witness in the case who testified against him.
In spite of all this, Iran's Supreme Court upheld Rasoul Holoumi's death
sentence in 2010 without explaining its reasoning.
The Iranian authorities were due to execute him on 4 May this year, but stopped
it after the victim's family agreed to forgo their request for retribution if
Rasoul Holoumi's family paid them 3.5 billion Rials (equivalent to US$135,323)
as diyah (blood money) and transferred the deeds of their house and farm to
them. The diyah amount of 3.5 billion Rials appears to be beyond his family's
means, leaving the 22 year old man vulnerable to imminent execution at any
time.
Sentences of qesas are not open to pardon or amnesty by the Supreme Leader in
breach of international law.
Background
Iran continues to be one of the world's most prolific executing states.
According to Amnesty International's Death Sentences and Executions 2013
report, Iranian officials acknowledged the execution of at least 369 people in
2013, while reliable sources reported at least 335 additional executions.
Reports indicate that at least 11 of those executed may have been under the age
of 18 at the time of their alleged crimes.
As of 26 June 2014, 171 executions this year have been acknowledged by the
authorities or state-sanctioned media and at least 233 additional executions
have been reported by other reliable sources.
The execution of people for crimes committed when they were under 18 is
strictly prohibited under Article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights (ICCPR) and Article 37 of the Convention on the Rights of the
Child, both of which Iran has ratified.
Under Article 6(4) of the ICCPR, anyone sentenced to death shall have the right
to seek pardon or commutation of the sentence.
(source: Amnesty International)
UNITED KINGDOM:
Priti Patel MP: Who is the new Treasury minister who supports death penalty
The 42-year-old is one of the big winners in the Prime Minister's reshuffle,
moving up from a Downing Street policy board to the middle-ranking ministerial
position of exchequer secretary dealing with tax policy.
Born in the London borough of Harrow, she became the Conservatives' 1st female
Asian MP when she won her Essex seat in 2010.
Ms Patel has a history of supporting campaigns for small businesses, transport
infrastructure investment and affordable homes - but it is her views on the
criminal justice system that make her promotion into the heart of George
Osborne's ministerial team controversial.
She famously clashed with Ian Hislop, the editor of Private Eye and team
captain on the BBC's Have I Got News For You, in a Question Time debate on the
US's execution of Troy Davis.
She said at the time that she would "support the reintroduction of capital
punishment" on the grounds that "murderers and rapists and people who have
committed the most abhorrent crimes go into prison but then are released back
into the community to do those crimes again and again".
Disagreeing with other panel members including the Lib Dem Business Secretary
Vince Cable and Labour's Harriet Harman, she said: "Capital punishment [could]
serve as a deterrent. I do not think we have enough deterrents in this country
for criminals - let's not forget that murders, rapists and criminals of that
nature choose to commit the crimes that they commit."
(source: The Independent)
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