Nov. 2
BANGLADESH:
Islamist Media Tycoon Sentenced To Death For Bangladesh War Crimes
A media tycoon and key figure in Bangladesh's largest Islamist party has been
sentenced to death for war crimes committed during Bangladesh's 1971 war for
independence from Pakistan.
Mir Qasem Ali, the owner of a television station and newspaper aligned with the
Jamaat-e-Islami party, was found guilty of 10 charges by the court in Dhaka on
November 2, including murder and abduction.
The government in Bangladesh shut down Ali's television station in 2013 for
inflaming religious tensions.
Ali's attorney said the charges are "baseless and false" and said they would
appeal the verdict in the Supreme Court.
The ruling against Ali comes just days after Jamaat-e-Islami leader Motiur
Rahman Nizami was sentenced to death by a court in Bangladesh for heading a
pro-Pakistan militia during the 1971 war.
(source: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)
******************
JI chief's death sentence: Bangladesh govt hell bent on opening old wounds,
says Nisar
Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar on Saturday expressed his concern and
reservation over Bangladesh awarding death penalty to Jamaat-e-Islami chief
Motiur Rahman Nizami.
"Though what happens in Bangladesh is that country's internal matter, yet
Pakistan cannot remain divorced from references to 1971 and its aftermath,"
Nisar said.
"It is highly unfortunate that almost 45 years after those tragic chain of
events, the Bangladeshi government still seems to be living in the past and
totally ignoring the time tested virtue of forgive and forget," the interior
minister lamented.
Nisar said he was perplexed over why Bangladesh remains hell bent upon digging
up the graves of the past and reopening old wounds.
The interior minister underlined that the recent events in Bangladesh are a
manifestation of serious political violations, which are being inflicted on JI
Bangladesh for events before the independence of Bangladesh.
Nisar maintained that he was deeply saddened to receive this shocking news.
"The government of Bangladesh has misused the process of law as a political
tool against the JI leader," he upheld.
On October 29, Bangladesh's war crimes tribunal sentenced the chief of JI
Bangladesh to death for crimes against humanity, including genocide, torture
and rape, during the 1971 war.
(source: The News)
INDIA/SRI LANKA:
Colombo, Delhi must act before it's too late
The charge of smuggling heroin against the Indian fishermen seems
extraordinary. Indian fisherfolk routinely encounter difficult circumstances in
the Palk Straits and are regularly rounded up by the Sri Lankan Navy.
The death sentence handed down to 5 Indian fishermen by a Sri Lankan court will
go through the normal judicial process of that country. India has taken the
necessary steps to appeal in a bid to save its nationals - whose innocence is a
natural presumption in the light of the circumstances of the case - from the
gallows.
While this is the technical aspect of the matter, Colombo and New Delhi should
take immediate practical steps to ensure that the emotive issue is not
permitted to gain political traction either in Sri Lanka, where the
presidential election is due in January 2015, or in Tamil Nadu, which is roiled
on the issue.
Public sentiment running high in the southern Indian state, frequently on the
issue of our fishermen's right to seek their livelihood in the Palk Straits as
well as on the general question of suppression of the rights of Lankan Tamils,
have tended to have a negative bearing on New Delhi-Colombo ties, which are of
considerable importance to both countries.
On the face of it, the charge of smuggling heroin against the Indian fishermen,
who were apprehended in the Palk Straits in November 2011, seems extraordinary.
No less unusual is the sentence of death. Indian fisherfolk routinely encounter
difficult circumstances in the Palk Straits and are regularly rounded up by the
Sri Lankan Navy, whose actions can look high-handed.
These can hardly be deemed to be appropriate conditions for any form of
smuggling, leave alone heroin. Indeed, it is hard to think of another case in
which smuggling charges have been slapped on our fishermen. In the event, the
presumption of innocence will be strong, and not just in Tamil Nadu.
The case has a strong enough echo in India for our ambassador to raise it with
Sri Lanka's foreign and defence ministers. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is also
expected to take up the matter with President Mahinda Rajapaksa when the 2 meet
at the Saarc summit in Kathmandu later this month.
In the Sri Lankan justice system, the President has the right of pardon if the
appellate court or the Supreme Court does not overturn the trial court verdict.
However, the effort should be to finesse the issue before that stage is reached
so that it doesn't bedevil bilateral relations. If high state authorities are
persuaded of the merits of India's position, it should be possible to explore
technical grounds to squelch the death penalty, which appears harsh in the
extreme to any lay observer. At any rate, even commutation of the sentence
could make it possible for the prisoners to be transferred to an Indian jail.
That too could lessen the impact of the case on the public mind.
(source: Asian Age)
*********************
Violence continues in Tamil Nadu after Sri Lankan death sentence ruling
Fishermen in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu have announced an
indefinite strike to protest the death penalty awarded by a Sri Lankan court to
5 Indian fishermen for alleged drug trafficking. Sporadic violence continued to
rock various parts of Tamil Nadu for the 3rd consecutive day on Saturday (Nov
1).
The protesters want New Delhi to intervene to ensure the release of the
fishermen. In the days after the verdict, Indian politicians, social activists
and the fishing community across Tamil Nadu took to the streets to protest the
capital punishment given to the 5 local fishermen. The protestors shouted
slogans and burnt posters of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa in
Coimbatore.
Meanwhile, a mob went on a rampage in Ramanathapuram - the hometown of the 5
fishermen sentenced to death. Despite a heavy police presence, they torched
buses, pelted stones and blocked roads and railway tracks.
The protestors want the Central government to appeal against the sentence in a
higher court. "It is the paramount duty of the NDA (National Democratic
Alliance) government of Narendra Modi to take effective diplomatic steps to
protect these people, to save them from the gallows and to get them released
from the prison," said V Gopalsamy, General Secretary, Marumalarchi Dravida
Munnetra Kazhagam.
The 5 fishermen are among a group of 8 people sentenced to death by the High
Court in Colombo. They were arrested by the Sri Lankan Navy back in 2011 on
charges of smuggling drugs into the country.
The Indian government has vouched for their innocence and promised to take up
the matter with the Sri Lankan authorities. "We have done our due diligence on
our side and we find that they are innocent. But that is a separate process
that we are pursuing," said Syed Akbaruddin, spokesperson for the Indian
External Affairs Ministry. "We will also pursue through the legal process and
ensure and try our best to ensure that these fishermen are proved innocent and
can return to India."
Frequent arrests of Indian fishermen by the Sri Lankan Navy have been a source
of tensions between the otherwise cordial neighbours. But this time, the death
sentence for the 5 Indian fishermen has triggered an angry reaction back home.
For now, the Indian government will have until Nov 14 to file an appeal.
(source: ChannelNews Asia)
IRAN:
Iran hits back at criticism over executions -- Tehran says 93 % of 852
execution cases reported by UN in less than a year involved drug smuggling.
Iran has hit back at a United Nations report criticising the high number of
death sentences in the country, saying that 93 % of executions over the last
year involved drug smuggling.
Mohammad Javad Larijani, secretary of Iran's Human Rights Council, made the
comments in a report posted on the judiciary's website Saturday.
A recent report by the UN said at least 852 people were reportedly executed
between July 2013 and June 2014 and called it an alarming increase.
Delegates from many European countries have urged Iran to adopt a moratorium on
the death penalty at an ongoing human rights meeting in Geneva.
Iran previously has threatened to allow drug smugglers through its territory to
Europe if the West continues to criticise it for executing convicted drug
traffickers.
Last week, Iran executed a 26-year-old woman convicted of killing a man whom
she said tried to sexually abuse her, despite an international uproar.
Reyhaneh Jabbari was arrested in 2007 for the murder of Morteza Abdolali
Sarbandi, a former employee of Iran's Ministry of Intelligence.
Larijani said he had asked Sarbandi's family to pardon Jabbari, in a move that
would have saved her life, and that the family had planned to do so.
'Lack of progress'
The massive media attention and rape allegations had changed their minds, he
said, quoting Sarbandi's son as saying the family could not take the
"humiliation".
A UN human rights monitor had said the killing of Sarbandi was an act of
self-defence after he tried to sexually assault Jabbari, and that her trial in
2009 had been deeply flawed.
Larijani adamantly defended the country's judicial system, insisting: "All
nationals of Iran are equal before the law."
He said from Geneva that his country had made great strides in the field of
human rights since its last Universal Periodic Review, which all 193 UN
countries must undergo every 4 years.
Such claims were brushed aside by a range of NGOs, who blasted a lack of
progress since Iran's last review in 2010, and condemned discriminatory laws
and practises infringing on the rights of women, and religious and ethnic
minorities among others.
(source: Al Jazeera)
SAUDI ARABIA:
Saudi King Suspends Death Sentence for Sheikh Al-Nimr after Rafsanjani's Letter
Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz has stopped the death sentence given to
prominent Shiite cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr after Chairman of Iran's Expediency
Council (EC) Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani in a message warned Riyadh against the
repercussions of the execution, Arab media said.
Iraq's al-Youm al-Samen news website said in a report that the Saudi King has
intervened and called off the court ruling after Rafsanjani's letter. No
official report has yet confirmed the revelation.
On October 25, Hashemi Rafsanjani in a message warned the Saudi King against
the consequences of the death sentence given to Nimr.
"In this period of time that conspiracies have targeted the lands of the
Islamic Ummah, stopping the sentence for Ayatollah Sheikh Nimr Baqer al-Nimr
will disappoint those who sow discord, will increase interactions and settle
the problems of the Muslim world," Hashemi Rafsanjani said in his message.
He underlined the sensitive regional and international conditions of the Muslim
world, and said stopping Sheikh al-Nimr's death sentence would strengthen unity
among the Shiites and Sunnis.
"Muslims expect you to take such a decision," Hashemi Rafsanjani said.
On October 15, a Saudi court handed down the death penalty to Sheikh Nimr after
convicting him of sedition.
The cleric was attacked and arrested in July 2012, accused of delivering
anti-regime speeches and defending political prisoners.
In reaction to the sentence, people took to streets in the Saudi city of Qatif
to condemn the move. There have also been demonstrations in other countries.
Human rights activists say the sentence issued for Sheikh Nimr is
politically-motivated.
Amnesty International has denounced the verdict, calling it "appalling".
Rights groups say Bahrain and Saudi Arabia are committing systematic human
rights abuses.
(source: Fars News Agency)
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