Feb. 11
BANGLADESH:
Death penalty won't be abolished in Bangladesh: Huq
Law Minister Anisul Huq has dismissed the chances of an abolition of the death
penalty in Bangladesh. However, he has said the government will try to avoid
capital punishment in future laws.
He spoke of the government stance while talking to reporters after a
views-exchange meeting with a delegation of the European Parliament in Dhaka on
Thursday.
The minister said, "When the issue of the death penalty was raised, I told them
unambiguously that the laws which now provide for the death penalty would not
be changed."
"We'll try to do that (abolishing the death penalty) when we enact new laws in
future. Since capital punishment is not that much acceptable as punishment,
we'll bring about changes," he added.
"But if we think capital punishment is the best weapon to combat any serious
crime, the death penalty may remain in a relevant new law," Huq said.
The European Union has long been urging Bangladesh to scrap the death penalty.
It made the call even as Bangladesh executed several war criminals after their
conviction by war crimes tribunals.
(source: bdnews24.com)
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HC upholds death penalty in ex-UK envoy Anwar attack case
The High Court has reinstated a lower court's verdict that convicted 5 Huji
militants for the assassination attempt on former British High Commissioner
Anwar Choudhury which killed 3 people and left more than 70 others injured at
the shrine of Hazrat Shahjalal in Sylhet.
The bench of Justice M Enayetur Rahim and Justice Amir Hossain gave the verdict
in the murder case on Thursday afternoon.
The court started hearing on the death references on January 6 this year.
Anwar, currently serving as the British Ambassador to Peru, along with 70
others sustained injuries in the attack launched after the Jumma prayers on May
21, 2004.
Hailing from Sylhet, Anwar served as the British High Commissioner to
Bangladesh until 2008.
3 militants of banned militant outfit Harkat-ul Jihad al-Islami Bangladesh
(HujiB) - Mufti Abdul Hannan, Sharif Shahedul Alam Bipul, and Md Delwar Hossain
alias Ripon - were sentenced to death while 2 others - Hannan's brother
Muhibullah alias Muhibur Rahman alias Ovi and Mufti Mainuddin Khaja alias Abu
Jandal - given life-term jail by the Sylhet Divisional Speedy Trial Tribunal on
December 23, 2008.
Another case was filed over the use of explosives is currently under trial at a
Sylhet court.
In his confessional statement, Hannan said that Jandal had supplied the
grenades through Bipul and Ripon. HujiB received the grenades from
Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).
(source: Dhaka Tribune)
********
Bangladesh upholds Islamists' death sentence for UK envoy attack
Mufti Abdul Hannan was behind a number of deadly grenade attacks including on a
rally of current PM Sheikh Hasina in Aug 2004.
A Bangladesh court Thursday upheld the death sentence of a top Islamist
militant and 2 of his followers for a 2004 failed assassination attack on the
British ambassador that left three people dead.
The High Court dismissed appeals by Mufti Abdul Hannan, head of Harkatul Jihad
Al Islami, and two members of the banned militant Islamist group who have all
been convicted over a spate of deadly attacks.
"The High Court has upheld the verdict. Unless they make another appeal in the
country's highest court, there is now no bar to their execution," deputy
attorney general Sheikh Moniruzzaman Kabir said.
"Mufti Abdul Hannan was behind a number of deadly grenade attacks including on
a rally of current Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in August 2004 in which more
than 20 people were killed," he said.
There was no comment from the defence lawyers, who did not turn up for the
verdict.
The trio were convicted of murder and masterminding the grenade attack in May
2004 on then British high commissioner Anwar Choudhury, who was only slightly
injured.
The attack came just weeks after the Bangladeshi-born diplomat took up the post
and occurred as he was visiting a historic Sufi shrine in the northeastern city
of Sylhet.
The High Court also on Thursday upheld life sentences for 2 other militants for
their roles in the blast that left 3 worshippers dead and scores injured.
The British High Commission had welcomed the conviction of those involved but
opposed the use of the death penalty.
Police said at the time of the attack that the group was plotting "to avenge
the deaths of Muslims in Iraq and across the world by America and Britain".
(source: Deccan Chronicle)
PAKISTAN:
Pakistan army confirms death sentences for 12 militants
Pakistan has hanged nearly 350 inmates, mostly routine criminals, since lifting
a 2008 moratorium on executions in 2014.
The death sentences of 12 hardcore militants was confirmed on Thursday by army
Chief General Raheel Sharif, days after they were given death penalty by the
military courts for committing "heinous offences relating to terrorism".
The convicts were found guilty of various acts of terrorism in the country,
including breaking of Bannu Jail, attacks on armed forces, law enforcement
agencies and civilians, army said in statement.
"Today Chief of Army Staff confirmed death sentences awarded to another 12
hardcore terrorists, who were involved in committing heinous offences relating
to terrorism," it said.
The convicts were tried by military courts set up after attack at Peshawar
school on December 16, 2014 which killed at least 150 people, mostly students.
The venue and timing of trial was kept secret due to security reasons.
Already several militants conceited by these courts have been hanged, including
the facilitators of the Peshawar school attack.
(source: Deccan Chronicle)
IRAN:
Iranian Musicians Jailed, Facing Possible Execution For Playing Metal
As an American, I sometimes forget how provocative heavy metal as an artform
could be, particularly in less secular countries. Everybody talks about freedom
of speech in this country and some would lead you to believe we are losing that
freedom, but last time I checked, nobody in this country is facing potential
death just for being in a metal band.
That's exactly what's happening to Iranian band Confess members Nikan Siyanor
Khosravi and Khosravi Arash Chemical Ilkhani. Both men were arrested by the
Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution and are facing charges of
blasphemy, advertising against the system, running an illegal and underground
band and record label promoting music considered to be Satanic, writing
anti-religious lyrics and granting interviews to forbidden foreign radio
stations. These serious charges resulted in the 2 band members, aged 23 and 21
sitting in solitary since last November until finally making bail on February
5th, paying the equivalent of $30,000 US.
The musicians are lawyering up and could face a minimum of six months to six
years in prison, and worse, if they are found guilty of the blasphemy charge,
they could be executed! It's easy to see how they could be charged with
blasphemy, especially when they have a song named "I Am Your God."
The band's new album, In Pursuit of Dreams, also features tracks titled "New
World Order," "Teh-Hell-Ran" (a play on words of the Iranian capital Tehran),
"The Alphabet Of Power" and "5 Years In A Cave." It was released on the group's
own label, Opposite Records.
The government has allegedly seized all of their personal online accounts,
including e-mail and Facebook, although as of this writing their profile on
Facebook is still active.
We're not exactly sure what we can do to help the band at the moment, but we
figured raising awareness is a start. We have started the hashtag #FreeConfess.
(source: Robert Pasbani, metalinjection.net)
SAUDI ARABIA:
Butcher kills man with skewer for girl, sets his body on fire----He and the
girl face death penalty
An Indian butcher in Saudi Arabia killed another Indian with a skewer and set
his body on fire after an argument over a girl, a newspaper reported on
Thursday.
Police arrested the butcher after civil defence men putting out a fire at an
apartment found the scorched body of the victim a few days after he was
murdered.
The butcher at first denied involvement but confessed during interrogation that
he killed the man after a rift over an Indian girl.
Sada newspaper said the girl worked as a housemaid for the victim and had an
affair with both men at their separate apartments in the Western Red Sea port
of Jeddah.
It said the butcher faces the death penalty for murder while the girl may also
be executed for having a relationship with 2 men and covering up for the
killer.
(source: emirates247.com)
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES:
Death sentence for maid killers in UAE
A couple who killed their maid then tried to cover up the crime by burning her
body with acid have been sentenced to death.
Abu Dhabi Criminal Court handed down the verdict on Wednesday after convicting
the Palestinian husband and wife of murdering the Ethiopian woman.
The court was told that on the day of the murder in 2014, a fight broke out
between the wife and the maid. Prosecutors said the wife beat her maid with a
stick so badly that the maid fell unconscious and later died.
"Her husband poured a chemical substance on the maid's body to try to hide her
identity," said a prosecutor. The couple wrapped the woman's body in white
cloth then placed it in a suitcase that they dumped in the desert during the
night in the Al Ajban area of Abu Dhabi.
Although the body was badly burned, police officers were still able to uncover
the identity of the maid after her corpse was found. Her killers were later
arrested while hiding out in a hotel with their children.
"They made the woman work for them for many months but they never paid her
anything. They instead killed her," a prosecutor told court.
Prosecutors charged the couple with murder, torture and depriving the maid of
her freedom. Prosecutors had demanded the death penalty in the event of a
conviction.
Both the wife and her husband had denied all the charges. But Chief Justice
Idris bin Mansour found the pair guilty.
The maid's family had also refused blood money and asked that the pair be
executed for the murder of their relative.
Under UAE law, a death sentence can be appealed within 14 days of the verdict
being issued.
(source: 7days.ae)
KENYA:
12 men on death row challenge mandatory sentence
12 death row inmates have petitioned against a law imposing mandatory death
sentences on capital offenders.
Joseph Kaberia and 11 others, serving different terms at the Kamiti Maximum
Prison, argue the penal code is arbitrary, cruel and inhuman.
The convicts argue they are not challenging the legality of death sentence or
their convictions.
They say they want the mandatory death sentence addressed, calling it a
constitutional point and a matter of general public importance.
Chief Justice Willy Mutunga recently issued policy guidelines on the death
penalty, stating that courts must impose death sentences for offences that
attract the penalty.
The CJ made the directive following conflicting decisions of the Court of
Appeal over mandatory death sentences.
In the case of Godfrey Mutiso, three judges ruled that a mandatory death
sentence is unconstitutional.
But in a subsequent decision, 5 judges of the same court, in the case of Joseph
Mwaura and others, emphasised that courts do not have discretion concerning
offences with a mandatory death sentence.
(source: The Star)
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