March 16
IRAQ----execution
Iraq executes Saudi prisoner 'for terrorism'
Iraqi authorities executed Saudi prisoner Abdullah Mahmous Sydat last Sunday.
Sydat was being held in Al-Nasiryah Prison, south of the Iraqi capital Baghdad.
According to Al-Riyadh newspaper, the Iraqi Ministry of Justice pronounced the
death sentence for Sydat after convicting him of terrorism.
According to the newspaper, the Iraqi ministry notified the Saudi Embassy in
Bagdad of the conviction and actual execution of Sydat a few days ago. Sources
confirmed, however, that the execution was carried out on Sunday, March 6 and
that the embassy was only notified of the decision after the execution took
place.
The sources added that the Saudi prisoner was executed along with a number of
other Iraqi prisoners.
The family of the prisoner said they were notified about his execution on
Thursday by the Iraqi Ministry of Justice, but were not given any further
details.
Sydat left the Kingdom for Iraq in 2007 and was arrested on charges of
terrorism during his time there. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison, which
was later upgraded to the death sentence.
The man, who has 2 children, had asked that he be buried in Madinah.
(source: Arab News)
*******************
20 convicts executed, 70 waiting in Iraq, Justice Minister
Iraqi Justice Minister Haidar al-Zamili disclosed that 20 death verdicts were
executed for different charges, including Arab terrorists.
Minister Zamili added that some of the convicted terrorists are from Tunisia,
Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi and Iraqis.
(source: Iraq Tradelink News Agency)
SAUDI ARABIA----execution
Saudi Arabia puts murderer to death in 72nd execution of 2016
Saudi Arabia executed one of its nationals convicted of murder on Sunday,
bringing to 72 the number of people put to death in the conservative kingdom
this year.
Hadian al-Qahtani was found guilty of shooting dead Abdullah al-Qaoud following
a dispute, the interior ministry said in a statement carried by state news
agency SPA.
Most people executed in Saudi Arabia are beheaded with a sword.
The executions so far this year include 47 for "terrorism" carried out in a
single day on January 2.
In 2015, Saudi Arabia executed 153 people, most of them for drug trafficking or
murder, according to an AFP count.
Rights group Amnesty International says the number of executions in Saudi
Arabia last year was the highest for 2 decades. However the tally was far
behind those of China and Iran.
The kingdom has a strict Islamic legal code under which murder, drug
trafficking, armed robbery, rape and apostasy are all punishable by death.
(source: Express Tribune)
***************
"Tyranny will fall": Son of executed Saudi dissident al-Nimr shares his
incredible story ---- EXCLUSIVE: Interview with activist Mohammed al-Nimr,
whose father was killed by Saudi Arabia for leading protest
"I don't like the name 'Saudi Arabia,'" Mohammed Nimr al-Nimr said with a
smile. "It's actually called the Arabian Peninsula, not Saudi," he laughed,
noting the country is named after its ruling dynasty.
The impeccably dressed and amiable 29-year-old Saudi activist and engineer was
in Washington, D.C. for the 2016 Summit on Saudi Arabia, the first
international conference to call into question the close U.S. relationship with
the theocratic absolute monarchy in Saudi Arabia.
Mohammed's father, Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, was a prominent leader in the Shia
Muslim religious community, a minority group in the Saudi kingdom, which is
governed by a fundamentalist form of Sunni Islam known as Wahhabism.
The Saudi regime imprisoned Sheikh al-Nimr in 2012 for leading protests against
its authoritarianism and violent sectarianism, and sentenced him to death in
2014. On Jan. 2 of this year, Saudi Arabia killed Mohammed's father, along with
46 other people in a series of executions.
At the Summit on Saudi Arabia, Mohammed spoke of his father, and of the
struggle for equality, justice and democracy in the Arabian Peninsula that he
now carries on.
Salon, which reported on the summit, sat down with the young al-Nimr, who
shared his remarkable story.
Growing pains
Like so many activists from the Middle East, Mohammed was born in exile - in
Damascus in 1987. He lived in the Syrian capital until 1993, when his family
moved back to Saudi Arabia. Throughout his youth, Mohammed and his family moved
back and forth between Saudi Arabia and Syria.
That Mohammed spent part of his youth in Syria is fascinating to consider in
contrast to his time in Saudi Arabia. In many ways, the 2 countries are on the
polar ends of Arab politics. His experiences in the 2, as a Shia Muslim,
differed greatly.
Syria is known for its strict secularism and respect for religious minority
rights; the Saudi monarchy, on the other hand, greatly discriminates against
religious minority groups, and enforces an extreme interpretation of Sharia
(Islamic law). In Syria's larger cities - before the catastrophic war that has
since reduced much of the country to rubble broke out in 2011, at least - it
was not strange to see bikini-clad women at the beach; in Saudi Arabia, women
lack basic political rights, and cannot travel without being accompanied by a
male guardian.
Muslims of different sects, along with Christians, Jews and even atheists lived
together in Syria, Mohammed recalled, and people of any religion could pray
practically anywhere. As a Shia Muslim in Saudi Arabia, however, Mohammed said
he was afraid to pray in many mosques, and had to be careful not to anger
authorities or extremist citizens.
At a very young age in Saudi Arabia, before he even entered school, Mohammed
was made painfully aware of the fact that he faced discrimination for being
raised in a different religious sect. When he later began studying in Saudi
schools, he had to learn Wahhabi doctrine, which he described as "extremist
ideas" that are nothing like the Islam he loves.
The 2 countries in which the young al-Nimr spent his youth exposed him to
drastically different worlds. Yet there were some similarities. In both,
Mohammed witnessed first-hand how authoritarianism manifests itself, even when
it appears in different ways.
Saudi Arabia is a theocratic absolute monarchy which has been ruled by a royal
family for more than 80 years. Syria is a secular dictatorship which has been
ruled by the Assad family for over five decades. In Syria, Mohammed explained,
people were not discriminated against based on their religion, but they faced
repression based on their politics. If you belonged to the ruling Ba'ath Party,
you were treated better. If you criticized the government, you would risk
facing backlash, even imprisonment.
In Saudi Arabia, religious minorities lived in fear. "They would humiliate
people intentionally; they would treat them with disrespect," he recollected.
In Syria, you had religious freedoms that were unimaginable in the Wahhabi
Saudi regime, but you still lacked political freedoms.
Growing up in these environments helped shaped Mohammed's view of justice. "The
tyrant is the same everywhere," Mohammed said. Dictators may differ in their
rule, but they are still dictators.
And tyranny is not just limited to dictatorships, Mohammed added. He condemned
the apartheid-like conditions Palestinians live under in Israel. "Whether the
tyrant is in Saudi or Israel, it is still a tyrant," he explained. "They are
thinking the same way; they are creating an ideology that serves them."
The young activist's sense of justice is rooted in an internationalism that
seeks liberation for all peoples.
"There is no more value for 1 person than any other," Mohammed stressed. "Your
life is not worth more than other lives."
Repression and imprisonment
Given the autocratic milieux in which he came of age, Mohammed remained
apolitical throughout his early life. It was not until much later, in the past
few years, that he began speaking out about politics. But first, a few
uprisings would take place.
In 2006, the Saudi regime, incensed at Sheikh al-Nimr's activism, forced
Mohammed's father to sign a pledge not to speak in public. He agreed to stop
speaking, and instead started writing.
"If they don't want us to speak, we're gonna write" was his father's
philosophy, Mohammed said.
2 years passed, and Sheikh al-Nimr held his tongue about the multitudinous
injustices in the Wahhabi kingdom. In 2008, however, a series of violent
incidents took place at al-Baqi, a cemetery in the important city of Medina,
and a site of religious significance.
The Saudi monarchy's fundamentalist form of Sunni Islam opposes the
preservation of many ancient religious sites, which it considers to be a form
of idolatry. Like ISIS, Saudi Arabia has destroyed millennium-old heritage
sites and artifacts; unlike ISIS, the close U.S. ally has replaced these sites
with lavish Hilton hotels and gender-segregated shopping malls.
Shia graves at al-Baqi have been demolished by the Saudi regime, setting off
further state-sanctioned sectarian tensions. In 2008, Mohammed recalled, Sunni
extremists attacked Shia worshipers at the religious site, stabbing several.
After the attack, virtually no one was punished. Some Shia Saudis subsequently
began protesting the impunity the regime effectively guarantees for sectarian
violence. Sheikh al-Nimr broke his silence, and gave a public speech in 2008
harshly criticizing the monarchy.
In his speech, the senior al-Nimr raised the possibility that, if the Saudi
regime did not treat its Shia citizens - many of whom live in the eastern part
of the country - justly, there could be a possibility of secession. Saudi
authorities took the statements of the sheikh, who always always preached
nonviolence, out of context, and claimed he was calling for violent secession.
The regime clamped down harshly on Sheikh al-Nimr - and not just on him, but
also on his family. In 2009, four months after his father's speech, 14 police
cars showed up at Mohammed's house, armed to the teeth with Kalashnikovs. The
young al-Nimr, who was not involved in politics in any way, and was guilty only
of being the son of a political activist, was arrested.
Saudi Arabia's feared secret police, the Mabahith - a brutal force notorious
for, in the words of Human Rights Watch, "a wide range of human rights abuses,
including arbitrary arrest, incommunicado detention and torture" - interrogated
the 22-year-old, and threw him in prison.
After several months locked up, Mohammed was eventually released. He said the
fear he felt during this time still haunts him.
Mohammed then decided to move to the U.S. to study mechanical engineering. In
2010, he began studies at Indiana University - Purdue University Indianapolis,
where he remains today. Less than a year after he arrived, however, one of the
biggest uprisings in Saudi history would take place.
(source: salon.com)
INDONESIA:
National scene: Govt uncertain on use of death penalty in 2016
The Indonesian government is yet to decide on whether it will execute drug
traffickers this year, but has said it will focus more on improving the economy
for the next 7 to 8 months.
"We'll see what happens. We are still studying this very carefully. Maybe we
could [continue with executions] this year, or maybe next year," Coordinating
Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Luhut Pandjaitan said in Jakarta
on Friday.Luhut said Indonesia had been disturbed by noisy, annoying comments
from the public about the death penalty's implementation. "So we have to
calculate very carefully when using the death penalty," he said.
According to 2015 data from the National Narcotics Agency, there are 14 drug
convicts currently waiting to face the firing squad. Last year Indonesia put to
death 14 drug convicts, including 2 Australians that were part of the Bali 9
group, Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan.
(source: Jakarta Post)
BANGLADESH:
Bangladesh set to execute top Jamaat leader for war crimes
Bangladesh is set to hang fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami chief Motiur Rahman
Nizami for war crimes during the 1971 independence struggle against Pakistan.
Authorities today served the death warrant to 72-year-old Mr Nizami, two months
after the apex court upheld his death penalty.
"We received the death warrant earlier this morning and served it to the
convict (in the death row)," an official of the suburban high security
Kashimpur Jail briefly told reporters.
Attorney general Mahbubey Alam, meanwhile, said the top leader of the country's
biggest Islamist party would now get 15 days' time to seek review of the
judgement by the Supreme Court itself in his final bid to evade the gallows.
He, however, said that the scope of reviewing the judgement in a war crimes
case is very slim.
"If he prefers not to get the judgement reviewed within the time-frame or if
his petition is rejected, the government may execute the verdict anytime in the
subsequent days," Mr Alam told newsmen.
He said Mr Nizami, however, could seek presidential mercy immediately if the
review petition was rejected but he would not get any extra time to decide for
seeking the clemency.
Bangladesh's International Crimes Tribunal (ICT-BD) originally sentenced Mr
Nizami to death in October 29, 2014. The apex court upheld the verdict on
January 6 this year.
According to TV reports Mr Nizami's lawyers sought to meet their client in jail
as the death warrant was issued to know his mind if he wants to exhaust the
opportunity of filing a review petition.
Leader of infamous Al-Badr force in 1971, Mr Nizami is the last remaining top
perpetrators of crimes against humanity whose fate now hangs on the balance.
He was found guilty of systematic killings of more than 450 people alone in his
own village home in northwestern Pabna siding with the Pakistani troops during
the liberation war.
Mr Nizami at that time was the chief of the student front of Jamaat, which was
opposed to Bangladesh's 1971 independence.
4 opposition politicians, including 3 leaders of the Islamist party, the
Jamaat-e-Islami, have been convicted by a war crimes tribunal and executed
since late 2013.
2 others, former Jamaat chief Ghulam Azam and ex-Bangladesh Nationalist Party
minister Abdul Alim, earlier were handed down "imprisonment until death"
penalty instead of capital punishment due to their old age as they exceeded 80.
They subsequently died in the prison cells of a specialised state-run hospital
due to old age ailments.
(source: Deccan Chronicle)
***************
Bangladesh Islamist party chief intends to seek review of death penalty
Bangladesh's largest Islamist party chief Motiur Rahman Nizami Wednesday said
he will file a review petition with the Supreme Court against its verdict that
upheld his death sentence for war crimes in 1971.
Nizami, president of the Bangladeshi Jamaat-e-Islami party, expressed his
interest to file a review petition in consultation with his lawyers as his
death warrant was read out to him on Wednesday morning in a prison in Kashimpur
on the outskirts of capital Dhaka where he is being kept condemned, the
prison's Superintendent Prashant Kumar Banik told journalists.
Also on Wednesday Nizami was allowed to meet his lawyers and a son, he said.
Bangladesh's International Crimes Tribunal-1 issued Nizami's death warrant
Tuesday night hours after the country's apex court released its full verdict in
this connection.
Bangladesh's Supreme Court on Jan. 6 upheld a death penalty for the 73-year-old
Motiur Rahman Nizami over war crimes during the country's war of independence
44 years ago.
Nizami served as agriculture and industries minister in Khaleda Zia's 2001-2006
cabinet.
The apex court upheld capital penalty for the Islamist party chief on 3 charges
and life imprisonment on 2 charges.
On Oct. 29, 2014, the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT-1) handed down capital
punishment to Nizami for war crimes which include mass killings of
intellectuals.
According to the rules, Nizami has an opportunity to file a review petition
against the verdict within 15 days.
If his review petition is rejected, the last option for him will be to seek
presidential mercy.
Nizami was indicted in 2012 with 16 charges of crimes during the 1971 war.
(source: Xinhua News)
************
Death warrant issued for Nizami
The International Crimes Tribunal has issued the death warrant for convicted
war criminal Motiur Rahman Nizami on Tuesday, hours after the Supreme Court
released its full verdict upholding his death penalty.
Confirming the news, Tribunal Registrar Shahidul Alam Jhinuk said: "3 judges of
the ICT signed the death warrant around 9:05pm. The death warrant will reach
the jail authorities by an hour. The copies of the death warrant have been sent
to Dhaka Central Jail authorities, Dhaka District magistrate, Home Ministry and
Law Ministry."
Earlier in the day, the apex court released the 153-page judgment after its
four judges concerned signed the verdict that upheld the Jamaat chief's death
penalty.
A copy of it was uploaded on the Supreme Court's website on Tuesday afternoon
while its official said that they would send a copy to the International Crimes
Tribunal. From there, copies will be sent to jail and district magistrate. The
Home Ministry will also be notified.
Nizami can move a review petition with the apex court in a last ditch attempt
to escape the noose. Attorney General Mahbubey Alam said the countdown would
start from the day of receiving a copy of the full verdict.
Bangladesh's 1st war crimes tribunal handed Nizami death on October 29, 2014 on
4 charges and life imprisonment on 4 other charges. He challenged the verdict
at the apex court.
On January 6, a four-member Appellate Division bench upheld the tribunal's
sentence for the Al-Badr chief for masterminding the killing of intellectuals
and involvement in two incidents of mass killing of over 500 people in Pabna in
1971.
His death sentences were upheld on 3 charges and life imprisonment on 2
charges. He was cleared of 3 charges.
Nizami is the 3rd former minister after Jamaat leader Ali Ahsan Mohammad
Mojaheed and BNP leader Salauddin Quader Chowdhury to get death penalty for his
notorious role during the war.
Nizami led Jamaat's erstwhile student wing Islami Chhatra Sangha from 1966 to
September 1971 and was the chief of Al-Badr, known as Pakistan army's death
squad in 1971. Al-Badr members were exclusively drawn from Chhatra Sangha.
Throughout the war, he visited different areas of the country and delivered
provocative speeches at rallies organised by Jamaat, Chhatra Sangha, Al-Badr
and Razakars. He also wrote columns in newspapers justifying the formation of
Al-Badr.
The militia, which called itself the "angel of death", unleashed a reign of
terror on pro-liberation Bangalees, killed unarmed civilians, raped women and
destroyed properties during the war.
The auxiliary force of the Pakistan army made its worst example by
systematically rounding up, torturing and killing the intellectuals to cripple
the country at the fag end of the war.
Jamaat chief Nizami has never repented of the cold-blooded savagery. He was
rehabilitated in Bangladesh politics after the assassination of Bangabandhu
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in 1975 and was made a minister during the BNP-led
government 2001-06 tenure.
What is next
The government may start the procedure of executing the verdict after getting
verdict copies and issuing of death reference. The convict will have to file
the review petition within 15 days. If his review petition is rejected, he will
get a chance to seek presidential mercy. The execution processes will be halted
till then.
If Nizami decides not to seek clemency or if the president denies it, he will
be the second Al-Badr top leader after Mojaheed to walk the gallows finally.
(source: dhakatribune.com)
************
Woman, lover get death penalty for husband's murder
A Jessore court yesterday sentenced a woman and her lover to death for killing
her husband in 2014.
The convicts are Sabana Khatun, wife of victim Abdur Razzak of Ajmatpur village
in Chowgachha upazila of Jessore, and her lover Abdul Ali.
Judge Sharif Hossain of Jessore Additional Sessions Judge's Court also fined
them Tk 50,000 each.
According to the prosecution, Sabana along with Ali killed Razzak on March 9 in
2004 as the victim protested his wife's extramarital relation.
The brother of the deceased Mintu Miah filed a case with Chowgachha Police
Station in this connection the same day.
On June 9 the same year, police submitted charge sheet against Sabana and her
boyfriend Ali.
After examining witnesses and evidence, the judge found them guilty and
pronounced the verdict.
(source: The Daily Star)
*******************
Man sentenced to death for murdering wife 15 years ago
A man has been sentenced to death for murdering his wife for dowry 15 years ago
in Chandina, Comilla.
Nur Nahar Begum, Comilla's additional district and session's judge, gave the
verdict on Wednesday.
Md. Sadek, the man slapped the death penalty, has been in hiding ever since the
case was started.
Case details show Sadek had killed his wife, Rokeya Begum, on the night of Jun
28, 2000 for failing to pay the dowry he demanded.
He had slit his wife's throat after assaulting her and dumped the body the
Chanshar stream.
A few days later a body in a bag was found floating.
The sack revealed Rokeya's decomposed body when opened.
Mustafizur Rahman Liton, the state prosecutor, said Rokeya's uncle Shadatullah
had lodged a complaint with the police, accusing 7 people.
A charge sheet had been filed against Sadek after investigation.
(source: bdnews24.com)
_______________________________________________
A service courtesy of Washburn University School of Law www.washburnlaw.edu
DeathPenalty mailing list
DeathPenalty@lists.washlaw.edu
http://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/listinfo/deathpenalty
Unsubscribe: http://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/options/deathpenalty
