April 7
MOROCCO:
Amnesty International Calls on Morocco to Adopt UN Moratorium on Death Penalty
Director General of Amnesty International Morocco, Mohamed Sektaoui, on
Wednesday called on the Moroccan government to adopt the United Nations
moratorium on the death penalty and the Second Optional Protocol to the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, aiming at the abolition
of the death penalty.
Mr. Sektaoui, who was presenting the 2015 world report of Amnesty International
on the death penalty during a meeting with the press, also called for the
implementation of the recommendations of the Equity and Reconciliation
Commission to abolish the death penalty and "all signs related to the death
penalty in the penal code".
With 9 death sentences in 2015 and a de facto moratorium, Morocco holds a good
position among MENA countries, where 831 death sentences were recorded in 17
countries and 1,196 executed judgments in 8 countries, he pointed out.
The use of capital punishment increased significantly in 2015 in the MENA
region, Sektaoui said, adding that the total number of known executions
increased by 26 pc compared to 2014, while the death sentences posted a 6pc
increase.
(source: moroccoworldnews.com)
BAHAMAS:
Majority Verdict Not Enough In Murder Case, Says Judge
A JUDGE ruled yesterday that he would not convict 2 men of murder, aggravated
or not, on a majority verdict decided by a jury in a recent murder trial.
Rashad Sullivan and Patrickedo Rose, both 25, appeared before Justice Bernard
Turner to learn whether the judge accepted the 10-2 guilty verdict for murder a
jury had arrived at during their six-hour deliberations of the November 2012
murder of Dario "China" Knowles, 25, at Lincoln Boulevard.
"A legal dispute had arisen on whether the 2011 amendment to the Penal Code
allowed for the court to accept majority verdicts in murder cases where the
question of the discretionary death penalty does not arise if a conviction is
reached.
"The amendment, which followed the Privy Council's decision in the Maxo Tido
appeal, notes that only certain types of aggravated murder are currently
punishable by death. These include murder of a law enforcement officer; murder
of a judicial officer, including judges, registrars and prosecutors; murder of
a witness or juror; murder of more than one person; murder committed by a
defendant who has a prior murder conviction; and murder in exchange for value.
"The amendment further provides that any murder committed in the course of/or
in furtherance of a robbery, rape, kidnapping, terrorist act, or any other
felony is punishable by death, with no explicit requirement of intent to cause
death.
"Noting that the reasons for his decision would be provided in a detailed
written ruling to follow, Justice Turner said yesterday he would not accept the
10-2 guilty verdict the jury arrived at last December.
"As the jury had also returned a 10-2 guilty verdict for conspiracy to commit
murder, the judge formally convicted the pair of that charge and adjourned
sentencing to May 19 at the request of lawyers for the accused who sought the
production of social inquiry reports.
"Sullivan and Rose, with 29-year-old Eddie Artus of Sugar Hill Road, were
alleged to have conspired to commit murder between November 1 and November 25,
2012.
"Sullivan and Rose were further accused of the actual murder.
"Knowles, the son of accused murderer and drug trafficker Dion "Emperor"
Knowles, was shot and killed on Lincoln Boulevard off Cordeaux Avenue. He was
found lying in the street, shortly after several gunshots were heard in the
area. The elder Knowles was killed in 2011.
"Artus was acquitted on direction of the judge at the close of the
prosecution's case. The 2 other men claimed they were induced into making
statements to police through physical mistreatment and threats. They maintained
their innocence.
"Investigators had denied the abuse allegations when cross-examined after
testifying that Sullivan allegedly admitted he was present when his co-accused
committed the crime. Rose also allegedly assigned the blame of the killing to
Sullivan.
"Rose, was represented by Glendon Rolle, while Sullivan was represented by
Lennox Coleby. Darell Taylor and Aaron Johnson prosecuted the case.
(source: tribune242.com)
GREAT BRITAIN:
Britain Is Making Millions Training Police In 21 Countries That Use The Death
Penalty----The UK's national College of Policing has earned 6.2 million pounds
in the last 3 years through overseas training contracts, a freedom of
information request has shown.
Britain's College of Policing, the professional body for police training, has
made millions of pounds in the last 3 years by training forces in countries
that use the death penalty.
Among the countries where the college offers training in "leadership, forensics
and intelligence" are Bahrain, China, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Uganda. In all,
21 of the countries where the college operates training programmes have the
death penalty. Yesterday Amnesty International revealed that executions
worldwide are at a 25-year-high, with at least 158 people killed in 2015 in
Saudi Arabia alone.
At least 25 of the countries in which the college operates have forces that
have been accused by campaigners of human rights abuses and torture.
BuzzFeed News has seen a document that shows 242 officers from the college have
been deployed in the last 3 years to Qatar, where police have been accused of
torture and abuse.
In the Dominican Republic, another country where the college operates, 87
people were killed by the police in the 1st half of 2014. Amnesty International
has written an open letter to nation???s president saying that it has
documented cases of torture, forced disappearances, and arbitrary arrests in
the country.
In Jamaica, the police killed 93 people last year, and Amnesty has also
expressed concerns about arbitrary arrest and the treatment of prisoners there.
Despite the concerns over the countries in which it operates, the college has
made vast profits on its overseas training contracts. A freedom of information
request by campaigners and seen by BuzzFeed News reveals the college earned 6.2
million pounds (including 2.7 million pounds from the Middle East and 1.3
million pounds from Africa) in the last 3 years by offering the training.
Andrew Smith of Campaign Against Arms Trade, which carried out the FOI request,
told BuzzFeed News: "The police college has worked with some of the most
repressive police forces in the world. There is very little information about
what the work involves and no evidence that it has resulted in improved human
rights anywhere.
"A number of the police forces involved have been accused of torture, and many
uphold and enforce extremely repressive laws, including the death penalty. The
UK police college should not be giving legitimacy to these practices or
profiting from the oppression taking place."
There are questions of transparency around the exact nature of the training
provided by the college. It does not disclose commercial details, partly
because, it says, doing so could "expose vulnerabilities in the capability of
overseas police forces that could be exploited by criminals". Documents
discussing the contracts that have been unearthed by campaigners, such as this
agreement with the Kingdom of Bahrain, have done little to illustrate the
nature of the work.
Earlier this year the BBC's World at One revealed that more than 250 officers
from Saudi Arabia had been given specialist training, but the college refused
to disclose the content of that training (and the amount it was paid). The
Financial Times columnist David Allen Green said it was "hardly reassuring" to
know that the International Policing Assistance Board, which approves the
deals, has never rejected a training proposal.
A spokesperson for the College of Policing said: "Any training of overseas law
enforcement officers is overseen by the cross-governmental International
Policing Assistance Board (IPAB) which comprises policing representatives and
those of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Home Office, Ministry of Defence,
Department for International Development and devolved administrations.
"IPAB coordinates the delivery of the Government's overseas interests and
reviews training initiatives to ensure that they support the UK's international
priorities.
"All training delivered by the College meets the highest international
standards and respect for human rights and dignity is interwoven into
programmes.
"Decisions about UK policing assistance overseas must reconcile the
difficulties of working with countries whose standards of human rights may be
at odds with our own with the opportunity to address national security
concerns, reduce harm to individuals, help to protect UK citizens overseas and
contribute to reform in those countries.
"The College has never provided overseas assistance without IPAB's
recommendation."
(source: buzzfeed.com)
BANGLADESH:
Family meets Jamaat chief Nizami at Kashimpur jail----Members of convicted war
criminal and Jamaat-e-Islami chief Motiur Rahman Niazami's family have met him
at Kashimpur jail in Gazipur.
Prison authorities confirmed that Nizami's wife, daughter, son, and
daughter-in-laws met him for around 30 minutes in a room inside the prison on
Thursday noon.
This is the 4th family visit since the Jamaat leader was handed down the death
warrant for orchestrating the massacre of Bangladesh's best brains in 1971,
using his ruthless Al-Badr militia.
Kashimpur Central Jail 2 Jailor Md Nashir Ahmed said Nizami's wife Begum
Samsunnahar Nizami, son Nazib Momen, daughter Khadiza Tahera, daughter-in-laws
'Saleha' and 'Raiyan' met him.
"They discussed family matters and the review of the death sentence," the
Jailor said.
They left the prison around 1:30pm, he added.
The International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) had issued the death warrant for Nizami
on Mar 15, 2016. His family members met him on Mar 16, 24, and 31.
The ICT had, on Oct 29, 2014, ordered his execution, for the murders and rape
in Pabna and the mass killing of intellectuals during the War of Independence.
The Supreme Court, after hearing his appeal later, upheld the maximum penalty
for the Jamaat chief. He pled for a review of the verdict on Mar 29.
An influential minister in the BNP-Jamaat coalition government of 2001-6, he
carries another death sentence for his role in the 10-truck arms haul case in
Chittagong.
Born on Mar 31, 1943, in Monmothpur of Pabna's Sathia Upazila, Nizami had
earlier headed Islami Chhatra Sangha, Jamaat's student front before it was
renamed to become Islami Chhatra Shibir.
The Jamaat-e-Islami had actively opposed the secession from Pakistan and formed
militias to collaborate with the invading forces of the Pakistani Army in 1971.
Nizami was chief of the Al-Badr, a militia made up of members of the so-called
Peace Committee and Islami Chhatra Sangha.
Al-Badr gained notoriety for executing prominent pro-liberation members of the
Bengali intelligentsia ranging from doctors, journalists and teachers to
writers and composers on Dec 14, just days before Bangladesh secured victory by
defeating West Pakistan's forces.
(source: bdnews24.com)
INDIA:
SC likely to hear Nizami's review petition Sunday
The Supreme Court (SC) may hear the review petition of condemned war criminal
Jamaat Ameer Motiur Rahman Nizami on Sunday against its verdict upholding the
International Crimes Tribunal's judgment that had sentenced him to death,
reports news agency UNB.
The review hearing has been enlisted as item number 19 in Sunday's cause list
of the Appellate Division.
A 4-member bench of the Appellate Division, led by chief justice SK Sinha, will
hear the petition.
Earlier on 3 April, the Supreme Court deferred the hearing for a week on the
review petition of the Jamaat chief.
On 29 March, Barrister Najib Momen, son of Nizami, submitted a 70-page review
petition with the Appellate Division. The review petition mentioned 46 grounds
seeking release of the convict in the war crimes case.
Meanwhile, Nizami's family members met him at Kashimpur Central Jail in Gazipur
on Thursday.
Nashir Ahmed, jailer of the central jail part-2, said his wife Shamsunnahar
Nizami, son Barrister Najib Momen, daughter Khadiza Tahera, daughter-in-law
Saleha and Raiyan reached the jail gate around 12:45pm and stayed there for
half an hour.
On 15 March, the ICT issued a death warrant for Nizami for his crimes against
humanity during the Liberation War in 1971 after the apex court released the
full text of its verdict upholding his death penalty.
On 6 January, a 4-member bench of the Appellate Division, headed by chief
justice Surendra Kumar Sinha, upheld the death sentence of the Jamaat Ameer for
his crimes against humanity during the war. The Supreme Court upheld the ICT-1
order sentencing Nizami to death for the wartime crimes, including genocide and
murder of intellectuals.
On 29 October, 2014, the ICT-1 sentenced Nizami to death for committing crimes
against humanity during the Liberation War. The tribunal sentenced Nizami, the
1971 commander-in-chief of Al Badr, a secret killing squad of Jamaate-e-Islami,
the capital punishment each on 4 counts of charges of war crimes, terming Al
Badr a criminal outfit.
Nizami filed an appeal with the SC on 23 November, 2014 challenging the death
sentence and claimed himself innocent and sought to be cleared of the charges.
(source: Prothom Alo)
SAUDI ARABIA:
Coming Out On Facebook May Soon Be A Death Sentence In Saudi Arabia
Facebook is making you gay - at least, according to Saudi Arabia. In recent
weeks, government officials and local prosecutors have been attempting to curb
what they reportedly believe is an outbreak of homosexuality caused by the
widespread adoption of social media in the country. PinkNews, an LGBT-centric
publication based in the U.K., is reporting that the Middle East nation may
reinstitute the death penalty for homosexuality, in fear that the Internet is
"turning people gay." Soon, even coming out online in Saudi Arabia may be a
death sentence.
Laws that mandate capital punishment for gay people are already on the books in
Saudi Arabia, but they are rarely enforced. Currently, same-sex intercourse
between 2 men is classified as zina in Sunni jurisprudence, which means it's
punishable by death or lashing. In 2002, 3 men were beheaded for the fact of
their sexual orientation, although the official charge from Saudi authorities
was the vaguely worded crime of "luring children and harming others." More
recently, a Medina man was subjected to 450 lashes and given 3 years in prison
for arranging hookups with other men via his Twitter account.
In one way, Saudi officials are correct: Social media platforms like Twitter
and Facebook have been a major boon to LGBT people attempting to live their
lives in a country where repression is national policy. These websites give
queer people a place where they can connect with others, which is why social
media has long been at the center of the government's anti-gay crackdown. In
2014, the gay dating app Grindr began displaying warnings to users in countries
like Saudi Arabia and Egypt that police "may be posing as LGBT to entrap you."
Egypt does not mandate the death penalty for homosexuality, but 10 countries -
including the United Arab Emirates, Yemen, and Somalia - still do. The Grindr
messages also ran in Russia and Sudan.
These anti-gay operations have been growing in recent years. In 2014, 2 men in
Egypt were arrested for advertising their apartment as a hookup spot on
Facebook, charging $200 a night to men who wished for rent the space. Each
received 2 years in prison. Last year, an illegal same-sex wedding in Riyadh,
the nation's capital, was cut short when police raided the ceremony and
arrested the couple. Okaz, a newspaper based in Jeddah, reports that in the
past 6 months, 35 men have been prosecuted for sodomy, while another 50 were
apprehended on the charge of "cross-dressing."
Although the country might point the finger at Facebook for this uptick in
arrests, the truth is more complicated. According to the Atlantic's Nadya Labi,
the country has long had a flourishing queer culture, one that both hides in
the shadows and often operates in broad daylight. The Saudi men Labi spoke with
referred to Riyadh as a "gay heaven." Radwan, who was born in Saudi Arabia and
grew up in the U.S. before returning to Jeddah as an adult, adds that it's
surprisingly easy to be "picked up" (e.g. for sex) in Saudi Arabia - even on
the street. "You can be cruised anywhere in Saudi Arabia, any time of the day,"
he said.
When it comes to same-sex relations between 2 women, Saudi society often looks
the other way. Yasmin, a college student living in Riyadh, tells Labi, "There's
an overwhelming number of people who turn to lesbianism." At her university,
one building is a notorious hangout spot for students wishing to kill time
between classes by partaking in Sapphic pleasures in its spacious bathroom
stalls. The building's walls are littered with graffiti that offer faith-based
warnings to all who enter: "She doesn't really love you, no matter what she
tells you" and "Before you engage in anything with [her] remember: God is
watching you."
Why is queerness is so ubiquitous in a country where it's so dangerous? Some
say that it's a product of gender segregation. This February, a Saudi
researcher released a report that linked the total division between sexes with
a rise in "situation-based" homosexual behavior, one that proved extremely
controversial. Nonetheless, it makes a certain amount of sense. In a society
where it's forbidden to mix with member of the opposite sex - so much so that
even religious spaces are divided by sex - the faithful may have no other
outlet for their desires. Yasmin adds that the young women seeking carnal
interludes in university restrooms may not be lesbians, per se. She refers to
them as akin to "cellmates in prison."
Yasmin's take is compelling, but it's not entirely accurate. If homosexuality
were a temporary stopgap prior to getting married, why were 4 adult gay couples
arrested in Saudi Arabia last year? A 2014 survey discovered that these are not
isolated cases: In Iran, nearly 20 % of college students identify as gay or
lesbian. That figure is much larger than the recent Public Religion Research
Institute report showing that "7 % of [U.S.] millennials identify either as
lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender." Those results are particularly
noteworthy in a country that not only puts gays to death, but doesn't even
recognize that its LGBT population exists. In 2006, former president Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad infamously said: "We don't have any gays in Iran."
The real takeaway from these reports should be obvious: Repression doesn't
work.. It may even make the "problem" these countries are trying to fix even
bigger. For years, conservative religious countries have attempted to control
LGBT people with a campaign of harassment and violence, but increasing numbers
of queer folks continue to make themselves visible - in any way they can. After
news broke that Saudi Arabia was considering the death penalty for disclosing
sexuality on social media, Twitter users protested by doing exactly what the
proposed new law prohibits: coming out. The hashtag "You will not terrorize me.
I'm gay" began trending in the country last week.
Those 7 words speak to the powerful resilience of queer people. Even if Saudi
Arabia and other countries like it police every social media platform in
existence, the LGBT community will continue to do what it has always done:
survive. In a country that is determined to ignore, silence, and exterminate
its queer population, the simple fact of existence continues to be a radical
form of resistance.
(source: Nico Lang; thefrisky.com)
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