April 17
INDIA:
Lawyer appointed for Yug killer
Nagpur bench of Bombay High Court on Saturday appointed Rajnish Vyas as counsel
for defending Rajesh Dhanalal Daware (19), prime accused in Yug Chandak murder
case. The court has kept the final hearing of the sensational murder case from
April 25.
According to Chandak family's counsel Rajendra Daga, the accused had refused to
have a lawyer and therefore, the court made arrangement for him through legal
aid. Daware's accomplice, Arvind Abhilash Singh (23), had already challenged
death sentence awarded to him while praying for leniency. The court had already
directed its registry to complete formalities like preparing paperbook of case
related to the cold-blooded murder of an innocent child, which had sparked off
outrage and candle light protests in the city.
On February 4, both convicts were awarded a rare double death penalty for
diabolical murder of 8-year-old Yug on September 1, 2014. This was 2nd such
verdict after a Yavatmal sessions court sentenced labourer Shatrughan Masram to
gallows for brutally raping and murdering a 2-year-old girl on August 14 last
year.
It was 2nd such diabolic killing in the city within 3 years after another
8-year-old child Kush Katariya was killed by Ayush Naresh Pugalia on October
11, 2011, for extracting Rs2 crore ransom from his parents. He was awarded a
rare double lifer by the court, which was enhanced to triple lifer by the
Nagpur bench.
(source: The Times of India)
SAUDI ARABIA:
3 Alleged Child Offenders Await Execution----Torture Allegations Ignored in
Unfair Trials
3 Saudi men are awaiting execution for alleged, protest-related crimes
committed while they were children. Saudi judges based the capital convictions
primarily on confessions that the 3 defendants retracted in court and said had
been coerced. The courts did not investigate the allegations that the
confessions were obtained by torture. Saudi Arabia's announcement on March 11,
2016 that it will execute another 4 men for terrorism offenses raises fears
that 1 or all 3 of the sentences could be carried out.
Human Rights Watch has obtained and analyzed the trial judgments that the
Specialized Criminal Court, Saudi Arabia's terrorism tribunal, handed down in
2014 against 1 of the men, Ali al-Nimr, and in a separate case, against Dawoud
al-Marhoun and Abdullah al-Zaher. The judgments reveal flagrant due process
violations, including denial of access to lawyers promptly after arrest or
during lengthy pretrial detention, when investigators obtained the confessions.
"Sentencing alleged child offenders to death is an appalling example of the
Saudi court system's injustice," said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director.
"Not only are these 3 young men sentenced to death for alleged crimes they
committed as children, but the courts didn't even bother to investigate when
they said they were coerced to confess."
"Sentencing alleged child offenders to death is an appalling example of the
Saudi court system's injustice."----Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East Director
The 3 were arrested for their alleged participation in demonstrations by
members of the Shia minority in 2011 and 2012. Local activists told Human
Rights Watch that more than 200 people from Shia-majority towns and villages in
Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province have gone on trial for alleged protest-related
crimes since 2011.
Mostly Shia residents of Eastern Province towns such as Qatif, Awamiya, and
Hufuf have repeatedly held protests over discrimination by the government since
2011. Saudi Arabia's Shia citizens face systematic discrimination in public
education, government employment, and permission to build houses of worship in
the majority-Sunni country.
Al-Nimr was tried individually and sentenced in May 2014. The other 2 were
tried as part of a group and sentenced in October 2014. Al-Nimr and al-Marhoun
were 17 at the time of their arrests, while al-Zaher was 15.
Local media reported that Saudi Arabia's Supreme Court upheld al-Nimr's death
sentence in September 2015, and that the Supreme Court informed a relative of
al-Marhoun that it had upheld death sentences for al-Marhoun and al-Zaher in
October 2015.
On January 2, 2016, Saudi Arabia carried out a mass execution of 47 men
convicted on terrorism-related charges, four of whom were Shia, including a
prominent cleric, Nimr al-Nimr, Ali al-Nimr's uncle. The trial judgement for
Ali Sa'eed Al Ribh, 1 of the other Shia men executed on January 2, indicates
that he was under 18 when he allegedly committed some of the protest-related
crimes for which he was sentenced to death in 2014.
In 2015, only Iran and Pakistan executed people for crimes committed when they
were under 18, according to Amnesty International. Both countries, as well as
Bangladesh and Maldives, also sentenced child offenders to death last year,
while previously convicted child offenders remained on death row in Indonesia,
Iran, Papua New Guinea, and Saudi Arabia.
Since the beginning of 2016 Saudi Arabia has executed 84 people. Saudi Arabia
executed 158 people in 2015, most for murder and drug smuggling.
Article 13 of the Arab Charter on Human Rights, which Saudi Arabia ratified in
2009, guarantees the right to a fair trial. Article 15 of the Convention
against Torture, to which Saudi Arabia acceded in 1997, obliges Saudi Arabia to
"ensure that any statement which is established to have been made as a result
of torture shall not be invoked as evidence in any proceedings..."
The Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), to which Saudi Arabia acceded
in 1996, stipulates a number of important rights for children accused of
committing crimes. They include the right to prepare an appropriate defense
with "legal or other appropriate assistance" (article 40.2), the right "to have
the matter determined without delay by a competent, independent and impartial
authority or judicial body in a fair hearing according to law, in the presence
of legal or other appropriate assistance," including the child's parents or
legal guardian (article 40.3), and the right to "not to be compelled to give
testimony or to confess guilt" (article 40.4). Article 37(a) prohibits capital
punishment for children in all cases. Saudi authorities appear to have violated
these obligations in the cases of al-Nimr, al-Marhoun, and al-Zaher, Human
Rights Watch said.
"Unfair trials of Shia citizens are simply another way Saudi Arabia has tried
to silence its citizen???s demands to end long-term discrimination," Whitson
said. "The authorities should not compound their repression by killing child
offenders."
Death Sentences for Child Protesters
The charges against the young men relate to their alleged role in the Eastern
Province protests. Al-Nimr's judgment states he was convicted for crimes that
included "breaking allegiance with the ruler," "going out to a number of
marches, demonstrations, and gatherings against the state and repeating some
chants against the state," and setting up a website on his Blackberry to incite
demonstrations. He was also convicted of attacking police with Molotov
cocktails and rocks, concealing men wanted by police, and helping the wanted
men avoid police raids. Prosecutors gave no details of any injuries to police
officers.
Al-Zaher and al-Marhoun, arrested in March and May of 2012 respectively, both
faced numerous charges including "participating in marches and gatherings ...
and chanting slogans against the state" as well as throwing Molotov cocktails
at police patrols. Al-Marhoun was also charged with attacking the Awamiya
police station, burglarizing a pharmacy to steal medical supplies to treat
wounded protesters, and supporting protesters by "buying water and distributing
it to them." Al-Zaher was separately charged with concealing men wanted by
security forces. The court convicted al-Zaher and al-Marhoun on all of these
charges.
The 3 men were detained without charge for up to 22 months and denied access to
lawyers before and during their trials. Family members told Human Rights Watch
that following al-Nimr's arrest in February 2012, authorities did not permit
them to visit for 4 months. The authorities called him before a judge for the
1st time in December 2013 without informing his family, allowing him to appoint
a lawyer, or providing a copy of his charge sheet. The court held 3 more
sessions before the authorities allowed al-Nimr to appoint a defense lawyer.
Yet, as the trial judgment records, despite court orders to the contrary,
officials at Dammam Mabahith Prison did not allow al-Nimr's lawyer to visit him
in prison to help prepare a defense before or during his trial.
A family member of al-Marhoun told Human Rights Watch that authorities also
held him without charge from the time of his arrest on May 21, 2012 until late
2013 before charging him and taking him to court. The family member said
authorities held him incommunicado at a detention facility for minors for two
weeks, and then held him incommunicado again for 1 month after transferring him
to Dammam Mabahith Prison. Defense lawyers for al-Marhoun and al-Zaher told the
court that neither boy had been permitted to have a parent or lawyer present
during interrogation.
The court found al-Nimr guilty on the basis of a confession he signed during
his interrogation despite his statements that one of his interrogators wrote it
and that he signed it under duress without reading it. The judgment stated that
although the investigator wrote the confession, it was admissible because
al-Nimr signed it. Family members said that al-Nimr agreed to sign the
statement only after interrogators told him that they would then release him.
The court also found al-Marhoun and al-Zaher guilty based on their confessions.
Defense lawyers for al-Zaher and al-Marhoun said that both boys had been beaten
and threatened with further beatings if they did not sign confessions written
by interrogators. One of al-Marhoun's relatives said that interrogators forced
him to provide an ink fingerprint on a written confession that he did not read
and that he had trouble speaking and eating because of his beatings.
Prosecutors presented no material evidence connecting al-Marhoun to his alleged
crimes other than the confession. For al-Zaher, prosecutors presented only the
confession and his arrest report, which stated that police "saw people with
Molotov bombs and chased one of them until they arrested him, and after
scanning the area they were in they found 33 glasses filled with benzene..."
Judges immediately dismissed the defendants' claims that interrogators coerced
confessions, without investigating the allegations that the evidence was
obtained by torture. In dismissing al-Nimr's torture claims, the judge ruled
that "Religious scholars have ruled that retracting a confession for a
discretionary crime is not acceptable.... Therefore, what the defendant has
retracted from what appeared in his legally signed statement is not permitted,
and what the defendant has argued regarding coercion was not proven to the
judges."
Lawyers for all 3 men asked the court to summon the people who interrogated the
defendants to clarify the circumstances of their confessions, but judges
ignored these requests.
Authorities are holding all 3 men in Dammam Mabahith Prison.
(source: Human Rights watch)
IRAN----executions
Iran regime hangs 3 while EU's Mogherini is in Tehran for trade deals
Iran's fundamentalist regime on Saturday hanged three prisoners in a jail in
Rasht, northern Iran, as the European Union's foreign policy chief Federica
Mogherini is in Tehran to build greater trade ties between the EU and the
regime.
The 3 prisoners were identified by the regime's judiciary in Golestan Province
only by their initials and ages: E. M., 29; D. A., 51; and F. V., 31.
The mullahs' regime has executed at least 17 people in the past week while
European officials have been paying visits to Tehran.
The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) said in a statement on
Wednesday that the increasing trend of executions "aimed at intensifying the
climate of terror to rein in expanding protests by various strata of the
society, especially at a time of visits by high-ranking European officials,
demonstrates that the claim of moderation is nothing but an illusion for this
medieval regime."
Ms. Mogherini, the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign
Affairs and Security Policy, arrived in Tehran on Saturday along with seven EU
commissioners for discussions with the regime's officials on trade and other
areas of cooperation.
Her trip was strongly criticized by Mohammad Mohaddessin, chairman of the
Foreign Affairs Committee of the NCRI who said: "This trip which takes place in
the midst of mass executions, brutal human rights violations and the regime's
unbridled warmongering in the region tramples on the values upon which the EU
has been founded and which Ms. Mogherini should be defending and propagating."
Amnesty International in its April 6 annual Death Penalty report covering the
2015 period wrote: "Iran put at least 977 people to death in 2015, compared to
at least 743 the year before."
"Iran alone accounted for 82% of all executions recorded" in the Middle East
and North Africa, the human rights group said.
There have been more than 2,300 executions during Hassan Rouhani's tenure as
President. The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation
in Iran in March announced that the number of executions in Iran in 2015 was
greater than any year in the last 25 years. Rouhani has explicitly endorsed the
executions as examples of "God's commandments" and "laws of the parliament that
belong to the people."
******************
Prisoners say EU officials' visits to Iran encourage more executions
A group of resilient political prisoners in Iran's notorious Evin and
Gohardasht prisons have written to the Prime Minister of Italy Matteo Renzi
pointing out that at least eight prisoners were executed in Iran while he was
visiting Tehran earlier in the week to reestablish trade ties with the regime.
They also warned of a serious risk that other prisoners would be executed in
Iran in the coming days since the silence of European officials on the issue of
human rights during their visits to Iran only emboldens the regime to step up
its abuses.
On Saturday, European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini arrived in
Tehran along with 7 EU commissioners for discussions with the regime's
officials on trade and other areas of cooperation.
The following is the text of the April 13, 2016 letter by a group of political
prisoners in Gohardasht (Rajai-Shahr) and Evin prisons to Italian officials
after the execution of e8 prisoners in Gohardasht Prison, north-west of Tehran:
To the Prime minister of Italy:
We, the most of us, are the inmates that had warned you before about your visit
to Iran. In fact, the reason of our warning is not for bringing any political
propaganda and atmosphere but to mention that people like you do not value
humanity. So your travel to Iran will be the price for our execution. And it is
us, our families and our youths who must be sacrificed.
Dear Prime Minister of Italy, have you seen the red carpet of blood that is
spread for you today? Have you seen the trembling bodies of our fellow inmates
on the gallows? Have you seen the queue of those families who were waiting
behind the walls to receive the corpse of their children? Have you heard the
bitter sound of weeping and wailing of their children and families who were
waiting for the ambulance filled with the corpse of their loved ones.
Of course...of course you have not seen or heard any of them. Those who have
kept you in the waiting queue to sign the commercial treaties; they have also
kept our families waiting for the execution of their children. They use your
big posters and pictures to cover up the gallows of execution!
It is good for you to know that through your trip to Iran, the stream of new
executions will resume again even though they had been stopped for a while
because of international pressures. By traveling to Iran, you are to a large
extent giving political legitimacy and authority to these criminal and
murderous executions. At this moment we have just heard about the execution of
nine people. By coming to Iran, you have definitely given them the political
legitimacy and authority for further such executions.
We, the inmates of Gohardasht (Rajai Shahr) prison, will file a complaint and
send it to the people, political parties and all human rights organizations in
Italy against your travel to Iran, because your travel to Iran is contrary to
all humanitarian and philanthropic principals.
Finally, for your information, we will write the names of some executed
prisoners who were sacrificed to give you their welcomes. We will also attach
the name of other inmates of this prison (Rajai Shahr) who are waiting in the
queue to be executed, because without any acceptance from the political
authorities like you, the prisoners cannot easily be executed by them. Please
excuse us for the bitter criticism and directness because the lives of human
beings and the forthcoming crimes do not leave us any political consideration.
Here are the names of some of those who have just been executed today: Ebad
Mohammadi, Hossein Moiinfar, Hamzeh Dowlatabadi,Mehdi Haqshenas...
Also, the following names are of only some of those people who are on the
waiting list to be executed. The number of names listed below is trivial in
comparison to the full number of names of this category:
First name, last name. Father's name
Nima Esmaiilian. Karim
Afshin Hashemi. Hossein
Ahmad Qasemi. Gholam-Ali
Mohammad Zarei. Esmaeili
Amir Khalilpour. Mirza
Reza Pourabbasyan. Hossein
Akbar Beyrami. Ali
Hossein Hassani. Hasan
Akbar Dehghan. Ayyaz
Mohammad Azizi. Mosayeb
Fariborz Jalali. Mohyeddin
Mohammad Khedmati. Issa
Issa Ebrahimi. Ebrahim
Bagher Basiri. Koochak
Fethullah Bakhtiari. Ali Akbar
Alireza Gharbali. Hossein
Saeed Eskandari. Jamshid
Esrafil Mohammadi. Qayum
Faramarz Fakhraei. Ali Asghar
Barat-Ali Rahimi. Muhammad Ali
Hossein Moiinifar. Ali Asghar
Azad Ardukhany. Sekhavat
Ali kavandi pour. Moosa
Alireza Afshar. Safar-Ali
Javad. Seifi
Khaled Mohammadian. Saleh
Mahmood. Khan Mohammadi
Hamid Shirkhani. Mansour
Ghorban Ali Heidari. Fathollah
Jabbar Mollah Hashemi. Asadollah
Saadi Babakhanyan. Javanmeer
Morteza Shafeghati. Ali
Mehrdad Saeb-ol-Afshar. Abdullah
Hassan Kandy. Fethullah
Sohrab Sanamy. Rahim
Kazem Khadem-e-Rezaeaian. Rahim
Mohsen Kazemi Abdi
Farma Salehi Abdollah
Hamzeh Dowlatabady
Mahdi Haghshenas
Koorosh Chakery. Zabihollah
Hossein Sadegh Kasmaee
The signatories of this letter:
1. Abol-Qasem Fooladvand 2. Khaled Hardani 3. Farhang Pour-Mansouri 4. Rasool
Hardani 5. Reza Akbari Monfared 6. Pirooz Mansouri 7. Shahram Pourmansouri 8.
Shahin Zoghitabar 9. Hassan Sadeghi 10. Saied Masouri 11. Saleh Kohandel 12.
Ali Moezzi 13. Alireza Golipoor 14. Masood Arabchoobdar 15. Amir Doorbani
Ghaziani 16. Saeed Shirzad 17. Farid Azmoudeh 18. Behzad Tarahomi 19. Iraj
Hatami ... etc. and the names of those political prisoners reserved for
security reasons.
CC:
UN Human Rights Council and Special Rapporteur
European Parliament
European Union
Liberal Democrat Party of Italy
The Five-Star Movement
Progressive Party of Italy
Social-Democratic Party of Italy
Radical Party of Italy
Labor party of Italy
Communist Party of Italy
The Center-Right Party
"Hands Off Cain" association
(source for both: NCR-Iran)
GUYANA:
Death penalty should be replaced with humane imprisonment
Dear Editor,
In a well expressed challenge to death penalty abolitionists 'What are the
alternatives to capital punishment?' (SN 5th April), Yvonne Sam asked about
alternatives.
Good point. If we are never going to execute murderers what are we going to do
with them? The answer is simple. Lock them up and keep them locked up until
they are no longer a danger to society. While they are locked up we should do
our best to rehabilitate them. We should help murderers to understand that
killing is wrong. To realise what a terrible thing you have done by taking the
life of another human being is a form of punishment in itself.
We should help prisoners to learn how to lead constructive lives in society.
When a murderer is no longer a danger to society he (it is usually a "he")
should be released. Unfortunately some people will never be rehabilitated and
they will never come out because they remain a danger to society.
Being locked up is punishment enough. The conditions in prison should not
further destroy human dignity or damage the human spirit. It is increasingly
obvious each day as the suffering and brutality continue in the Georgetown
Prison that we must get rid of that prison and replace it with something more
humane, not just for the prisoners but for the prison officers also. We could
learn from Halden (Norway) the most humane prison in the world whose inmates
include murderers. Halden is focussed on rehabilitation. All prisoners, even
murderers, go back into society. We don't have Norway's money or the social and
material equality that underpin Norwegian society. But we should do the best we
can. The new prison must give prisoners the physical, mental and spiritual
space to allow them to grasp the horror of what they have done, suffer remorse
and change from killers to people who value life. Prison officers must have
proper remuneration, safe working conditions and the right training to enable
them to focus on rehabilitation.
Ms Sam also mentioned that if we remove the death penalty we need to find
formidable deterrents to replace the death penalty. Absolutely. However we
should remember that the death penalty is not a deterrent. There is a lot of
argument about murder rates and the death penalty, but correlation is not
proof; the causal link is missing. No one has yet come up with evidence, beyond
reasonable doubt, that the death penalty works i.e. that someone who was about
to commit murder changed his mind because of the death penalty. On the
contrary, most murders are committed by people in the grip of some strong
emotion - rage, fear, jealousy. Often the murderer's reason and self-control
have been impaired by drugs or alcohol. The death penalty is irrelevant. It has
no restraining impact on the man who kills his wife in a jealous rage or the
affronted drunk wielding a cutlass. The death penalty also has no impact on
those who kill for money or because they are involved in drug wars or gang
wars. Killing is part of the job description. Rather than making society safer
the death penalty may even endanger the police. Would a killer submit to being
arrested, tried and sentenced to death or might he be tempted to kill the
police officer and get away if he can?
In December 2015, we foolishly extended the death penalty to terrorists. This
is the one group of people who really don't care if they die. Death at the
hands of the state is martyrdom - no deterrent effect there.
For the vast majority of people, taking the life of another human being is
simply unthinkable and evil. But for the tiny group whose moral framework is
defective, there needs to be an effective deterrent. That deterrent is the
certainty that they will be caught and sentenced. In other words the most
effective deterrent to murder is the knowledge that you won't get away with it.
We need a well trained, well-equipped and well-remunerated police force staffed
by individuals who have integrity. That, not the death penalty, is what will
protect us.
Next month we celebrate our Golden Jubilee of Independence. What a pity we
still have some colonial baggage.
In 1965 Great Britain abolished the death penalty for murder in the mother
country but kept it for British Guiana. It was unacceptable for the State to
kill a British citizen but fine to kill the colonial subjects. Perhaps even
now, we believe that our lives are less valuable. We have the highest suicide
rate in the world. We have the fourth highest road death rate. We have a murder
rate hovering around 18 per 100,000 compared to less than 1 per 100,000 in
Great Britain.
The Government should send a clear message that Guyanese lives are precious,
and that each one of us has dignity and a right to life. Announcing that the
death penalty will be replaced with humane imprisonment would be a good 1st
step.
Yours faithfully,
Melinda Janki
(source: Letter to the Editor, stabroeknews.com)
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