April 25
IRAN----executions
3 Prisoners Hanged in Northern Iran
According to a report by the press department of the Judiciary in Gilan, 3
prisoners were hanged at Lakan Rasht Prison on Saturday April 16.
2 of the prisoners, identified as D.A (51 years old) and F.V. (31 years old),
were reportedly executed on murder charges and the other, identified as A.M.
(29 years old), reportedly on drug charges.
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Prisoner Hanged in Southern Iran
A prisoner was reportedly hanged at Bandar Abbas's central prison on murder
charges.
According to a report by the Judiciary in Hormozgan, a prisoner, identified as
H.M. (31 years old), was hanged on murder charges on the morning of Wednesday
April 20.
(source for both: Iran Human Rights)
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Call to save 10 prisoners about to be executed
The Iranian Resistance calls on international human rights organizations to
take urgent action to save the lives of 10 prisoners transferred to solitary
confinement in preparation for their antihuman execution in prisons in Karaj
(Ghezel-Hessar) and Zahedan.
On April 24, the regime's henchmen transferred 7 prisoners on death row to
solitary confinement in Ghezel-Hessar prison in preparation for their
execution.
Three other prisoners on death row in Zahedan's central prison were transferred
to solitary confinement one more time. Transfer of prisoners to the quarantined
ward, special to the prisoners about to be executed, or taking them to the
hanging poles to see the execution of other prisoners, are ordinary methods
employed to pressure and psychologically torture prisoners in the prisons of
the velayat-e faqih regime.
On April 18, Mullah Sadeq Larijani, head of the regime's judiciary, defended
the death sentence by saying: "By the laws of the Islamic Republic, we don't
have execution for the sake of killing people; rather, this is Qisas which is a
sort of right." Mullah Rouhani, the so-called moderate President of this
regime, has similarly described death sentences as "divine command" and "laws
of a parliament that belong to the people."
The wave of executions, especially of young people, demonstrates the regime's
fear of popular discontent and increasing protests by the disgruntled Iranian
people and in particular millions of youths who are tired of poverty,
corruption, addiction, unemployment and other social problems, which are the
product of the mullahs' rule, and demand the overthrow of the religious fascism
ruling Iran.
(source: Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran)
PAKISTAN:
Death-row paraplegic in Pakistan pleads for mercy as stay of execution expires
A severely disabled prisoner on Pakistan's death row has called on the
country's President to spare his life, as a stay of execution granted to him in
January expired.
Abdul Basit, who is paralyzed from the waist down, has had his execution halted
at the last minute 3 separate times in the past year, after his lawyers raised
concerns that his execution could be illegal. Pakistan's Supreme Court has said
Basit's execution must comply with the country's Prison Rules, which set
Pakistan's execution procedure - however, the rules contain no provisions for
the hanging of prisoners in wheelchairs.
The Pakistani government has said it is carrying out an 'inquiry' into Basit's
medical condition, but has sought to block his lawyers from accessing the
results of its tests on him. This weekend, the most recent stay of execution
granted to Basit, in January this year, was due to expire.
In comments to the Telegraph that were published today, Basit said that he
still hoped that the President of Pakistan, Mamnoon Hussain, would grant a
petition for mercy submitted by his lawyers. He said: "The last 2 stays [of
execution] have given me a hint of hope that Mr. President acknowledges that I
am a helpless paralyzed man who cannot even stand on my feet. I don't know what
will happen when my stay expires. I don't know if they will hang me or let me
live."
The UN Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading
Treatment or Punishment, Juan Mendez, has said that Basit's execution would be
illegal under international law, and has called on Pakistan to permanently
commute Basit's death sentence in line with the petition for mercy submitted to
the country's President.
Pakistan is thought to have the largest death row in the world, at over 8,000
people. The government resumed executions in December 2014, and has claimed to
be executing only 'terrorists.' However, an investigation this year by
international human rights organization Reprieve and the Justice Project
Pakistan found that, of 351 prisoners executed since 2014, only 1 in 10
involved people who could be linked to militancy.
Commenting, Maya Foa, director of the death penalty team at Reprieve, said:
"It's deeply worrying that the Pakistani authorities may now be gearing up to
try and execute Abdul Basit - a paralyzed man who once again faces the prospect
of being hanged in his wheelchair. Following three previous last minute stays,
the government has still given no explanation of how it plans to avoid a
horribly botched execution. The UN Special Rapporteur on Torture has confirmed
that Abdul Basit's death sentence is illegal and should be commuted. The
international community must urgently call on Pakistan's President to halt this
cruel spectacle, and grant Basit's plea for mercy."
(source: reprieve.org.uk)
UNITED KINGDOM:
Life and Death Row: Love Triangle - your new true crime TV obsession----Like
Making a Murderer for the time-starved telly addict, BBC3's novel new
documentary series about death-row inmate Emilia Carr drops in daily bite-size
episodes with a guaranteed cliffhanger every time
It's fitting that Life and Death Row is on BBC3, the network given its own
death penalty on 15 February 2016 when it became an online-only channel. But,
like an inmate marked for execution, BBC3 has found ways of continuing its
appeal. This week's new series of the award-winning court-case documentary has
been reworked for the digital crowd.
The first 3 series of Life and Death Row were documentaries built to fit the
hour-long slots that have been the basic unit of television for most of its
history. But the 4th instalment, Love Triangle, has been divided into 8
10-minute episodes, which will be available online at 11am and 4pm every day
until Thursday.
This is a radical decision, as 2 US legal series that have clearly influenced
this show - Serial and Making a Murderer - stuck to traditional half-hour or
hour-long chunks, even though they were made for WBEZ radio and Netflix
respectively.
Yet the short segments prove very effective. As in all real-life crime stories,
the audience's suspicions and sympathies swing, but the bite-size chunks
guarantee frequent cliffhangers, as if viewers are jurors at a trial conducted
by a weak-bladdered judge who keeps taking adjournments at especially tense
moments.
We gradually piece together the true-life story of Emilia Carr, sentenced by a
Florida jury to death by lethal injection for the 1st-degree murder and
kidnapping of Heather Strong, with whom she competed for the romantic
attentions of Joshua Fulgham, who is serving 2 life terms for the abduction and
killing of Strong.
Some viewers will presumably stockpile episodes and watch in one block at the
end of the week. But encouragement to take a bite twice daily is provided by
the dropping online, alongside episodes, of supporting material that includes
witness statements and police interviews.
An obvious risk of the flourishing genre in which trials are reinvestigated by
documentary is to give the impression that everyone in US penitentiary is
innocent. In this case, as in the Steven Avery proceedings in Making a
Murderer, the concern may be more over the purity of the process (both involve
confessions secured without legal counsel present) than the probity of the
suspects. The conviction of Carr also raises interesting questions about
whether women and especially those with young children (Carr gave birth to her
4th child in jail) should be treated differently from men with regard to
imprisonment or execution.
For UK viewers, another discussion rumbling under Life and Death Row is whether
the British legal system should be more hospitable to film-makers. The
interviews here with Carr, lounging in her orange prison-issue jumpsuit, would
not be possible with a British convict, and the easy availability of suspect
and witness videos, plus courtroom footage, is the reason the murder doc is a
US genre.
With discussions currently taking place over the extent to which cameras should
be admitted to British courts, viewers of Life and Death Row will reflect
(especially if they have also seen Making a Murderer) on whether such TV
projects usefully subject the judiciary to scrutiny or whether, as some lawyers
argue, they risk turning the public into a baying court of appeal that has not
heard all of the evidence.
For me, Love Triangle sensitively balances the protestations of the convicted
with the claims of the victim, who cannot be interviewed. One of the detectives
talks about the importance of "making Heather a person", and, by doing so
through interviews with relatives, the programme avoids succumbing to the
appeal-lawyer fever that can overtake such shows. The new format also makes a
strong case for the post-execution potency of traditional networks that migrate
online. Whether you find that encouraging or worrying may depend on your age.
(source: Mark Lawson, The Guardian)
SRI LANKA:
Best alternative to death penalty
I write to canvass support for the Death Penalty to be reintroduced as a
deterrent, considering the horrific crimes being committed almost on a daily
basis in our country today. The response to an article I wrote recently has
been enormous, in fact quite a few have made a suggestion which I thought I
should share with the reading public. When a murderer is convicted and
sentenced to death, if that penalty is not being carried out, then the murderer
should be placed in 'solitary confinement' for the rest of his life.
That will be an appropriate punishment. There appears to be a reluctance to put
an end to the life of the murderers even though they have been sentenced to
death. Yes solitary confinement for life would indeed be a form of punishment
better than merely sentencing them to life imprisonment.
Little Seya and Vidya
When I was Chairman of the Prisons Inspection Board, I realised that most
criminals did not regret the crimes they had committed. They lived happily in
prison. They should also be whipped in public. That is the most appropriate
punishment for these monsters, such as the man who took the life of that child,
Seya, and the man who took the life of that girl, Vidya.
Do these criminals deserve to live after the crime of taking the lives of
little Seya and Vidya Just imagine the fear and pain that Seya and Vidya would
have suffered at the hands of these despicable monsters. How if they were
children of any of ours Would this not have haunted us all our lives Just
imagine the pain that their parents would be going through.
No, these monsters have no right to live. They must be put to death or if the
government does not wish to carry out death penalty, they must be whipped in
public and sentenced to solitary confinement for the rest of their lives.
In reference to carrying out the death penalty, if the President feels delicate
to sign the final order to carry out the death sentence, then he could refer it
to a bench of three SC Judges to examine the record of the case and make the
order to carry out the sentence. There are many of us citizens prepared to
volunteer to see that the execution is carried out. If hanging be considered
gruesome then let us introduce the fatal injection, as is the system in some
States of the US.
As stated earlier, I was for some years chairman of a committee which inspected
prisons. I have met many who had been sentenced to death for premeditated
murder, including a man who had been sentenced to death for the murder of that
great humanist Dr. Neelan Tiruchelvam, (yes they live happily in prison). When
I asked the man found guilty of Neelan's murder as to whether he regretted the
horrible crime he had committed, he laughed. I have no regret that I had the
monster beaten up. Yes I had the monster given a beating. Unfortunately I could
not have had him hanged.
Arms Bazaars
I note that countries which have become 'civilized and enlightened' after the
World War II, and organization in the West, have called upon us to do away with
the death penalty, they have conveniently forgotten the crimes they were a
party to even in recent years in Vietnam and Laos and the fact that they did
not stop the mass murders in Bosnia and in many other places and that it is
their arms that is killing thousands in the Middle East. Their Arms Bazaars
never had it so good.
We, for our protection, must retain the death penalty for premeditated heinous
murder and perhaps also consider enforcing the death penalty for drug barons
who are finishing off our youth to make their money and to live happily.
Countries that retain the death penalty know what a deterrent it has been and
of how life has been made safe for law abiding citizens. The government owes
this to us, we must hang them or put them to death by other means, all
pre-meditated murderers and other criminals who have committed horrendous
crimes or, at the very least, make them suffer in solitary confinement for the
rest of their lives.
(source: K Godage, Daily Times)
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