May 24
GAZA:
Hamas announces public executions that will 'take Gaza past Saudi Arabia'
The Palestinian militant group Hamas is to carry out a string of public
executions in the Gaza strip, the patch of territory it controls.
The executions were announced by Hamas's attorney general in Gaza, Ismail
Jaber. "Capital punishments will be implemented soon in Gaza," he said. "I ask
that they take place before a large crowd."
13 men, most convicted of murder connected to robberies, are currently awaiting
execution, another Hamas official, Khalil al-Haya, said on Friday at the main
prayers.
If all those go ahead, Gaza's execution rate relative to the size of its
population will overtake that of Saudi Arabia's in one go.
Last year, Saudi Arabia, with a population of 31.5 million, executed 153
people. Though one of the most densely populated territories in the world, Gaza
has a population of just 1.8 million.
Palestinian law allows the death penalty for collaborators, murderers and drug
traffickers.
On Sunday, the families of the victims of those on death row protested in
favour of the executions outside Gaza's parliament, after the authorities gave
a rare permission to stage a public demonstration.
The last time Hamas carried out public executions was during the summer 2014
war with Israel, when a Hamas firing squad shot dead 7 people outside Gaza's
main mosque following Friday prayers . Bodies were then dragged through the
streets.
According to a May 2015 report by Amnesty International, Hamas forces also
carried out at least 23 extrajudicial killings of Palestinians in Gaza in 2014,
with at least 17 people killed on 1 day alone.
So far in 2016, approximately 10 people have been sentenced to death in Gaza.
Since the creation of the Palestinian Authority in 1994, more than 170
Palestinians have been sentenced to death and around 30 have been executed,
mostly in Gaza, according to the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR).
All execution orders must in theory be approved by the Palestinian Authority
president, Mahmoud Abbas, but his legitimacy is not recognised by Hamas in the
Gaza strip.
In February this year, it was announced that Mahmoud Ishtiwi, a commander from
Hamas's military wing, was executed in Gaza by a firing squad.
(source: telegraph.co.uk)
SAUDI ARABIA----execution
Saudi man executed for murder
Saudi Arabia put to death a citizen convicted of murder on Tuesday, bringing to
94 the number of executions in the kingdom in 2016.
Imad al-Assimi was found guilty of shooting dead a compatriot in a dispute, the
interior ministry said in a statement carried by state news agency SPA.
Most people put to death in Saudi Arabia are beheaded with a sword.
Murder and drug trafficking cases account for the majority of Saudi executions,
although 47 people were put to death for "terrorism" on a single day in
January, 2016.
According to human rights group Amnesty International, Saudi Arabia had the
3rd-highest number of executions last year - at least 158.
That was far behind Pakistan which executed 326, and Saudi Arabia's regional
rival Iran, which executed at least 977, said Amnesty, whose figures exclude
secretive China.
Rights activists have raised concerns about the fairness of trials in Saudi
Arabia and have been particularly critical of the use of the death penalty for
non-violent offences like drug trafficking.
The interior ministry has said it is "determined to fight drugs of all kinds
due to the serious damage they do to individuals and society".
Saudi Arabia has a strict Islamic legal code under which murder, drug
trafficking, armed robbery, rape and apostasy are all punishable by death.
(source: Agence France-Presse)
IRAN----execution
Man Hanged In Northwestern Iran
1 prisoner was hanged in Qazvin Prison (northwestern Iran) on the morning of
Thursday May 19, reports the official website of the Iranian Judiciary in the
province of Qazvin.
The man, who was identified as "Sepahdar", was reportedly convicted of
murdering another man who allegedely had an affair with his sister.
*********
At Least 8 Prisoners Transferred to Solitary Confinement For Execution
At least 6 prisoners were transferred to solitary confinement in Karaj's Rajai
Shahr Prison (west of Tehran) on Saturday May 20, report close sources to Iran
Human Rights (IHR).
These prisoners, who are all convicted of murder, are scheduled to be executed
on Tuesday or Wednesday of this week. According to reports gathered by IHR, at
least 40 prisoners were executed in Iran during the first 3 weeks of May.
*********
5 Other Prisoners Scheduled to Be Executed in Coming Days
5 prisoners are scheduled to be hanged in the coming days, according to sources
of Iran Human Rights.
6 prisoners from Karaj Central Prison were transferred to solitary confinement
in preparation for their executions, which were scheduled for Sunday May 22. 1
of the prisoners was eventually returned to his cell while the other 5
prisoners are scheduled to be executed in the coming days. All the prisoners
were sentenced to death for drug related charges.
8 other prisoners are scheduled to be executed in the coming days in Karaj's
Rajai Shahr prison (west of Tehran).
(source for all: Iran Human Rights)
************
Iranians in Canada protest against executions in Iran
Iranians in Canada have held protests over the weekend denouncing human rights
violations in Iran and urging the Canadian government to base any improvement
in its ties to the Iranian regime on a halt to executions in Iran.
Protests were held on Saturday in Ottawa and Toronto and on Sunday in Montreal
by supporters of the main Iranian opposition People's Mojahedin Organization of
Iran (PMOI or MEK).
Protesters condemned the recent wave of executions in Iran.
They held up banners in English and Persian reading: "Political prisoners must
be freed," "No to torture and execution," and "Stop torture and executions in
Iran."
Other banners read "Down with Khamenei," referring to Ali Khamenei, Supreme
Leader of the mullahs' regime.
The protesters in Ottawa also held a banner which highlighted the role of the
Iranian regime's President Hassan Rouhani in the torture and executions taking
place in Iran.
It read: "Rouhani is complicit in more than three decades of killing, torture
and execution in the Iranian clerical regime. His record: More than 2300
executions during his presidency."
The protesters in Montreal in particular called for international solidarity
with Iran's imprisoned teachers and trade union activists.
The PMOI (MEK) supporters in both rallies also commemorated the 41st
anniversary of the martyrdom of the PMOI's original founders by the Shah's
regime which will take place on Tuesday.
(source: NCR-Iran)
ISRAEL:
"Execute Terrorists": New Israeli Death Penalty Would Apply to Non-Jews Only
Israel has never fully abolished the death penalty, but it has remained unused
since the 1960s.
A new law to execute "terrorists" in Israel will effectively apply only to
non-Jews, according to a source in the Likud party.
Incoming Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman has made the restoration of the
death penalty for terror attacks a sticking point for his far-right Yisrael
Beiteinu party to join the government.
However, according to a Likud source quoted by Haaretz, the new law would apply
only to people tried in military courts.
As Palestinians are prosecuted in military courts while Jews accused of similar
crimes are prosecuted in civil courts, the death penalty would in practice
apply only to Palestinians.
The move to restore the death penalty, which has never been officially
abolished but has not been used since 1962, has proved highly controversial in
Israel.
Former attorney general Yehuda Weinstein on Thursday called on his successor,
Avichai Mendelblit, to oppose the proposals.
"There's nothing like it in the world," he told Haaretz. "There are no
countries that added the death penalty to the book of law, only ones that took
it off.
"It's not practical in terms of deterrence, since these are criminals who
anyhow act out of an ideological motive and aren't afraid of death. It's also
not moral."
However, other right-wing politicians in Israel have backed calls for the death
penalty to be used again.
Ayelet Shaked, Israeli justice minister and member of the far-right Jewish Home
party, said last July that she "found out that there's a death penalty for
terrorists and that it was last handed out in 1994. Since then the military
prosecution has not requested a death penalty, but it can be requested, and the
military court can give it according to the law.
"Unfortunately, the sentence of the terrorist prosecuted in 1994 was commuted
to a life sentence, and he was released in the Shalit deal, but the penalty
exists and can be carried out," she added, according to Haaretz. Israeli
soldier Gilad Shalit was part of a prisoner-exchange deal In 2011 after being
held captive by Hamas for 5 years.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Lieberman may sign the coalition
agreement on Sunday evening.
Netanyahu had also been in talks with the leader of the Labor Party, Isaac
Herzog, but those negotiations broke down when news leaked that Netanyahu was
thinking of bringing Lieberman back into the fold in a move that Israeli media
agrees would create the "most right-wing government" Israel has known.
Lieberman has served in previous coalitions with Netanyahu but declined to join
his coalition last year.
Yaalon had been at loggerheads with Netanyahu over his insistence made in a
speech last week that senior officers be encouraged to "speak their mind".
On Thursday, he made public comments that he was "surprised" by a growing "loss
of moral compass on basic questions" in Israeli society.
"We need to steer the country in accordance with one's conscience and not
whichever way the wind is blowing," Yaalon said.
According to reports in the Israeli press, Netanyahu called Yaalon on Thursday
to tell him to ignore media speculation about Lieberman, insisting that nothing
was set in stone, although it appears Yaalon decided to jump ship before he was
pushed.
Earlier reports claimed that Netanyahu was considering offering the retired
lieutenant general the foreign ministry as a consolation, but that the offer
was never made.
Yaalon's resignation paves the way for right-wing activist Yehuda Glick to
enter the Knesset as he is the next candidate on the Likud list that decides
who becomes an MP.
Glick is a leading figure in the Temple Mount movement that seeks to have
Jewish prayers in the al-Aqsa mosque compound, with Palestinians scared the aim
is to completely level Muslim holy sites to make way for a Jewish Third Temple
that many believe was prophesied by scripture.
The compound is under Jordanian control, and non-Muslim prayers are strictly
forbidden there, although growing numbers of Israelis have been skirting the
rules in a move deemed by by Palestinians to be highly inflammatory.
Glick survived an assassination attempt by a Palestinian assailant who was
angered by his views on Temple Mount in 2014.
(source: Global Research)
PHILIPPINES:
Duterte and the coming bloodbath
On Nov. 16, 1999, President Joseph Estrada appointed his then-favorite
policeman, Director Panfilo Lacson, as the new chief of the Philippine National
Police. The next day, the special operations group that Lacson led before his
appointment, the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force, killed eight men
in Fairview, Quezon City, in what some witnesses called a "rubout." 7 of the
dead were later identified as suspected robbers; the 8th, a civilian bystander,
was later reported to be the alleged mastermind of the robbery gang.
It was an arresting start to a controversial (and, as it turned out,
abbreviated) term. For many, the spectacular violence was seen as precisely a
violent spectacle, staged to strike fear among criminals.
3 renowned lawyers immediately raised the alarm. (I quote from an Inquirer
editorial written some 10 years after the event.)
"Sen. Raul Roco told a news conference: 'Lacson must be made to explain: Why,
on your 2nd day, did 7 people die? How many will die on the 3rd day? What are
your projected plans on the 14th day?'
"Sen. Aquilino Pimentel Jr. called on the PNP to disclose the true
circumstances of the killings. 'Otherwise, the apprehension will continue that
extrajudicial killing or vigilante justice is now taking place all over the
country.'
"Rep. Joker Arroyo sketched a disturbing profile of Lacson's brand of law
enforcement. There is an emerging 'pattern' in the way Lacson and his unit
conduct their operations, he said: 'All the suspects are killed.' He also noted
that, in the Fairview killings as in the Kuratong Baleleng case of 1995, 'the
victims were relatively small-time'."
When Rodrigo Duterte, the controversial mayor of Davao City famous for his
iron-fist approach to peace and order issues, takes his oath of office as the
next president of the Philippines on June 30, only 1 of these 3 historical
personalities will still be around to serve as a conscience of the people. Will
Nene Pimentel, the founder of the PDP-Laban party which now serves as Duterte's
political vehicle, sound the alarm when the new president inaugurates his term
with the spectacles of violence he promised during the long campaign?
I say "when," not "if," because it is clear to both those who voted for Duterte
and those who did not that he intends to "suppress" crime within "3 to 6
months" after he takes office.
Those who voted for him and those who did not may agree that the only way
Duterte can come close to making good on that ambitious promise is by doing
what he did (or, if one prefers to accept that the Davao Death Squad is not
connected to him, what he failed to stop) in Davao City: to identify the
criminal suspects, and then to see them dead. But because by noon of June 30 he
will be running a national government, he will need to scale up. Hence his
statement, repeated many times, about filling Manila Bay (chosen for its
symbolic national value) with the corpses of a hundred thousand suspected
criminals.
In a television interview a year before the elections, for instance, he teased
out once again his reputation as the man behind the Davao Death Squad, the
vigilante group that is estimated to have killed over a thousand people in his
city.
"If by chance, God will place me there [in the presidential palace], the 1,000
will become 100,000," he said. "Diyan mo makita na tataba ang isda sa Manila
Bay. Diyan ko kayo itatapon (That's where you will see the fish getting fat in
Manila Bay; that's where I will dump you)."
Surely this is hyperbole? And that plural "you" at the end - this must be just
another example of Duterte's gift for stirring controversy and courting media
coverage with outrageous statements, right? Perhaps; at least that is what one
should hope for, if we want true justice, not the false peace of the funeral
parlor.
But the killing of 100,000 Filipinos will be the worst outbreak of violence in
the country since World War II, when about a million people died. The total of
100,000 that Duterte seeks to feed the fish of Manila Bay with is about twice
the number of Filipino soldiers killed by the Japanese, and 5 times the number
of Filipino revolutionaries killed by the Americans during the
Philippine-American War.
If we say, "OK, perhaps he really did not mean 100,000 killings," we will find
ourselves sucked into a dangerous exercise, a dubious moral calculus. Are
10,000 extrajudicial killings "OK" for a country with a population of almost
110 million? That's less than 1 % of 1 %. How about 1,000 killings - but not
spread between 1998 and 2015, as in Davao City, according to documentation by
human rights groups, but between July and December this year? Is that
"acceptable"? How about "only" 100 killings, but all on the afternoon of June
30, after Duterte takes his oath? Would that be "fitting"?
Or perhaps we can accept the figure of 100,000, after all; these are suspected
criminals, not soldiers or revolutionaries.
These damning calculations should chill our blood. Archbishop Antonio Ledesma
of Cagayan de Oro used his preelection pastoral letter to remind us: "The
victims [of the Davao Death Squad] include 132 children (17 years and below)."
Let us take a deep breath and ask ourselves: How many of Duterte's 100,000 will
be innocent or underage?
We may see a spree of extrajudicial killings at the exact same time the
privileged party-hopping animals of Congress debate a death penalty law - a law
that, in practice, will affect only those Filipinos without privilege. Like
others, I am filled with foreboding.
(source: Opinion, John Nery----Philippine Daily Inquirer)
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