July 6
IRAN:
Shahram Ahmadi in Imminent Danger of Execution after Request for Retrial
Rejected
Shahram Ahmadi is in imminent danger of execution after his lawyer's request
for a retrial was rejected by Iranian authorities.
Iran's Supreme Court has reportedly rejected a request for retrial regarding
the case of Shahram Ahmadi, a political prisoner on death row in Karaj's Rajai
Shahr Prison (northern Iran). Mr. Ahmadi, who is a Sunni Muslim preacher, is in
imminent danger of execution for Moharebeh (enmity against God).
Mr. Ahmadi was arrested in Sanandaj (in the province of Kurdistan, northwestern
Iran) by Iranian authorities on April 26, 2009, after he was shot and injured
by security agents. He was reportedly taken to the hospital and later
transferred to a detention centre in Sanandaj operated by the Ministry of
Intelligence.
He endured more than 40 months in solitary confinement cells in Ministry of
Intelligence detention centres in Sanandaj and Zanjan. He was severely tortured
and accused of relations with Salafi groups and the assassination of a Sunni
Friday prayer Imam in Sanandaj. In an unprecedented move, Iranian authorities
reportedly transferred Mr. Ahmadi's case file from Sanandaj to branch 28 of
Tehran's Revolutionary Court, presided by a corrupt judge by the name of
Moghiseh. In accordance with the judicial process in Iran, the case file of
defendants must be examined or investigated where the alleged crime was
committed. Mr. Ahmadi was reportedly sentenced to death by Judge Moghiseh based
on forced confessions.
According to Mr. Ahmadi's lawyer, his client has never possessed or used a
weapon and has never harmed anyone. The lawyer, who had filed the request for
the retrial, wrote in his appeals about the psychological and physical tortures
his client endured in order for the Iranian authorities to extract confessions
from him. Mr. Ahmadi has written multiple letters from prison denying the
assasination charge against him and claiming that he was arrested only because
he is a preacher of Sunni Islam.
Mr. Ahmadi's brother, Bahram, was executed at Karaj's Ghezelhesar Prison by
Iranian authorities on December 27, 2012 along with nine other Sunni Muslim
political prisoners. Bahram was reportedly arrrested by Iranian authorities on
September 19, 2009 when he was under the age of 18. On March 4, 2014 6 other
Sunni Muslim political prisoners were executed by Iranian authorities in Ghezel
Hesar Prison: Hamed Ahmadi, Jahangir Dehghani, Jamshid Dehghani, Kamal Molaei,
Sedigh Mohammadi, and Hadi Hosseini.
There are currently at least 35 Sunni Muslim political prisoners in Rajai Shahr
Prison who are in imminent danger of execution.
(source: Iran Human Rights)
PHILIPPINES:
Bill to re-impose death penalty filed in Philippines----First bill filed under
President Rodrigo Duterte seeks to reintroduce capital punishment for 'heinous
crimes'
A bill seeking to re-impose the death penalty in the Philippines has become the
first to be filed under the presidency of Rodrigo Duterte.
Local media reported Wednesday that the bill proposes that those convicted of
certain "heinous crimes" be executed by legal injection, and was filed by Davao
del Norte Representative Pantaleon Alvarez -- Duterte's choice for Speaker of
the House of Representatives -- and Representative Fredenil Castro of central
Capiz province.
"Philippine society is left with no option but to deal with certain grievous
offenders in a manner commensurate to the gravity, perversity, atrociousness
and repugnance of their crimes," according to House Bill No. 1 of the newly
sworn in 17th Congress.
After winning the May 9 election on a crime-fighting campaign, Duterte vowed to
work toward re-introducing the death penalty, which had been abolished for a
2nd time in 2006.
Duterte -- a lawyer by profession -- served 22 years as the mayor of southern
Davao, overseeing its transformation from a crime-ridden hovel to a peaceful
and investment-friendly city.
He has pledged to curb corruption and criminality within 3 to 6 months of his
presidential term, which began June 30.
In House Bill No. 1, Alvarez underlined the need to revive the death penalty
due to the country's crime rate having "grown to such alarming proportions
requiring an all-out offensive against all forms of felonious acts".
"There is evidently a need to reinvigorate the war against criminality by
revising a deterrent coupled by its consistent, persistent and determined
implementation," Alvarez and Castro said.
Listed among the "heinous crimes" that could be subject to the death penalty
are human trafficking, illegal recruitment, treason, rape, qualified piracy and
bribery, kidnapping and illegal detention, robbery with violence against or
intimidation of persons, terrorism and drug-related cases.
"The imposition of the death penalty for heinous crimes and the mode of its
implementation, both subjects of repealed laws, are crucial components of an
effective dispensation of both reformative and retributive justice," the bill's
authors stressed.
The Philippines became the 1st Asian country to prohibit the death penalty
under its 1987 Constitution, drafted after the overthrow of late dictator
President Ferdinand Marcos.
Capital punishment was restored in the 1990s -- as allowed under the
constitution with the approval of Congress -- before being abolished in 2006.
As Davao City mayor, Duterte imposed bans on public smoking, and the selling of
alcohol and the operation of entertainment spots past midnight.
In 2015, however, Amnesty International alleged that "death squads" under his
control were responsible for 700 extrajudicial executions in the region.
Duterte reported to have responded that it was more like 1,700.
(source: aa.com.tr)
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