July 21
IRAN----executions
10 Prisoners Executed at Rajai Shahr Prison in 1 Day----The execution spree of
the Iranian authorities continues with 10 executions carried out on Wednesday
July 20 at Rajai Shahr Prison. About 38 executions have been reported in Iran
in the past week.
A group of ten prisoners were executed at Rajai Shahr Prison (Alborz province,
northern Iran) on Wednesday July 20, according to sources close to Iran Human
Rights (IHR). The prisoners were reportedly on death row on unrelated murder
charges.
IHR calls on the international community to draw attention to the rising number
of executions in Iran. "Although these prisoners were executed for criminal
charges, the main goal of the executions is to spread fear in the society. The
International community should not close its eyes to the arbitrary executions
in Iran," says Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, spokesperson for Iran Human Rights.
The prisoners had been transferred to solitary confinement on Sunday July 17 in
preparation for their executions scheduled for Wednesday. Iran Human Rights has
identified 4 of the prisoners as Mohsen Babaie, Mehdi Keshavarz, Reza Teymouri
and Mohsen Khanmohammadi.
Iranian official sources, including the Judiciary and state media, have been
silent about these 10 executions. About 38 executions have been reported in
Iran in the past week.
(source: Iran Human Rights)
*******************
Brutal guards attack death row prisoners in Iran's Ghezel Hesar Prison
Prison guards at the notorious Ghezel Hesar Prison in Karaj, north-west of
Tehran, brutally attacked inmates in the death row ward earlier this week.
With black masks covering their faces the vicious guards attacked the prisoners
on Monday (July 18) in order to create a climate of fear, according to reports
from inside the prison.
The prisoners said that such brutal measures are meant to scare prisoners and
stop them from revolting in prison.
(source: NCR-Iran)
KUWAIT:
Kuwait court upholds death penalty in terror case----In January, lower court
found 23 of the 26 guilty of various crimes and 2 were sentenced to death
Kuwait's Court of Appeal on Thursday upheld the death sentence of one of the
two defendants who were awarded capital punishment by a lower court in the
terrorist cell case No. 302/2016. The other, an Iranian, is at large and was
sentenced by the lower court in absentia.
While 3 defendants were acquitted, the other 21 received sentences ranging from
5 to 15 years in prison.
According to the Kuwait News Agency, KUNA, 1 of them was fined KD5,000 ($16,500
approximately).
Kuwaiti security service officers raided farmhouses near the Iraqi border late
last summer, slicing through carpets and smashing open concrete floors. Hidden
in large plastic containers was a weapons cache, the largest discovered in
Kuwait's history. State television showed Kuwait's Interior Minister, a senior
ruling family member, solemnly viewing the seized weapons.
Kuwait charged 25 of its nationals and an Iranian with spying for Iran and
Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah.
The case opened up sectarian divisions in Kuwait. While Kuwait's Sunni majority
and Shiite minority get on better with each other than in neighbouring states,
tensions still exist.
In January this year, a Kuwaiti court found 23 of the 26 guilty of various
charges. 2 were sentenced to death, including the Iranian who is at large. The
others were fined or received jail terms between 5 years and life.
The prosecution is appealing the sentences, saying some of the men should have
received tougher punishments.
On September 1 last year, Kuwait's public prosecution said 26 defendants,
including the Iranian, would stand trial for the possession of weapons,
ammunition and explosives and espionage for Iran and Hezbollah.
It said that 24 defendants faced charges of engaging in acts likely to
undermine the unity and safety of Kuwait and sharing of intelligence with Iran
and Lebanese group Hezbollah.
Iran-Kuwait spat
However, the Iranian embassy on September 3 downplayed the significance of the
terrorist cell and the charges of espionage, saying that the case was a
domestic Kuwaiti issue pertaining mainly to the discovery of weapons and
ammunition.
The embassy said it regretted the move to implicate Iran in the case and called
upon the Kuwaiti authorities to communicate the identity and "alleged role" of
the Iranian suspect.
The embassy blasted Kuwaiti media for its "negative incitement against the
Kuwaiti-Iranian relations" and for "targeting Iran based on flimsy charges, so
far unproven by the judicial authorities".
In September, Kuwait summoned Iran's ambassador to the country and handed him a
reply to a statement issued earlier by the Iranian embassy on the busting of
the terror cell.
The reply was handed over by Deputy Foreign Minister Khalid Sulaiman Al
Jarallah to Ambassador Ali Reza Enayati, the foreign ministry said.
"The reply included clarifications about Kuwait's stance on the issue," the
ministry said in a brief statement carried by KUNA on Monday.
The ministry had earlier rejected the Iranian embassy's statement following the
referral of suspects to a court over their espionage links with Iran and
Hezbollah, saying that it was not consistent with basic diplomatic norms.
A spokesperson said the foreign ministry regretted and rejected the embassy
statement for ignoring basic diplomatic norms that require resorting to
official communication channels between governments when seeking information
regarding a specific issue, and not going to the public media instead.
(source: Gulf News)
GAZA:
Palestinian organization blasts latest Hamas death sentences----Palestinian
Center for Human Rights condemns death sentences handed down to alleged Israeli
spies in Gaza.
A Palestinian Authority-based human rights organization on Wednesday condemned
the latest death sentences handed down by tribunals in the Hamas-ruled Gaza
Strip, AFP reports.
On Tuesday, a military court in Gaza sentenced three local residents to death
after they were convicted of providing information to Israel's security
services.
The trial of the alleged "spies" was held behind closed doors and without the
presence of the media.
The Gaza Military Court announced a sentence of death by hanging for a man
identified as M.S., aged 59, from the Tuffah area east of Gaza city on charges
of "collaborating with the Israeli occupation."
The Higher Military Court said it had confirmed execution orders against 2
other men, one a 49-year-old man from Khan Yunis, by hanging and a Gaza City
man aged 38 by firing squad.
In response, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) condemned in a
statement the "excessive" punishment and said that "civilians should not appear
before military courts."
The authorities in Gaza executed 3 men behind closed doors in May, the 1st time
the death penalty had been carried out since 2014.
13 death sentences have been pronounced this year, 12 of which were issued by
military courts, according to PCHR.
Hamas regularly claims to have captured "Israeli spies", and many times it
tries them and sentences them to death.
In one such example, the group claimed to have exposed "the most dangerous
intelligence agent" who allegedly worked for the Israel Security Agency (Shin
Bet).
Under Palestinian law, collaboration with Israel is punishable by death. All
death sentences, however, require the approval of Palestinian Authority (PA)
chairman Mahmoud Abbas, who issued a moratorium on death sentences in 2005.
Hamas ignores the moratorium and carries out the executions anyway, as it no
longer recognizes the legitimacy of Abbas, whose 4-year term expired in 2009.
Amnesty International has previously called on Hamas to stop the executions of
suspected collaborators, saying that the group "must immediately and totally
cease its use of the death penalty."
(source: Israel National News)
************
Palestinian NGO condemns latest Gaza death sentence
A Palestinian human rights organisation condemned on Wednesday the latest death
sentences handed down by tribunals in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.
A military court in the coastal Palestinian enclave condemned a local man to
death on Tuesday on charges of collaborating with Israel, while death sentences
issued previously against 2 others were confirmed by a higher military
tribunal.
The Gaza Military Court announced a sentence of death by hanging for the man
identified as M.S., aged 59, from the Tuffah area east of Gaza city on charges
of "collaborating with the Israeli occupation."
The Higher Military Court said it had confirmed execution orders against 2
other men, one a 49-year-old man from Khan Yunis, by hanging and a Gaza City
man aged 38 by firing squad.
Both men were convicted of aiding Israeli security forces.
The Palestinian Center for Human Rights condemned in a statement the
"excessive" punishment and said that "civilians should not appear before
military courts."
The authorities in Gaza executed 3 men behind closed doors in May, the 1st time
the death penalty had been carried out since 2014.
13 death sentences have been pronounced this year, 12 of which were issued by
military courts, according to PCHR.
In total, 177 death sentences have been handed out since the creation of the
Palestinian Authority in 1994, 30 in the West Bank and 147 in Gaza.
Of these, 35 were carried out, all but 2 in the Gaza Strip.
(source: Agence France-Presse)
BANGLADESH:
High Court verdict on death references, appeals of 2005 Gazipur Bar bombing
convicts July 28
The bench of Justice M Enayetur and Justice JBM Hassan fixed the date after the
hearing of the death references, appeals against death sentences, and jail
appeals ended on Wednesday.
Deputy Attorney General Sheikh AKM Moniruzzaman Kabir and Assistant Attorney
General Shahidul Islam Khan represented the State.
Kabir later told bdnews24.com that 10 Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB)
operatives, sentenced to death for the killings, had pleaded guilty.
"We have sought to uphold the death sentences," he said.
Md Helal Uddin, one of the defence lawyers, said the defence sought reduction
of the death sentences to life imprisonment, considering the age of the
convicts.
The 10 convicts, all behind bars, are Enayet Ullah, Arifur Rahman, Masidul
Islam Masud, Saidur Rahman Munsi, Abdullah Al Sohain, Nizam Uddin Reza, Taibur
Rahman Hassan, Md Ashraful Islam, Md Shafiullah Tarek and Adnan Sami Jahangir.
After the verdict in 2013, the death references of the convicts were sent to
the High Court for approval the same year.
4 of the convicts had challenged the death penalty, while all 10 filed jail
appeals.
According to the case details, JMB activist Azad - also known by many aliases
such as Zia, Nazir and Nahid - had exploded 2 bombs in a suicide attack at
Hall-2 of Gazipur District Bar Association office on Nov 29, 2005, after
entering the building in a lawyer's gown.
The blasts had killed the association's General Secretary Amzad Hossain,
lawyers Golam Faruque, Nurul Huda and Anwarul Azim and four of their clients.
Police started the case against a number of JMB leaders including Shaykh Abdur
Rahman and Ataur Rahman Sani, the suicide attacker and his accomplices.
2 years later, police submitted the chargesheet accusing 15 JMB leaders and
operatives.
But the names of Azad and his accomplice Molla Omar Shakil, Rahman, Sani and
another top JMB leader, Khaled Saifullah, were dropped as they were all dead by
the time formal charges were brought against them.
6 JMB leaders, including Rahman, Sani and Saifullah, accused of abetment in the
bombing, were hanged on Mar29, 2007 for murdering 2 judges in Jhalakathi.
A Gazipur court framed charges against the 10 remaining JMB members accused in
the case on Apr 24, 2011.
On Oct 3, the case was transferred to Dhaka's Speedy Trial Tribunal-4 that
sentenced them to death in June 2013.
The 10 convicts were arrested between 2005 and 2006.
(source: bdnews24.com)
GUYANA:
Guyana should abolish death penalty instead of enacting new laws with such
punishment
Guyana and other countries that have enacted laws to sentence convicted
terrorists to death should take steps to repeal them and also abolish the death
penalty altogether, top international advocates against the death penalty said
Wednesday.
Commissioner with the International Commission against the Death Penalty,
Justice Navi Pillay told a news conference ahead of a judicial colloquium with
Guyanese judges and magistrates that she hoped that Guyana would review its
Terrorism Act that has 12 provisions for the death penalty.
"You don't pass a law just because something terrible has happened. Law is not
done emotionally. The rule of law follows international standards and Guyana is
very much a part of the international community, has passed many international
treaties and so they are bound to pass laws that are certain and definite and
not responding each time to terrorism acts committed here, France or wherever,"
she told a news conference at the Marriott Hotel.
Although Guyana has amended its law to provide for the death penalty only if
joint service members or members of the judiciary are killed in the line of
duty, quite recently a High Court Judge sentenced a man to death for the murder
of 2 brothers at Victoria, East Coast Demerara.
Pillay stressed the importance of complying with international law by not
merely having a 20-year moratorium on the death penalty but legally abolishing
it. "We will lend our voice to ask Guyana to advance forward and not go
backward," she said, adding that Guyana should be proud that no one has been
executed in 1997.
United Nations Assistant Secretary General in the Office of the High
Commissioner for Human Rights, Ivan Simonovic added that "there is no
conclusive evidence that the death penalty deters any crime including
terrorism."
The panel, which was due to deliver presentations to the judges and
magistrates, has already met with Attorney General and Minister of Legal
Affairs, Basil Williams and was scheduled to hold talks with Public Security
Minister, Khemraj Ramjattan.
Pillay noted President David Granger's outspoken commitment to deal with the
protection of women and children and addressing inter-personal violence.
Guyana is the only South American country with the death penalty on its law
books.
(source: demerarewaves.com)
UNITED KINGDOM:
UKIP leadership election: Bill Etheridge MEP calls for cheap beer and death
penalty vote
West Midlands MEP Bill Etheridge is standing to replace Nigel Farage as UKIP
leader - with proposals including cheaper beer, justice for fathers and a
referendum on bringing back the death penalty.
Mr Etheridge, who is also a Dudley councillor, launched his campaign at the
Seven Stars pub in Sedgley, saying: "I want us to represent the view of the
people against the establishment."
It follows the resignation of UKIP leader Nigel Farage, who quit after the
country voted to leave the European Union in last month's referendum.
And the MEP has set out a series of radical policies.
They include holding a referendum on bringing back the death penalty for the
most serious crimes.
He said: "For my part I believe that the very worst crimes deserve the ultimate
penalty and I propose that those who murder and rape children, those that
commit sadistic acts of murder and torture and those that commit acts of murder
through terrorism against our country or our people should be subject to the
death penalty at the discretion of the presiding judge."
Other proposals include changing family law so that the default judgment when
families break up is that both partners should be involved in parenting.
In practice this would usually benefit fathers.
Campaigners say 200 children a day lose contact with their fathers due to
judgments made in family courts, and Mr Etheridge says this helps explain why
suicide is the biggest killer of men under 50.
He said: "If elected leader I shall be making this a key policy for UKIP,
showing that we are so much more than a 1 issue party."
The MEP has also called for a drastic reduction in the price of a pint as one
way of reinvigorating the British pub.
Mr Etheridge said he believed that slashing the duty on beer would rapidly pay
for itself, with reductions in smuggling alcohol and growth in the licensed
trade.
And he also said there may be a case for bringing back smoking in pubs.
He said: "When I visit Brussels, I see people legally smoking indoors, in a
well ventilated smoking booth. Perhaps we should investigate whether they would
work in pubs?"
Other candidates in the contest include North East MEP Jonathan Arnott, North
West MEP Steven Woolfe and Cambridgeshire councillor Lisa Duffy.
(source: birminghammail.co.uk)
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