August 23
VIETNAM:
Gang of 4 sentenced to death in Vietnam for heroin smuggling
Vietnam has eased its drug laws but smugglers still face capital punishment.
A court in Hanoi sentenced four men to death on Monday for smuggling more than
20 kilograms of heroin in less than a year, Vietnam News Agency reported.
The men, aged between 20 and 32 years, were arrested in April last year after 2
of them were caught driving a motorbike carrying 8 kilograms of heroin.
The smugglers, from the central province of Khanh Hoa and the nearby Dak Lak,
had flown to Hanoi before driving to the neighboring Hoa Binh Province to take
delivery of the drugs from "strange masked men", the indictment said.
Police discovered the group had successfully smuggled a total of 12 kilograms
of heroin on 9 different occasions from late 2015.
The scale of the operation remains unknown.
Vietnam has some of the world's toughest drug laws, but those convicted of
possession or appropriation will no longer face the death penalty following
revisions to the Penal Code.
However, the production or smuggling of 100 grams of heroin, cocaine or
methamphetamine still carries the death penalty, according to the amended law
which will take effect in January 2018.
(source: vnexpress.net)
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES:
The Parents Of The Murdered Abu Dhabi Boy Are Seeking The Death Penalty For The
Killer----"We are asking for a death penalty if he's found guilty of murder, we
want him to be killed for what he did to our son. Nothing else?"
The tragic story of the young Pakistani boy who was raped and murdered in Abu
Dhabi continues.
At the time it was reported that the boy disappeared in mysterious
circumstances, and was later found half-naked on the roof of his building, next
to the Quran.
The story unfolded; the alleged murderer had dressed as a woman to lure the boy
to the roof.
A 33-year-old is standing trial
The boys parents told the court they do not seek to pardon the killer, and
would like him executed, according to a report in the Khaleej Times.
"We are asking for a death penalty if he's found guilty of murder, we want him
to be killed for what he did to our son. Nothing else," the parents allegedly
told the court.
The man is charged with premeditated murder, rape, cross-dressing and driving
without a number plate, according to the report. The man pleaded not guilty to
the crimes.
(source: lovindubai.com)
INDONESIA:
Escaping the Death Penalty
The Supreme Court has corrected the death sentence imposed on Yusman
Telaumbanua when he was still underage. A grave mistake.
Death row convict Yusman Telaumbanua, who was aged 16 when he was tried, was
released last week. The sentence handed down to the youth from Hilionozega
village, Idanogawo subdistrict, Nias regency was revised by the Supreme Court
following an appeal. Now, it is time for the police officers, prosecutors, and
judges involved in Yusmans initial trial to be investigated, and when proven
guilty, be severely punished.
Law enforcement officials were clearly negligent when determining the age of
Yusman, who was sentenced to death by the Gunungsitoli District Court in May
2013. The youth, who was charged with involvement in a case of premeditated
murder, was declared to have been 19 years old when the offense took place a
year beforehand. This meant he was an adult, and no longer covered by the Child
Court Law, which stipulates that children are aged up to 18 years and cannot be
sentenced by capital punishment such as death penalty. At the court, the age of
Yusman, who failed to graduate from elementary school, was determined only
based on witness testimony, not official nor scientific documentation.
This serious error changed Yusmans life forever. An underage suspect cannot
face the death penalty. Even if proven guilty, he would face a maximum sentence
half that of an adult. That is why, the case of Yusman, who was accused of
murdering his boss, Kolimarinus Zega, and 2 other people, was very strange. Of
the 6 people accused of involvement, only Yusman and his brother-in-law were
tried.
The Yusman tragedy was revealed by a priest and the Commission for Missing
People and Victims of Violence (Kontras). This commission helped Yusman lodge
an appeal. The Supreme Court eventually granted the appeal and changed the
verdict to 5 years in jail. Because he had served enough of his sentence,
Yusman was released from Gunungsitoli Jail on August 17.
The error with Yusmans age came to light from, among other things, the church
baptism records showing that he was born on December 30, 1996, meaning he was
under 16 in April 2012, the time of the murders. A medical examination at the
Padjadjaran University Faculty of Dentistry showed that Yusman was under 18
when the murders took place.
The Yusman case was also strange because he was not the person who actually
carried out the murders of Kolimarinus and the two other victims, who had
initially planned to buy a gecko for a considerable sum of money. Yusman merely
told his boss that his brother-in-law, Rusula Hia, had a gecko. Kolimarinus and
the 2 other victims were then picked up by 4 of Rusulas neighbors on
motorbikes. These f4 bike riders are thought to have sadistically killed the
three prospective gecko buyers for their money. They are still on the run. Only
Yusman and Rusula were arrested and subsequently sentenced to death.
The police must solve this case and find the 4 fugitives. This is important for
justice. Although he has been freed, Yusman needs rehabilitation if he really
was not involved in the murders. And the sentence of his brother-in-law should
also be corrected if he was not guilty, or did not play a major part.
Law enforcement officers involved in the arbitrary trial must be questioned and
appropriately punished. Yusman is thought to have been ill-treated during
questioning, and his attorney sided with the police. It is not only police
officers and prosecutors who should be investigated, but also the judges who
sentenced Yusman, who should be questioned by the Judicial Commission. A trial
should not be conducted in such an arbitrary fashion, especially if it results
in death sentences for those on trial.
(source: tempo.co)
IRAN----execution
Sunni Political Prisoner Hanged at Gohardasht Prison
Iranian Resistance calls on international community to condemn the execution of
political prisoners in Iran, and urges all governments to make their relations
with the religious dictatorship in Iran contingent on an end to executions and
torture.
The Iranian regime hanged Seyed Jamal Mousavi, a Sunni Kurdish political
prisoner from city of Sanadaj on Wednesday August 23 after spending 9 years in
prison on the so-called charge of Moharebeh (waging war on God). This is while
the new cabinet of Hassan Rouhani has not been through its 1st week in the
office.
The authorities in in Gohardasht prison (west of Tehran) transferred Mr.
Mousavi from Hall 21 of Section 7 of the prison to solitary confinement on the
pretext of sending him to hospital on 16 August. He was held enchained in
solitary confinement for a week. They threatened Mr. Moussavi that his death
sentence would be implemented if he leaks any information from inside the
prison.
In order to intimidate and terrorize other prisoners, the authorities returned
Mr. Mousavi to the general ward in prison hours before his execution while his
arms and legs were bloody and injured. Subsequently he was once again
transferred to solitary confinement to await execution and finally was hanged
at dawn on Wednesday 23 August 2017.
Meanwhile in Hall 10 Section 4 of Gohardasht prison 21 other political
prisoners continue their hunger strike for 4th week to protest their forcible
transfer to the hall, increasing pressures and constraints imposed on them, and
destruction and confiscation of their property.
The Iranian Resistance offers its condolences to the family and friends of
Seyed Jamal Mousavi and the people of city Sanandaj and Kurdistan, and calls on
the youth to protest against the execution and support of political prisoners
and the families of those executed.
The Iranian Resistance also urges the international community in particular the
United Nations Secretary-General, the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the
Human Rights Council and the United Nations Security Council to condemn the
execution of political prisoners by the clerical regime in Iran.
It urges all governments to to make their relations and trade with the
religious dictatorship in Iran contingent on an end to executions and torture.
The brutal violation of human rights is the other side of the coin of the
Iranian regime's export of terrorism, warmongering policies in the region, and
its efforts to acquire nuclear weapon.
***********************
The Terrible Year of 1988
During the summer of 1988, more than 30,000 political prisoners were executed
in Ayatollah Khomeini's jails. A "movement for justice" is campaigning for the
leaders of the religious dictatorship to face justice.
They are definitely the stars of Iranian politics. Not quite in their forties,
they are still young. Neither the current government nor the opposition have
managed to distance themselves from the 1980s, which were "crucial" to the
Islamic Republic, as the Supreme Leader of the Theocracy, Ali Khamenei, says
today. What was so "crucial" about them? Why did they come back with such a
punch in Iranian news? Why is the population so attached to them?
In its latest report on Iran, published on 2 August, Amnesty International
explains that "human rights defenders seek truth, justice and compensation for
thousands of prisoners who were summarily executed or were killed by force
during the 1980s and those who have to face new kinds of reprisals on the part
of the authorities. This includes relatives of the victims, who have become
human rights defenders out of necessity, and young human rights activists who
have taken to social media and other platforms to discuss atrocities committed
in the past1.The new crackdown has rekindled appeals for an investigation into
the killing of several thousand political prisoners in a wave of extrajudicial
executions in the country during the summer of 1988." 2
Let us return to those early years of the Islamic Republic. Barely 2 years
after the fall of the Shah. Ayatollah Khomeini who, on his arrival in Paris in
1978, had sworn in an interview given to the newspaper Le Monde 3 to withdraw
from power to continue his studies in Qom, is now unrecognizable. On his return
to Iran in February 1979, he quickly forgot about his theological studies and a
few months later, removed his too liberal Prime Minister Mehdi Bazargan. He
started to rule the country with an iron hand. The 1st disagreements happened
when he imposed in the Constitution the principle of the Velayat Faghih, the
absolute power of a religious guide. He had already undergone 2 bloody
repressions by Kurdish and Turkmen minorities. As for women, the agenda can be
summarized as "a blow or veil on the head" and removing them from many
administrations and key posts. The 1st legislative and presidential elections
in the spring of 1980 were undermined by widespread fraud that left no room for
opposition (not one seat in the Assembly). As for foreign policy, it had
already resulted in 2 big booms: the hostage taking at the American embassy in
Tehran (from 4 November 1979 to 20 January 1981) and the war against Iraq,
which began on 22 September 1980, which the ayatollah considers "a divine gift"
and in which he sent thousands of children to the minefields.
Opposition reduced to silence
It was in this context that 1981 began. Most opposition movements were
silenced. Only one continued to gather crowds and defy the politics of terror
which is already visible: the People's Mojahedin (PMOI), who already deplore in
their ranks some 50 militants murdered by the henchmen of the new power. This
will not prevent them from launching a new appeal for a peaceful demonstration
in order to claim the freedoms they lost when the monarchy had been overthrown.
On 20 June, 500,000 people marched through the streets of Tehran without
resorting to violence. The old ruler panicked and responded by giving the order
to open fire. Several dozen protesters were killed, creating ripples across the
country. The prisons overflowed with opponents to the regime that were shot in
groups of "400 per night," according to survivors. Adults, young people, old
people, women, no one was spared. In the list of assassinated individuals drawn
up by the opposition there are even 13-year-old girls! "It was enough to
sympathize with the movement" the former head of the secret service, Mullah Ali
Fallahian, recently said in an interview4 about the 1980s.
In 1988, the Khomeini war machine was running out of steam. "No one was
fighting on the front," said General Said Ghassemi, one of the military
commanders at that time. After 8 years in which he repeatedly said that he
would continue the war against Iraq "to the last stone in the capital,"
Khomeini is forced to capitulate. And he is too attached to power not to
understand that this withdrawal will cost him dearly. Without a war that
justifies everything, from poverty to the assassination of opponents, the
ruling theocracy cannot avoid a social explosion. The old hermit then launches
a fatwa to get rid of all the regime's opponents that are in prison, even those
who have already been serving a sentence. The logic is simple: dissent can be
controlled if there is no opposition to manage protests.
30,000 political detainees massacred
It is with this logic that more than 30,000 political detainees, mostly
People's Mojahedin militants, were massacred during the course of a few weeks
in the summer of 1988 and buried in mass graves. According to Hossein
Montazeri, who at that time was set to be Khomeini's successor, among the
victims were pregnant women and adolescents5. This is a true genocide that has
affected many families in Iran, but none have been allowed to mourn. An obscure
silence fell upon the country for many years because of this massacre.
In 2016, the Iranian opposition is freed from its main concern: to free
thousands of militants threatened by another massacre at a camp in Iraq called
Liberty. After years that cost many human lives, frequent attacks by militias
and Iraqi forces under Iranian control, the operation to free them succeeded
with the assistance of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and in
September 2016 the last political refugees in the camp were transferred
unharmed to Albania. Relieved, the PMOI could then take the offensive and
launch a movement for justice for the victims of the 1988 genocide.
This movement quickly spread across Iran, mobilizing in particular all the
families that had lost loved ones in the massacre. Amnesty International
mentions the impact of the "audio recording of a meeting in 1988 during which
leaders can be heard discussing and defending the details of their plans to
carry out collective executions" in August 20166. The dissemination of the
document triggered "an unprecedented chain of reactions on the part of the
leaders who had to admit for the 1st time that mass executions in 1988 were
planned in the highest spheres of government". 7
Many young people who did not know about this page in history but who did not
identify with the power in place or its ramifications also joined the movement
which quickly took the form of a call for justice.
The 2017 presidential election
Ali Khamenei, the head of the Tehran dictatorship, had long been considering
manipulating the 2017 presidential election to ensure that one of his closest
collaborators, Mullah Ebrahim Raisi, became president of the Republic. The
Supreme Leader's mistake was to have underestimated the extent of the justice
movement that was already spreading across the country.
Ebrahim Raisi was one of the main protagonists of the 1988 massacre, a member
of Tehran's "death commission" formed by Khomeini to ensure the "smooth"
running of events in the prisons regarding the fatwa that ordered the
executions. His candidacy resulted in a real public outcry, the main slogan on
the walls and on social media being "neither executioner nor charlatan" (the
executioner: Raisi, the charlatan: Hassan Rouhani, the outgoing president [
Re-elected on 19 May 2017]).
Khamenei's 2nd big mistake was to not understand that the slogan meant a 3rd
protagonist would join the game - the people with the opposition, a protagonist
that could undermine the rest. It is because he did not grasp this change in
times that Khamenei was not able to influence Hassan Rouhani's removal from
power, urging him to play his last card ... that of the massacres of 1988.
"The Iranian people do not want those who, during the last thirty-eight years
[since the revolution in 1979], only knew how to hang and throw people in
prison," Rouhani said on 7 May at an electoral meeting in Orumiyeh
(north-western city), in a hidden allusion to the massacres of political
prisoners. Ironically, Rouhani's sinister Minister of Justice during his first
term was Mostafa Pourmohammadi who was also involved in these mass executions.
Pourmohammadi has even congratulated himself on having "executed the order of
God" in 1988 to preserve the regime.
Moreover, the Supreme Leader's clan did not fail to remind Rouhani that he
himself had occupied key positions in the fields of security during the last 37
years and that he is therefore not innocent either. Rouhani, however, wanted to
remind the Supreme Leader of the dangers he was taking by dismissing him, until
a post-election insurrection was triggered, as in the aftermath of the Iranian
presidential election in 2009.
As for the popular movement, it continued to gain momentum during the campaign
and the slogans against Raisi multiplied: "the 1988 killer" was beginning to
become viral in the capital and in major cities.
Justify the massacres
It was therefore very late on that the leader of the theocracy perceived that
he had underestimated this movement for justice. He then tried to turn the tide
in his speech marking the anniversary of Khomeini's death on 4 June. "The 1980s
were crucial years in the history of the Islamic Republic. Our policy is being
questioned by some loudspeakers," said Khamenei, who justified the massacres by
claiming that his regime would have been overthrown if Khomeini had not acted
in this way, that is to say as cruelly as he did.
Since then, demonizing the opposition to justify the repression of the 1980s
has become official propaganda business. This goes from a whole filmography
that tries to justify the 1988 massacre to the positions taken and
interventions by a group of dignitaries and imams during the Friday prayers
throughout the country. Ahmed Khatami, a member of the Council of Experts [the
deciding body of the Islamic Republic] and a very close collaborator of
Khamenei, said during prayers on July 21st that "we must decorate all those who
killed the PMOI members on the orders of Imam Khomeini".
But the regime cannot detach itself from the shadow of the victims. In the
composition of his new government, Rouhani dismissed Pourmohammadi to replace
him with ... Alireza Ava'i, another member of the "death commission" involved
in the 1988 massacre in the Khuzestan province!
Calls for justice
In this context, calls to the UN by the families of victims to investigate and
bring to justice those responsible for these killings are growing in Iran as
well as abroad. A series of exhibitions to mark the anniversary of the massacre
was organized in Paris this summer (16 and 17 August at the Mairie of the 1st
arrondissement and on 30 and 31 August at the Mairie du IIe) in the presence of
the survivors and members of the families of those who died.
In the meantime, on the walls of Tehran and other major Iranian cities, calls
for justice for the victims of the 1980s are abound. Cries that seem to catch
up with the mullahs who thought they had succeeded in forgetting their crimes!
A Swiss citizen of Iranian origin living in Neuch???tel, Gholam-Hossin
Vakilzadeh was born in the city of Shiraz. AN activist against the abuses of
the Iranian regime, he is a member of the Association of Iranian experts in
Switzerland and president of the Association of the families of the inhabitants
of Ashraf, these Iranian opponents mortally attacked several times in Iraq and
who succeeded in fleeing to Albania.
1 Amnesty International, "Iran: Caught in a web of repression: Iran's human
rights defenders under attack", 2 August 2017, http://bit.ly/2vAgu9j
2 ibid.
3 L. George, Le Monde, 6 May 1978.
4 www.youtube.com/watch?v=em3lIqRBA_U
5 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENH_LcrgQC4
6 Amnesty, "Iran: Caught in a web of repression", op.cit.
7 ibid.
(source for both: ncr-iran.org)
BANGLADESH:
SC stays execution of Gadag man convicted for rape, murder
The Supreme Court has stayed death penalty of a Gadag resident on his appeal
challenging conviction and punishment for rape-cum-murder of a 5-year-old girl
child.
A bench of Justices Dipak Misra, Kurian Joseph and Amitava Roy suspended
execution of Irappa Siddappa Murgannavar till further orders.
The petitioner challenged the High Court of Karnataka's order of March 6. The
high court has confirmed the death penalty awarded to him by a trial court on
March 8, 2012, after finding his "culpability as of extreme depravity that
arouses a sense of revulsion in the mind of an ordinary person." On hearing his
counsel Gaurav Agrawal and Abhikalp Pratap Singh, the court directed for
calling for the record of the lower court. It also ordered for posting the
appeal before a 3-judge bench for consideration.
"After the record is received, the registry is directed to place the matter
before the appropriate bench.There shall be stay of execution of the death
sentence until further orders," the bench said.
Murugannavar, 25, was accused of kidnapping the daughter of Sanganabasappa, who
was known to him, by enticing her away on December 28, 2010.
He raped her and throttled her to death. Subsequently, he immersed her body in
a water body after putting it in a gunny bag.
The high court noted Murugannavar subjected an innocent and helpless 5-year-old
girl to "a barbaric treatment."
"The motivation of the perpetrator, the vulnerability of the victim, the
enormity of the crime and execution thereof persuade us to hold that this is
one of the rarest of rare cases where sentence of death is eminently desirable
not only to deter others from committing such atrocious crimes, but also to
give emphatic expression to society's abhorrence to such crimes," the high
court has concluded.
*******************
8 get death in 2016 murder of Habiganj businessman
A court in Habiganj has awarded the death penalty to 8 people over the murder
of a businessman 6 years ago.
11 others have been sentenced to life in prison.
In 2011, assailants barged into the home of Tipu Sultan in Madhabpur Upazila in
the northeastern district and attacked him with a sharp weapon leaving him
dead.
On Wednesday, the court of additional district and sessions judge delivered the
verdict with 4 of the convicts in the dock, said Prosecutor Sirajul Haque
Chowdhury.
He said the court acquitted 3 people as charges against them were not proven
beyond doubt.
(source: bdnews24.com)
SCOTLAND:
Hanged at Barlinnie: Bloody history of Glasgow's killers who walked to the
gallows
The days of murderers paying the ultimate price of death for killing someone
might be long gone.
But the history of Glasgow's hanging past will never be erased.
In this new Evening Times series, we will reveal the stories of the men who
were hanged at HMP Barlinnie prison and the crimes which took them on that
path.
Although only 10 men were given the death penalty at the notorious East End
prison, many more hangings took place across the city centuries before.
Evening Times:
If you look closely across the city, you might even spot a few nods to
Glasgow's hanging past including the prominent McLennan Arch, above, which
features at the Saltmarket entrance of the Glasgow Green.
"Jocelyn Gate. This area, formerly known as Jocelyn Square, was the site of
both the famous Glasgow Fair and, until 1865 of public executions," reads an
inscription on the flagstone of the impressive arch.
That memorial is a nod to the hangings which took place at the entrance to the
Glasgow Green, facing what is now the city's High Court building.
The 2st executions at the spot were in 1814, and over the years 67 men and 4
women were hanged there.
The story goes that the men and women who went to the gallows were hanged with
their backs to the court and facing the Nelson Monument in Glasgow Green.
When Dr Edward Pritchard became the last person to be hanged in Jocelyn Square
in 1865, it was such a sensation that the execution turned into one of the
year's greatest tourist attractions.
The respectable doctor, who had a practice in Sauchiehall Street, was convicted
of poisoning his wife and mother-in-law.
People travelled to the square, and filled the surrounding streets drinking and
celebrating the doctor's demise.
Those who owned rooms overlooking the hanging site hired them out at 3 guineas
a time so spectators could have a grandstand view and street vendors did a
roaring trade.
It was, in the words of one 19th century writer, the 'last great hanging' in
Glasgow.
City hangings then took place in a more modest setting at the now defunct Duke
Street Prison which was demolished in 1958 to make way for housing.
The prison was situated close to the High Street end of Duke Street and a total
of 12 hangings took place there between 1902 and 1928.
Among those who had the noose around their neck was Susan Newell who was the
last woman to be hanged in Scotland.
The Glasgow subway worker was found guilty of strangling newspaper boy Jean
Johnston who was just 13 when she killed him.
She was executed on October 10, 1923 at Duke Street Prison and officially the
last hanging of a woman had taken place in the city 70 years prior.
Fast forward to 1946, where the first hanging took place at HMP Barlinnie. HMP
Barlinnie replaced the gallows at Duke Street Prison where George Reynolds was
the last man to be hanged in 1928.
A total of 10 judicial executions by hanging took place at the prison until
1960. This was before the death penalty was eventually abolished in the UK in
1969.
The public executioners during that time were Thomas Pierrepoint, Albert
Pierrepoint and Harry Allen, above. The men gained worldwide notoriety as
public executioners. They travelled all over the world to carry out executions
and made 10 visits to Glasgow between them for the Barlinnie hangings.
Frank McKue also played an important role in the executions as death watch
officer at Barlinnie.
He previously told The Evening Times in an interview: "To sit with a guy who is
going to be hanged in the morning is quite an experience.
"You're saying cheerio to someone who you know won't ever be coming back. That
sort of thing didn't bother me, though - I never lost any sleep over it."
Once an execution had taken place, the remains of all executed prisoners were
the property of the state. They were buried in unmarked graves within the walls
of the prison.
During renovations at the prison in 1997, Barlinnie's gallows cell, which was
built into D-hall, was finally demolished and the remains of all the executed
prisoners were exhumed for reburial elsewhere on the grounds.
Frank revisited Barlinnie just before the old execution chamber was dismantled.
He went with Glasgow-based film-maker David Graham Scott, and the result was a
brief documentary, Hanging With Frank.
In one scene, Frank stands on the trapdoor and places the hangman's hood over
his head. It is a chilling sight.
"That was absolutely horrendous," he said.
"Once that hood was on, you were dead. You can't breathe. You're gasping for
air, and the next thing you know, the hangman has put the noose on. He pulls
the lever and you're away."
Through our own archives at the Mitchell Library in Glasgow, we will retell the
stories of those prisoners who paid the ultimate price for the crime of murder.
In the coming weeks, we will share the stories of Govanhill gang member John
Lyon, the 'fiend of the Gorbals' Patrick Carraher, Carntyne cop killer John
Caldwell, self-sacrificing Paul Christopher Harris, not so law-abiding police
officer James Robertson, dancefloor killer James Smith, wife killer Patrick
Gallagher Deveney, Lanarkshire murder hut killer George Francis Shaw, the
infamous Peter Manuel and Queen's Park killer Tony Miller.
Our reporters at the time covered the cases from the moment the crime was
committed to the hanging of the killer on the gallows.
It might be a gory history, but the disposal of capital punishment as a
sentence was very much a part of Glasgow's crime story.
(source: eveningtimes.co.uk)
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