April 16
INDIA:
Kashmir bar association seeks death penalty for accused, calls for transferring
Kathua case to High Court
Qayoom said atmosphere is not “conducive” in Kathua for holding trial in the
case.
Saying death sentence should be awarded to the guilty by court in Kathua minor
rape and murder case, Jammu and Kashmir Bar Association President Mian Qayoom
on Monday said “High Court should transfer case to itself”.
Qayoom said atmosphere is not “conducive” in Kathua for holding trial in the
case.
“We are not in favor of transferring case. Our demand is that the atmosphere at
Kathua is not conducive for holding fair trial of the case. So, High Court has
a wing in Jammu, we have a wing in Srinagar. This case should be transferred to
HC itself ... They should nominate a judge for this purpose and that judge
should be given exclusive task of trail of this case as quickly as possible”.
Demanding harsh punishment for the guilty in the case, Qayoom said quantum of
punishment in the case should not be less than “death”.
Qayoom also said that Bar is ready to provide legal assistance to the victim’s
family. “If somebody approaches us, we will see how we can help them legally.
Till today nobody has approached us. But if they come to us and say we need
some kind of legal assistance, we are here; we can provide legal assistance to
them,” he said.
(source: greaterkashmir.com)
EGYPT:
Court upholds death sentences against 4 over forming terrorist cell
The Court of Cassation has rejected Sunday appeals by 4 defendants against
death sentences in the case known as “Awsim Terrorist Cell.”
The court also rejected appeals against sentences of 15 years imprisonment
against 14 other defendants, and upheld life imprisonment (25 years) for other
defendants in absentia.
In February, Cairo Criminal Court sentenced 4 defendants to death and 12 others
to life imprisonment in the “Awsim Cell” case.
The defendants in the “Awsim Cell” case are accused of forming terrorist cells
to incite chaos, attack public and private facilities and target security and
army personnel.
They are also charged with attempted arson and placing fake explosive devices
outside the Awsim Town Council and the local electricity company, as well as
detonating an explosive device outside the home of Judge Fathy Bayoumi while he
was inside.
On Saturday, Egypt’s Court of Cassation upheld a life imprisonment sentence
against former Muslim Brotherhood Supreme Guide Mohamed Badie over charges of
inciting violence in the “Rabaa Operation Room” case.
Earlier this month, the Court of Cassation accepted on Tuesday the appeals
against sentences imposed on 5 defendants in the case publicly known as the
“Warraq [terrorist] Cell” case, ordering the retrial of the defendants before
another criminal court.
The defendants had faced various sentences, including the death penalty, life
imprisonment and five years in prison.
(source: Egypt Today)
SOUTH SUDAN:
South Sudan: One of just two executing states in sub-Saharan Africa in 2017
South Sudan is 1 of just 2 countries in sub-Saharan Africa known to have
carried out executions in 2017, going against a clear trend by other countries
in the region to move forward towards abolishing the death penalty, Amnesty
International’s Global Report on Death Sentences and Executions 2017 revealed.
South Sudan carried out 4 executions in 2017, 2 of those who were put to death
having been juveniles at the time of the commission of the crime, in flagrant
violation of international law. The other country that executed people in
sub-Saharan Africa is Somalia, which carried out 24 executions in the same
period.
“With governments in the region continuing to take steps to reduce and repeal
the death penalty well into 2018, the isolation of the remaining executing
countries could not be starker. Now that 20 countries in sub-Saharan Africa
have abolished the death penalty for all crimes, it is high time that the rest
follow their lead and consign this abhorrent punishment to the history books,”
said Amnesty International’s Secretary General Salil Shetty.
South Sudan continues to hand down death sentences and execute people. In
February 2018, 2 men were sentenced to death - James Gadet, former SPLM-IO
Spokesperson, and South African William Endley, a former advisor to rebel
leader, Riek Machar.
Amnesty International calls on the South Sudan Government to immediately
establish an official moratorium on executions, and quash the convictions of
Gadet and Endley and grant them a new trial that meets international fair trial
standards.
Background
Amnesty International’s Global Report on Death Sentences and Executions 2017
finds that sub-Saharan Africa is a ‘beacon of hope’, having made positive steps
towards abolishing the death penalty.
(source: Amnesty International)
IRAN:
Iran Supreme Court Upholds Death Sentence For Kurdish Opponent
A branch of Iran’s Supreme Court has upheld the death sentence of a Kurdish
citizen, his lawyer said in an exclusive interview with Radio Farda’s Mahtab
Vahidi Rad.
In a statement on February 5, Amnesty International (AI) said, “Ramin Hossein
Panahi, from Iran’s Kurdish minority, started a hunger strike on January 27
after he learned that he had been sentenced to death in connection with his
membership in the armed Kurdish opposition group Komala.”
According to AI, “Panahi’s trial, which took place on January 16, was grossly
unfair and lasted less than an hour. His family told Amnesty International that
he appeared before the Revolutionary Court in Sanandaj with obvious torture
marks on his body, but the court failed to order an investigation.”
Panahi, 24, was arrested in June 2017 in Sanandaj after being wounded in an
ambush by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) forces of the outlawed
Komala Party of Iranian Kurdistan, an armed separatist organization.
3 other Komala activists who were present -- Sabbah Hossein Panahi, Hamed Seif
Panahi, and Behzad Nouri -- were killed in the attack.
Panahi was the only survivor of the attack and has maintained he was unarmed at
the time of the IRGC’s ambush.
His lawyer, Hossein Ahmadi Niaz, told Radio Farda that the court sentenced his
client to death for “taking up arms against the state” based on his membership
in Komala but provided no evidence linking him to acts involving intentional
killing, which is the required threshold under international law for imposing
the death penalty.
According to Ahmadi Niaz, his client has never taken up arms against the
Iranian regime.
“Courts are expected to be impartial, fair, and independent,” he said. “How can
a court be independent when it is part of the ruling system?”
Panahi’s lawyer also insisted his client has testified about being tortured and
the court should have investigated his allegation before upholding the death
sentence.
Meanwhile, Ahmadi Niaz argued that when his client and his three companions
entered Iranian territory from neighboring Iraq, they were under IRGC
surveillance.
“Nothing happened until my client and his companions’ vehicle entered the city
of Sanandaj, where a trap laid by IRGC forces was waiting for them,” he said.
“There, the IRGC personnel ambushed their vehicle with a barrage of gunfire. 3
were dead; Ramin was wounded and passed out, while none of the IRGC forces was
hurt. This shows that the whole clash was a one-sided shooting.”
The New York-based Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) reported, “Panahi was
only allowed one brief meeting with his lawyer, which took place in the
presence of intelligence officials. This violates the right to consult with
one’s lawyer in confidence. The judicial authorities also refused to disclose
to either him or his lawyer the details of the evidence brought against him
before the hearing. His lawyer is planning to appeal his sentence.”
Ahmadi Niaz noted, “On January 31, an Intelligence Ministry official visited
him in prison and said his death sentence would be commuted to imprisonment if
he agreed to make televised confessions denouncing Kurdish opposition groups as
terrorists. When he refused, the intelligence official apparently became
enraged and said he would pay with his life for his stubbornness.”
In his interview with Radio Farda, Ahmadi Niaz also said, “If being a member of
Komala is a crime, its punishment is imprisonment not a death sentence.”
Komala describes itself as an Iranian-Kurdistan political party that stands for
a democratic, secular, pluralist Iran where the rights of Iranians and Kurds
are preserved and safeguarded.
(source: radiofarda.com)
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