June 10
SAUDI ARABIA:
Saudi teen faces beheading and crucifixion for protesting as a child----A boy
arrested when he was just 13 faces the death penalty and sick acts on his body
for involvement in protests when he was just 10.
A teenager who has been held in a Saudi prison for more than four years faces
execution by beheading, dismemberment and crucifixion for crimes he allegedly
committed when he was 10.
Arrested at 13, Murtaja Qureiris, now 18, is alleged to have taken part in
political demonstrations calling for greater representation of Shia Muslims in
Saudi Arabia. In the repressive monarchical state, protesting, in any form, is
seen as an act of violence and often categorised by the justice system as an
act of terrorism.
The prosecutor has recommended Mr Qureiris face the most serious of punishments
for his alleged crimes.
“There are few more serious breaches of international law than the execution of
a child,” said Maya Foa, director of Reprieve, one of the human rights watch
groups following Mr Qureiris’ case. She said by trying to execute Mr Qureiris,
the regime is demonstrating its absolute “impunity” to the global community.
In an exclusive video obtained by CNN, a young Mr Qureiris can be seen leading
a group of Shia protesters on a group bike ride in the moments before an
anti-government protest in Saudi Arabia.
The group was calling for more rights for Saudi Arabia’s Shia minority. It was
one of the many expressions of political dissent by Shia Muslims across Saudi
Arabia during the Arab Spring.
The protests, beginning in 2011, were part of a larger movement across the
Middle East and North Africa, with uprisings taking place in Saudi Arabia.
It took 4 years for the Government to formally lay charges against the teen in
August 2018.
The charges are for offences dating back 3 years before his arrest when he was
10 years old and allege he engaged in anti-government protests, was in
possession of a firearm and had joined a terrorist organisation. The Government
has recommended Mr Qureiris, now 18, be executed for his alleged crimes.
After he is killed, the prosecutor in his case has recommended his body be
dismembered, or crucified, as his crimes, which included the “sowing of
sedition” allow for the cruellest of punishments.
Murtaja Qureiris has been held in pre-trial detention for years and is now 18
years old.
Mr Qureiris’s family have a history of political activism, according to CNN,
and in a video they identify a man in a keffiyeh, or red and white headdress,
as Mr Qureiris’s father.
When Mr Qureiris was just 11, his brother was killed at a political rally. At
the funeral, the Government claims the event turned into an anti-royal family
march.
Saudi activists maintain the funeral remained peaceful.
The Government would later use this as part of their claims against Qureiris.
Mr Qureiris was arrested while travelling with his family to Bahrain, according
to CNN. He was detained at the border by Saudi authorities. He was considered,
at the time, to be the youngest known political prisoner.
According to CNN, the prosecution’s case relies on confessions, which were
extracted under duress and Mr Qureiris is now denying.
Mr Qureiris, a Shia, is a member of a long marginalised community in Saudi
Arabia, but as Mohammad bin Salman Al Saud ascended to power, crackdowns and
mass executions have become more common.
In January 2016, the country executed 47 men for alleged terrorism offences.
Earlier this year, in April, a Saudi-run news agency reported 37 men had been
executed for “their adoption of extremist, terrorist ideology and forming
terrorist cells to corrupt and disturb security, spread chaos and cause
sectarian discord”. Of the 37 executed, 33 of them where Shia Muslims,
according to The New York Times.
3 of those executed were killed for crimes committed as minors, according to
CNN.
Executions are not uncommon in the country — last year 139 people were put to
death — and the most common method is beheading. Death usually comes for
prisoners after years of imprisonment and a sham trial. But according to
multiple reports, the killing of Mr Qureiris, who was a child when he was
arrested, would be unusual.
“There should be no doubt that the Saudi Arabian authorities are ready to go to
any length to crack down on dissent against their own citizens, including by
resorting to the death penalty for men who were merely boys at the time of
their arrest,” said Lynn Maalouf, Amnesty International’s Middle East research
director.
It remains illegal for Mr Qureiris, his lawyer, or his family, to speak to
foreign journalists, and the details of his case are not public.
The Saudi government has not yet commented on the case.
(source: news.com.au)
IRAN:
Iran's FM affirms right to execute gays and blasts U.S. and
Israel----Ronzheimer wrote that Zarif answered: "The problem is the aggressive
policies of Israel and the USA."
In response to questions today in Tehran from a reporter for the mass
circulation German paper Bild, the Islamic Republic of Iran's foreign minister
Mohammad Javad Zarif reiterated his country's lethal homophobic law and its
opposition to the Jewish state and the US.
Paul Ronzheimer, a reporter for the Bild, wrote on Twitter that he asked Zarif
two questions: "1. Where do you stand regarding Israel's right to exist? 2. How
do you deal with the executions of gays?"
Ronzheimer wrote that Zarif answered: "The problem is the aggressive policies
of Israel and the USA."
Regarding Iran's execution of gays, Zarif said that: "Our society has moral
principles, and according to these principles we live. These are moral
principles regarding the behavior of people in general. And that's because the
law is upheld and you abide by laws."
Richard Grenell, the US ambassador to Germany, told The Jerusalem Post on
Monday: “The UN’s Declaration of Human Rights makes clear that these answers
from the Iranian regime are violating basic UN principles. UN members should
agree with the Declaration in order to be members. Criminalizing homosexuality
violates the Declaration, plain and simple.”
Volker Beck, a German Green party politician and LGBT activist, told the Post:
"Zarif makes clear what Iran stands for: contempt for the human rights of
homosexuals, women and religious minorities." Beck, who is also a lecturer at
the Center for Studies in Religious Sciences (CERES) at the Ruhr University in
Bochum, added whoever supports the mullahs knows what they represent. He said
that "The hanging of homosexuals and stoning women is considered a moral
principle by the Islamists in Tehran."
The Post reported in January that Iran's clerical regime publicly hanged a man
based on an anti-homosexual Islamic law. The unidentified man was hanged on
January 10 in the southwestern city of Kazeroon.
According to a 2008 British WikiLeaks dispatch, Iran’s mullah regime has
executed “between 4,000 and 6,000 gays and lesbians” since the Islamic
Revolution in 1979.
In 2016, the Post reported that Iran’s regime had executed a gay adolescent
that year – the 1st confirmed execution of someone convicted as a juvenile in
the Islamic republic.
Hassan Afshar, 19, was hanged in Arak Prison in Iran’s Markazi Province on July
18, 2016, after he was convicted of “forced male-to-male anal intercourse” in
early 2015.
(source: Jerusalem Post)
EGYPT:
Egypt's Court of Cassation commutes death penalty, upholds jail terms in 2013
storming of Kerdasa police station
Egypt’s Court of Cassation has commuted a death sentence against a defendant
convicted in the case of the storming of the Kerdasa police station in Giza in
July 2013, and has upheld life imprisonment terms against three other men in
the same case.
The court commuted the death sentence to life in prison following an appeal
filed by the defendant.
The court also rejected appeals by three defendants sentenced to life in prison
and seven others sentenced to 15 years in the same case.
The prosecution had charged the defendands with premeditated murder, attempted
murder, possession of fire arms and ammunition, and attacks on police officers.
Monday’s Court of Cassation verdict comes more than a year after the defendants
were handed jail terms by a Giza criminal court in a retrial in May 2018.
(source: Ahram Online)
**********************
83 Egyptians could be executed at any time
On Saturday the sentence of Ahmed Saddouma, who was 17 when he was arrested and
accused of terror offences and the attempted murder of a federal judge, was
reduced from the death sentence to 15 years in prison.
However, the Egyptian Supreme Court upheld the penalty for Bakr Abo Gabal, 37,
who was being tried in the same case.
Gabal is being held in Wadi Natroun prison near Alexandria where his health has
deteriorated and his pleas for medical intervention ignored.
The ruling brings the number of Egyptians who have exhausted all litigation and
could be executed at any time, to 83.
Egypt has come under renewed criticism for its far-reaching use of the death
penalty, which has been labelled an “unprecedented crisis” by Human Rights
Watch’s Amr Magdi.
According to Reprieve, 144 executions have taken place under the Sisi regime
and preliminary death sentences issued to more than 2,400 people. Ten of these
have been children.
This makes Egypt among the top ten countries with the highest number of annual
executions, alongside Iran and Saudi Arabia.
In February President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi responded to calls by European
countries to end the death sentence by saying, “you will not teach us our
humanity”.
“Here, in our countries, in our Arab region, when someone is killed in a
terrorist act, the families come to tell me we want a [retaliation] for our
sons and their blood, and this is the culture that exists … in this region.”
There are numerous reports the Egyptian government not only cast any opponent
of the government as terrorists, but use it as a pretext to carry out severe
human rights abuses.
(source: Middle East Monitor)
INDIA:
Mentally-Ill Death Convict
Given the brutal and barbaric manner of commission of the crime, the gravity of
the offence itself, the abuse of the victims’ trust by the petitioner, and his
tendency to commit such offences as is evident from his past conduct, it is
extremely clear that the petitioner poses such a grave threat to society that
he cannot be allowed to roam free at any point whatsoever.
A 3-JUDGE bench of the Supreme Court consisting of Justice N V Ramana, Justice
Mohan M Shantanagouder and Indira Banerjee have partly allowed the review
petition in the case – Accused ‘X’ v. State of Maharashtra, through their
judgment delivered on April 12, 2019, with direction to the Government of
Maharashtra to consider the case of the accused under the appropriate
provisions of the Mental Healthcare Act, 2017 and if found entitled, provide
for his rights under that enactment. The apex court has allowed the petition to
the extent that the sentence of death awarded to the petitioner has been
commuted to imprisonment for the remainder of his life without any right to
remission.
On hearing this petition, the court was of the opinion that there was no merit
in the petitioner’s submissions against the order of conviction, and it was
therefore decided that this court would hear only on the aspects of sentencing
pertaining to 2 issues. The 1st relates to the implications of non-compliance
of Section 235(2) of the Cr.P.C. during the sentencing process before the trial
court. The 2nd issue concerns the mental illness of the ‘accused-X’ which was
raised for the first time in this review petition after the judgment of this
court in the earlier round. The court has pointed out that under the Section
20(1) of the Mental Healthcare Act, 2017, there is a statutory right for
mentally-ill person to live with dignity .
The act explicitly provides for that. Further, it has also stated that
post-conviction mental illness will be a mitigating factor while considering
appeals of death convicts. In line with Section 23(1) of the Mental Healthcare
Act, 2017 and the right to privacy therein, the court has directed its registry
not to disclose the actual name of the accused and other pertinent information
which could lead to his identification as it concerns confidential information.
The court addressed the accused as ‘accused-X’. The court has stated that the
expert opinion offered by a psychiatrist registered with the Maharashtra
Medical Council working as a coordinator of the centre for Mental Health, Law
and Policy of the Indian Law Society, Pune does not provide any further
clarity. Even though the court was not satisfied with the statements made by
doctors as the assessment seems to be incomplete. However, it is to be noted
that the present accused has been reeling under bouts of some form of mental
irritability since 1994, as is apparent from the records placed before the
court. Moreover, he has suffered long incarceration as well as a death row
convict.
In the totality of circumstances, the court did not consider it appropriate to
constitute a panel for re-assessment of his mental condition, in the facts and
circumstances of this case. The court has said that at the same time it cannot
lose sight of the fact that a sentence of life imprisonment simpliciter would
be grossly inadequate in this case. Given the brutal and barbaric manner of
commission of the crime, the gravity of the offence itself, the abuse of the
victims’ trust by the petitioner, and his tendency to commit such offences as
is evident from his past conduct, it is extremely clear that the petitioner
poses such a grave threat to society that he cannot be allowed to roam free at
any point whatsoever. In this view of the matter the court deemed it fit to
direct that the petitioner shall remain in prison for the remainder of his
life.
It need not be stated that this court has in a plethora of decisions has held
such an approach to be perfectly within its power to adopt, and that it acts as
a useful via media between the imposition of the death penalty and life
imprisonment simpliciter (which usually works out to 14 years in prison upon
remission). It is this state of ‘accused-X’ that obliges the State to as parens
patriae. In this state, ‘accused –X’ cannot be ignored and left to rot away,
rather, he requires care and treatment. Generally it needs to be understood
that prisoners tend to have increased affinity to mental illness. Moreover, due
to legal constraints on the recognition of broad- spectrum mental illness
within the Criminal Justice System, prisons inevitably become home for a
greater number of mentally-ill prisoners of various degrees. There is no
overlooking of the fact that the realities within the prison walls may well
compound and complicate these problems.
In order to address the same, the Mental Healthcare Act, 2017 was brought into
force. The aspiration of the act was to provide mental health care facility for
those who are in need including prisoners. The State Governments are obliged
under Section 103 of the Act to set up a mental health establishment in the
medical wing of at least one prison in each State and Union Territory, and
prisoners with mental illness may ordinarily be referred to and cared for in
the said mental health establishment. The proceedings in this case pertain to
the reopening of Review Petition (Criminal)301/2008 to review the final
judgment and order of May 16, 2008 passed by the Supreme Court in Criminal
Appeal No.680/2007 dismissing the appeal filed by the review petitioner and
confirming his conviction under Sections 201, 363, 376 and 302 of the IPC.
Through the impugned judgment, the Supreme Court upheld the sentence of 2
years’ RI each under Sections 201 and 363, 10 years’ RI under Section 376 and
the death sentence under Section 302 IPC imposed upon the petitioner. Through
the petition complex questions concerning the relationship between mental
illness and crime were raised. How can culpability be assessed for sentencing
those with mental illness? Is treatment better suited than punishment? These
are some of the questions, which the court was called upon to answer in this
case. On December 13, 1999, at Gulumb in Maharashtra, at about 6 PM, the
petitioner had gone to the grocery shop run by Sunil ,with his daughter Reshma
, where he met the 2 deceased girls (studying in Standard one and 4) and on the
pretext of offering sweets , he led them to accompany him.
Thereafter he committed rape and murder of both girls, and threw the victim 2’s
body in a well in the field of Sakharam Yadav’s father and concealed the body
of victim-1 in thick shrubs.The trial court convicted the petitioner on the
basis of the ‘last seen’ evidence and its finding that all the circumstances in
the case formed a complete chain pointing to the guilt of the petitioner. The
HC confirmed the conviction and sentence including the capital sentence in
appeal. The Supreme Court also confirmed the same and the same 3-judge bench
dismissed the review petition on November 19, 2008. Thereafter this criminal
Misc. petition came to be filed seeking re-opening of this review petition,
placing reliance on the Supreme Court’s decision in the case – Mohd. Arif v.
The Registrar, Supreme Court (2014) 9 SCC 737. In that judgment of it was held
that in light of Article 21, review petitions in death sentence cases were
required to be heard orally by a 3-judge bench, and specifically permitted the
reopening of review petitions in all cases where review petitions had been
dismissed by circulation. This review petition was heard orally in the open
court. The apex court partly allowed the review petition and also disposed of
the other pending applications.
(source: thehitavada.com)
***********************
6 escape death sentence for rape, murder of 8-year-old Indian girl
6 men were convicted Monday over the notorious 2018 gang rape and murder in
India of an 8-year-old girl from a Muslim nomadic tribe that provoked horror
and stoked inter-religious tensions.
The 6 men from the Jammu region of northern India escaped the death sentence,
however, with 3 defendants given life imprisonment and the others 5 years in
jail.
Sexual violence, including against children, is rife in India and outrage over
the Kathua case, named after the district where the atrocity happened,
contributed to the government introducing the death penalty for child rapists.
According to the charge sheet, the girl was abducted while she was out grazing
horses and taken to a village in Jammu, the Hindu-dominated part of the
Muslim-majority state of Jammu and Kashmir, on January 10 last year.
In an ordeal lasting 5 days, she was sedated and held in a Hindu temple,
repeatedly raped and then strangled and bludgeoned to death.
Investigations suggested that the girl was targeted in order to strike fear in
her nomad community and drive them out of the area.
(source: Associated Press)
*****************
Death penalty similar to 2012 Delhi gang rape case must for Kuthua culprits:
PDP----‘Life imprisonment to convicts not enough to ensure justice to victim’
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) leader and MLC Mohammad Khurshid Alam has
demanded death penalty for the culprits of heinous rape-murder case, stating
that mere life imprisonment wouldn’t be enough for peoples’ wounds to heal.
Alam in a statement issued to KNS said that that on 10 September 2013, the 4
adult defendants were found guilty of rape, murder in 2012 Delhi gang rape case
and all 4 were given death penalty by the court. “Why a different yard stick
has been adopted here. The rape and murder of the 8-year old was most heinous,
inhuman and devilish act that shammed the entire humanity. Giving the culprits
mere life imprisonment wouldn’t be enough in any way. Death penalty is must for
sending out a strong message to those who are waiting in wings to commit such
heinous crimes,” Alam said.
The PDP leader also hailed the courage and will with which the PDP President
Mehbooba Mufti as Chief Minister fought for the justice for the victims child
and even put her government on stake for that.
Alam said that in the rarest of the rare cases has such an impeccable will
witnessed when the government has employed best lawyers of the country to
defend the victim in Supreme Court and pitch for severe punishment to the
culprits. He said that the courage and determination of the PDP President will
act as a torch bearer for all those saner voices of the society fighting for
the weaker sections and downtrodden people.
(source: Kashimr News Service)
NORTH KOREA:
Human rights group locates North Korean execution sites
A human rights group said Tuesday it has identified hundreds of spots where
witnesses claim North Korea carried out public executions and extrajudicial
state killings as part of an arbitrary and aggressive use of the death penalty
that is meant to intimidate its citizens.
The Seoul-based Transitional Justice Working Group said its research was based
on interviews with 610 North Korean defectors who helped locate the sites with
satellite imagery.
The group didn't reveal the exact locations of the 323 sites because it's
worried that North Korea will tamper with them, but said 267 of them were
located in 2 northeastern provinces near the border with China, the area where
most of the defectors who participated in the study came from.
North Korea's public executions tend to happen near rivers, in fields and on
hills, and also at marketplaces and school grounds — places where residents and
family members of those sentenced are often forced to attend the killings, the
report said. The group also said it documented 25 sites where the dead were
allegedly disposed of by the state and also found official locations that may
have documents or other evidence related to the killings.
The Associated Press could not independently verify the report, and the group
acknowledged that its findings weren't definite because it doesn't have direct
access to North Korea and cannot visit the sites defectors told it about.
Heeseok Shim, one of the report's authors, also said interviews with defectors
suggest that public executions in North Korea are becoming less frequent,
although it's unclear whether that's because more people are being executed in
secret.
The Transitional Justice Working Group is a nongovernment organization founded
by human rights advocates and researchers from South Korea and four other
countries. The group said the new report was made possible by funding from the
Washington-based National Endowment for Democracy, which is funded by the U.S.
Congress.
North Korea didn't immediately respond to the report, but the nation bristles
at outside criticism of its human rights record and claims negative assessments
are part of U.S.-led pressure campaigns meant to tarnish the image of its
leadership and destroy the country's political system. In a report to the
United Nations Human Rights Council in May, North Korea said it "consistently
maintains the principle of ensuring scientific accuracy, objectivity and
impartiality, as well as protecting human rights in dealing with criminal
cases."
A 2014 United Nations report on North Korea's human rights conditions, however,
said state authorities carry out executions, "with or without trial, publicly
or secretly," in response to political and other crimes that are often not
among the most serious offenses. While public executions were more common in
the 1990s, North Korea continues to carry them out for the purpose of
instilling fear in the general population, the report said.
The new report said its findings show arbitrary executions and extrajudicial
killings under state custody have continued under the rule of young leader Kim
Jong Un despite international criticism over how North Korea supposedly applies
the death penalty without due judicial process.
Almost all of the state killings documented in the report were public
executions by firing squad. Public executions are almost always preceded by
brief "trials" on the spot where charges are announced and sentences are issued
without legal counsel for the accused, the report said. Bodies of people killed
by state agents are not typically returned to the family and are often dumped
in mountainous areas, buried in the ground without markers, or thrown into a
gorge or ravine, it said.
The rights group said the information it gathered will be crucial if a
political transition in North Korea allows for the identification of victims,
the return of remains to families and investigations into human rights abuses
committed by the government.
The group released an earlier report in 2017 based on a smaller number of
interviews. It said the new report is better sourced.
(source: Fox News)
*****************
North Korea may be cutting back on public executions: report
North Korea continues to carry out state killings as a way of intimidating its
citizens, campaigners said Tuesday, although the number of executions may be
declining in the face of mounting international pressure.
Pyongyang has long been accused of using state killings to instill fear among
its population, and leader Kim Jong Un has executed top aides in the past --
including his powerful uncle, Jang Song Thaek, in 2013.
A new report by the Transitional Justice Working Group documented hundreds of
public executions over several decades -- the most recent in 2015 -- for
charges as trivial as stealing copper or a cow.
"The rules on public execution demand that 3 shooters fire 3 rounds each into
the body of the condemned person, for a total of 9 bullets," said Seoul-based
group, which seeks to highlight what is says are grievous human rights abuses
by the North.
This was a widely used tactic, especially against the elites, it added,
"designed to maximise public intimidation, in the knowledge that information
about execution methods will spread throughout the country".
But the study -- based on the testimonies of 610 North Korean defectors -- also
suggested that Pyongyang was growing more concerned about international
scrutiny, forcing it to scale back on the practice.
"Since 2005, public hangings are reported to have ceased or at least decreased
markedly in frequency, with some attributing this shift to international
pressure to end the practice," the report said.
Ethan Shin, one of the authors of the report, said the study indicated a
decline in death sentences in the reclusive regime.
"Although verification is impossible, it looks like the number of public
executions is on a downward trend," Shin told AFP.
"Secret executions may be increasing but North Korea appears to be more
cautious about issuing death penalties as it seeks recognition as a normal
state," he added.
The report said Pyongyang has rejected requests from UN member states to submit
statistics on the application of the death penalty, but has said that
executions were "not open to the public in principle".
- 'Ongoing repression' -
A landmark 2014 report by a UN Commission of Inquiry documented rampant human
rights abuses in the North, ranging from rape, torture and extrajudicial
killings to the operation of political prisons.
The regime is estimated to have up to 120,000 North Koreans in the camps, where
many detainees are said to have been jailed merely for being related to
individuals deemed to be a threat to the state, rather than being convicted of
internationally recognised criminal offences.
North Korea says it respects human rights and dismisses allegations of
violations as fabrications told by North Korean defectors, whom it denounces as
"human scum".
In a statement carried by its official Korean Central News Agency last year,
Pyongyang said its "socialism guarantees the genuine human rights
institutionally, legally and practically".
The new campaign group report comes amid media reports that a senior North
Korean official was executed by a firing squad in March following the collapse
of a 2nd summit between Kim and US President Donald Trump in Hanoi.
South Korea's Chosun Ilbo newspaper reported last month that Kim Hyok Chol was
sentenced to death for "betraying the Supreme Leader" after he was "won over by
the US" during pre-summit negotiations.
Some previous South Korean reports of executions in the North have later proved
to be unfounded, but Kim has not been mentioned by North Korea's state media
since the Hanoi summit, which ended abruptly without an agreement.
Since last year Kim Jong Un engaged in a flurry of diplomacy including 3
summits with the South's President Moon Jae-in and 2 meetings with Trump.
But the issue of North Korea's human rights abuses has largely been off the
table, TJWG said, adding it will continue documenting the violations rampant in
the reclusive regime.
"This work remains vital, especially when state leaders are reluctant to
address the ongoing repression of so many," the report said.
(source: france24.com)
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