June 18
BELARUS:
PACE 'Strongly Condemns' Secret Execution In Belarus
The Parliamentary assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) has "strongly
condemned" the reported secret execution of a Belarusian while his case was
still under consideration by the United Nations Human Rights Committee (UNHCR).
PACE’s general rapporteur on the abolition of the death penalty, Titus
Corlatean, said in a statement on June 17 that by executing Alyaksandr
Zhylnikau in recent days "Belarus has once again shown that it does not fully
subscribe to basic European standards, and its use of the death penalty
continues to prevent the development of deeper relations with the Council of
Europe."
"I reiterate my call on the Belarusian authorities to introduce a moratorium on
the death penalty, as a matter of urgency, and as a first step towards its full
abolition. It is the only way forward,” Corlatean said.
The Minsk-based human rights center Vyasna (Spring) quoted Zhylnikau's
relatives on June 13 as saying that his death penalty verdict had been
implemented.
It remains unclear if the 2nd convicted person in the case, Vyachaslau
Sukharka, was also executed.
Sukharka and Zhylnikau were convicted of murdering 3 people and sentenced to
life in prison in December 2015.
In July 2017, the Supreme Court upheld an appeal by prosecutors and the case
was sent for retrial, where the 2 men were sentenced to death.
At the same time, Zhylnikau filed a complaint with the UNHCR, which had
subsequently asked Belarusian authorities to take "urgent measures and to avoid
carrying out the death sentence" prior to the consideration of the convict's
complaint by the committee.
Andrej Paluda, coordinator of the campaign Human Rights Defenders Against Death
Penalty in Belarus, said the case shows that Belarus "does not share the human
rights values and remains the last country in Europe and the former Soviet
Union where people are executed by shooting."
Belarus is the only country in Europe and Central Asia to carry out the death
penalty.
According to rights organizations, more than 400 people have been sentenced to
death in Belarus since it gained independence after the collapse of the Soviet
Union in 1991.
2 convicts were reportedly executed in November and 2 in May last year.
(source: Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty)
**********************
Foreign citizen who may face death penalty in Iran allowed to reside in Belarus
The Belarusian Interior Ministry has allowed Iranian Merhdat Jamshidiyan to
stay in the country.
When reached by belsat.eu, his wife Alena confirmed the news.
The ministry will also grant the corresponding status to him for ‘humanitarian
reasons’, RFE/RL quotes Alyaksei Byahun, Head of the Citizenship and Migration
Department.
Merhdat Jamshidiyan has been living in Belarus for more than 20 years and, with
the exception of the last two years, he had had registration. But for the last
7 years Iran has been asking to give out the man, because the state suspects of
murdering his mother and brother (for the record, he was an opposition
activist) in September, 2012. It should be noted that Merhdat was staying in
Belarus at that moment. Even if a man is found not guilty in his homeland, he
may still be executed; in Belarus, he converted to Christianity, which is
considered as apostasy.
For the year to date, 902 Belarusians have signed an appeal to the authorities
asking ‘not to send Merhdat to his doom’.
(source: belsat.eu)
FRANCE:
80 years since Versailles execution stopped public guillotine spectacles
80 years ago on Monday, a crowd gathered to watch what was to become the last
public execution by guillotine in France — a grim spectacle that was captured
on film.
Onlookers lined up for hours to be in the front row to see the blade fall on
the neck of convicted murderer Eugen Weidmann.
His execution took place in front of the doors of the Saint-Pierre prison, in
the centre of Versailles, on June 17, 1939.
Executions were supposed to take place before sunrise, but dealing with the
crowd delayed preparations and reporters were able to take photos and even film
the event.
The shocking images and the behaviour of the baying crowd led France to banish
the use of guillotines to within prison walls until their final use, in 1977.
Weidmann, a 31-year-old German with a string of previous criminal convictions,
was sentenced to death for six murders committed in France with 3 accomplices.
Among their victims was an American dancer who had come to Paris to visit the
1937 World's Fair.
The condemned man was led out with his hands tied behind his back and white
shirt turned down to keep his neck clear.
Among those watching was the future Dracula actor Christopher Lee, who was then
17. He was attending with a friend of his family who was a journalist.
In his autobiography, he described the "powerful wave of howling and shrieking"
that greeted Weidmann’s appearance on the street.
He said he could not bring himself to watch Weidmann’s execution. "I turned my
head, but I heard," he told a documentary in 1998.
Lee recalled how spectators "rushed to the corpse” and some “did not hesitate
to soak handkerchiefs and scarves in the blood spread on the pavement, as a
souvenir.”
Another witness, Marcel, who was 15 at the time, described similar scenes in an
interview with AFP in 2001.
The guillotine was “quickly dismantled, the pavement quickly washed with
water," and life resumed its course "with the passage of the first tram and the
reopening of the 2 neighbouring cafes.”
But French leaders were concerned that the images and descriptions circulated
overseas gave a poor image of France and President Albert Lebrun moved to end
public executions.
In a decree on 24 June, 1939, future executions were limited to “the premises
of the penitentiary establishment" and would be witnessed only by officials
including magistrates, doctors, police and a priest.
But it was many decades before guillotines were outlawed altogether. The last
bladed execution of a death row inmate in France was on September 10, 1977,
when Hamida Djandoubi was guillotined in the Baumettes prison in Marseille. The
death penalty was definitively abolished in 1981.
(source: euronews.com)
SRI LANKA:
The Solution to Drug Trafficking must have Human Rights at its Core
Maru Sira (his real name being D.J. Siripala) died at Bogambara Prison in
Kandy, on August 7 1975. He was executed by hanging, on the direction of the
State. He had been convicted, in absentia, of the crime of murder. Controversy
surrounded his execution: he was unconscious when he was taken to the gallows,
he was laid on a stretcher across the trapdoor, with the noose around his neck.
His slumped position and the shorter fall of just two feet and two inches, when
the usual distance of the fall is six feet, reportedly caused death by
asphyxiation as a result of a slow strangulation. If he had been standing, his
death would have been instantaneous. It is reported that it took 18 minutes for
him to die due to the manner in which his execution was conducted.
The horror of this execution has given Maru Sira much more publicity and
status, perhaps, than if he had continued to live. His execution has assured
for him a place in folk history, in art and in film, for the brutal way in
which his life was taken away from him, under the aegis of the law.
Indeed, Sri Lanka has not executed anyone since 1976 and has been an
abolitionist in practice. In this, Sri Lanka follows a global trend of shifting
away from this cruel punishment. By the end of 2018, 106 countries in the world
had fully abolished the death penalty in national legislation and 142 countries
are now abolitionist in law and practice. There was a 31% decrease in known
executions year-on-year in 2018; the lowest total Amnesty International
recorded in the last decade. This excludes the thousands of executions that we
believe continued to be carried out in China.
However, despite Sri Lanka’s history of not executing people, since July 2018
President Maithripala Sirisena has publicly expressed his resolve to resume
executions in Sri Lanka after 43 years.
This announcement has been succeeded by a number of alarming actions with the
intention of undertaking executions in the past six months. Quite apart from
the departure from State practice for over 4 decades, the criteria for resuming
executions in Sri Lanka, remains deeply problematic.
President Sirisena has stated from time to time that the 1st to be executed
will be those who are (a) under sentence of death for drug-related offences;
(b) engaging in drug trafficking from within prison and (c) are Sri Lankan
nationals (this last criteria being included after it was discovered that four
Pakistani nationals are convicted of drug-related offences but would not be
included in the list). The Ministry of Justice is reported to have sent a list
of 13 names to the President, on his request. It still remains unclear whether
the unfortunate souls whose names are on the “death list” have been informed of
the fact, or whether they are prepared for the fate that now appears to await
them.
To add to this uncertainty, how the President will determine which death row
prisoners have engaged in drug trafficking from within prison (which is a
separate crime for which there should be a separate judicial determination) is
also unclear. In order to ensure that the right to a fair trial is guaranteed,
the determination of whether a person did indeed commit a crime cannot be by
the prison authorities or by the Ministry of Justice, but by a court of law.
These are well-established principles, both in domestic law and in
international law. Much ambiguity clouds the manner in which the 13 persons
were selected for execution. As of February 2019, 48 persons on death row were
sentenced on drug related offences, despite the fact that drug-related offences
do not meet the threshold of the “most serious crimes” to which the death
penalty must be restricted under international law in countries where this
punishment has not yet been abolished. Moreover, at least six new death
sentences were handed down in 2018 for drug related offenses.
Like most countries, the criminal justice system in Sri Lanka is far from
perfect and torture and other abuses in custody are rampant. This has been
highlighted by the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka in its report to the
Committee against Torture in 2016, when it submitted as follows:
“torture is routinely used in all parts of the country regardless of the nature
of the suspected offence for which the person is arrested. For instance, those
arrested on suspicion of robbery, possession of drugs, assault, treasure
hunting, dispute with family/spouse, have been subjected to torture. The
prevailing culture of impunity where those accused of torture is concerned is
also a contributing factor to the routine use of torture as a means of
interrogation and investigation.” Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka, 2016
In addition, both the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka and the UN Special
Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers, have highlighted other
problems within the criminal justice system, which point to a possibility that
due process safeguards and the right to a fair trial may be violated in Sri
Lanka. Studies from different countries also show that people from less
advantaged economic backgrounds, and those belonging to racial, ethnic or
religious minorities disproportionately carry the weight of the death penalty.
The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has similarly
warned that the death penalty disproportionately affects those living in
poverty.
But an additional problem arises when one considers whether drug-related crime
would be resolved by executing anyone. There is no evidence to show that death
penalty has a unique effect in reduction of crime. In fact, there is evidence
that other countries are coming to such a realisation. In Iran, for example,
the use of the death penalty for drug related crimes was reduced in January
2018, in an acknowledgment that the death penalty does not deter drug offences-
by a State which has a trend of high numbers of executions for a variety of
crimes.
In relation to offenses related to drugs, not only is the death penalty in
violation of international law and standards, it also will have little effect
on the very issue it seeks to resolve.
Answers to address problems associated with drug trafficking must be sought
elsewhere. The UN Office on Drugs and Crime has illustrated how, despite heavy
penal laws, drug trafficking is a booming business while human rights
violations have become widespread in the so-called “war on drugs”. Despite
heavy penalties, including the death penalty, punitive drug policies have been
recognised by UN bodies as ineffective in reducing drug trafficking or in
addressing problems associated with the use, production and sale of drugs, “and
continue to undermine the human rights and well-being of persons who use drugs,
as well as of their families and communities.”
A crucial element to find real and lasting solutions to the problems posed by
drug trafficking lies in addressing the root causes of the problem. Governments
should pay particular attention to the underlying socio-economic factors that
are leading people to engage in the drug trade, including ill-health, denial of
education, unemployment, lack of housing, poverty and discrimination. By
putting the protection of public health and human rights at the centre of drug
policies, governments could also be in a much better position to address other
long-standing concerns, such as ensuring equality and non-discrimination, and
avoiding the violence associated with illicit drug markets.
It is equally important to address the deep-rooted injustices in criminal
justice systems that are leading to disproportionate impacts on marginalised
groups. In this sense, a decisive step is to end the death penalty for drug
related offenses as a first step towards the full abolition of this cruel
punishment. Moreover, governments should also look into amending its criminal
laws and consider implementing alternatives to the criminalisation of minor and
non-violent drug offences that are mostly affecting people from marginalised
groups, often women and people from racial, ethnic or other minorities.
Certainly, the illicit drug market has provided enormous corrupting power to
organised criminal gangs that need to be addressed. But as long as governments
fail to invest in policies that truly put the protection of health and human
rights at the centre, the blanket prohibition of drugs will continue to be a
war on people affecting particularly the poorest and most marginalised sectors
of society.
To bring back executions would not only be an indictment on our society- it
would also be a dark moment in the history of Sri Lanka, one that we would be
loath to explain to future generations. Instead of focusing on punitive and
repressive responses to tackle the problems associated with drugs, the
Government should explore new regulatory models that truly put the protection
of health and human rights at the centre of State policy.
(source: groundviews.org)
PAKISTAN:
Pakistan Halts Execution Of Mentally Ill Man
Pakistan's Supreme Court says it has halted the execution of a mentally ill
prisoner who has spent more than 13 years on death row following pressure by
human rights activists.
The court has suspended the execution of Ghulam Abbas "till further orders,"
spokesman Shahid Kambohyo said on June 17.
Abbas, 36, was scheduled to be hanged on June 18 for stabbing a neighbor in
2006.
Justice Project Pakistan (JPP), which campaigns against the death penalty, has
filed an application to stay the execution after Abbas was denied medical
attention by an independent psychiatrist and 2 government doctors.
Abbas has evidence of psychotic illness with hallucinations and behavior
disturbances, Justice Project Pakistan said in a statement on June 16.
Pakistan is a signatory to the international Convention on the Rights of
Persons with Disabilities (CPRD), which guarantees the dignity of individuals
with disabilities.
Pakistan lifted a 7-year unofficial moratorium on the death penalty after
Islamist militants killed more than 150 people, mostly children, at a school in
the northwestern city of Peshawar in December 2014.
Pakistan has since executed 508 prisoners, according to the JPP.
There are over 2 dozen death penalty offences, including blasphemy, under
Pakistani law.
According to an estimate, over 4,600 prisoners are on death row.
(source: Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty)
BANGLADESH:
SC starts appeal hearing of war criminal Azhar
Supreme Court has begun appeal hearing against death penalty of convicted war
criminal and former Jamaat-e-Islami leader ATM Azharul Islam.
A four-member bench of the Appellate Division headed by Chief Justice Syed
Mahmud Hossain began the hearing this morning.
At the start, lawyer Advocate Joynal Abedin Tuhin read out from the paper book
of the case.
International Crimes Tribunal 1 on December 30, 2014 sentenced Azharul,
assistant secretary general of Jamaat, to death for committing crimes against
humanity during the Liberation War.
Later on, Azharul filed an appeal with the SC challenging the verdict.
In the appeal, he prayed to the Appellate Division to acquit him of the charges
claiming that he is innocent.
(source: The Daily Star)
SAUDI ARABIA:
Using Saudi death penalty vs. children is barbaric [Adam Coogle is the senior
Middle East researcher at Human Rights Watch who follows developments in Saudi
Arabia. The opinions expressed in this commentary are his own. View more
opinion articles on CNN.]
The shameful ledger of Saudi human rights abuses accrues by the day. Since
Mohammad bin Salman became the Kingdom's crown prince in 2017, the list
includes the jailing and alleged torture of prominent Saudi women's rights
activists, a mass execution in April of largely Shia citizens convicted in
unfair trials and the murder of the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The Saudi
government has denied the crown prince's involvement in the murder.
And the capital trial of Murtaja Qureiris, an 18-year-old who was facing the
death penalty for offenses he allegedly committed when he was just 10 or 11
years old, would have been another example of the Saudi's human rights abuses.
But on Saturday, in what could ostensibly be the result of international
pressure, it was reported that Qureiris will not be executed and could be
released by 2022.
Although this is promising news, the fact that the Saudi government even
considered the execution of Qureiris is troubling.
Saudi Arabia is one of only a handful of countries that impose the death
penalty against children, which flies in the face of its international
obligations.
Its public prosecutor's office, which since 2017 has operated under the royal
court where Mohammad bin Salman holds sway, sought the death penalty against
Qureiris, a member of Saudi Arabia's Shia community. Prosecutors allege that
Qureiris' crimes were committed in association with a protest movement in Saudi
Arabia's Eastern Province by Shia citizens between 2010 and 2014. He is accused
of attacking the police with Molotov cocktails, attacking a German diplomatic
car, illegal possession of a firearm, and participation in protests and being a
member of a "terrorist organization." Qureiris has denied these charges.
According to the European Saudi Organization for Human Rights, he was arrested
in September 2014, when he was just 13, and has been in pretrial detention ever
since.
Saudi women's rights activist is being tortured in 'palace of terror,' brother
says
No child offender should ever face the death penalty, much less someone like
Qurairis who allegedly committed offenses at such a young age. Saudi Arabia
should enact legal reforms to halt all executions of offenders without
exception.
Perhaps in view of this criticism, in mid-2018 the authorities sought to
bolster the country's reputation by adopting a "Juvenile's Act" that provides
new protections for children involved in the criminal justice system. Saudi
Arabia trumpeted this reform in its 2018 report to the UN Human Rights Council
during its comprehensive review of the country's human rights record. But what
Saudi Arabia failed to mention is that the new Juvenile's Act does not apply to
certain offenses known as "hudud," or serious crimes defined under Saudi
Arabia's interpretation of Islamic Law that carry specific penalties.
Because prosecutors charged Qureiris with one of these offenses, he had
remained subject to the death penalty. The evidence cited in the charge sheet
against Qureiris includes his confession, which he says authorities extracted
through coersion, as well as confessions of four others charged for similar
offenses in other cases.
2 of the other confessions cited as evidence are from Ali al-Nimr and Dawood
al-Marhoun, both of whom were teenagers at the time of their alleged offenses
and both of whom have been on death row awaiting execution since 2014.
Unfair trials of Shia citizens for protest-related offenses are all too common.
Human Rights Watch obtained and analyzed 10 separate trial judgments that the
Specialized Criminal Court handed down in 2013 and 2016 against men and boys --
including al-Nimr and al-Marhoun -- accused of protest-related crimes. In
nearly all these trial judgments, defendants had repudiated their confessions,
saying they were coerced, including by beatings and prolonged solitary
confinement.
When detainees repudiated their confessions in court saying they were extracted
through torture, the court rejected their allegations out of hand in all cases.
The court also refused requests to show video footage of interrogations and
summon interrogators for questioning.
These blatantly unfair trials have resulted in the execution of dozens of Saudi
Shia in recent years, including many of the 37 executed on April 23. One of the
37, Abdulkareem al-Hawaj, was a teenager at the time of his alleged offenses.
(source: CNN)
**********************************
Will The Saudis Execute The 3 Detained Clerics?
Last month, the London-based Middle East Eye reported that 3 Saudi religious
scholars - Sheikh Salman al-Awdah, Awad al-Qarni, and Ali al-Omari - were going
to receive the death penalty after the end of Ramadan. The report cited 2
sources in the Saudi government and 1 of the detained Islamic scholar's
relatives.
Currently, Awdah, Qarni, and Omari are charged with terrorism and awaiting
trial at the kingdom's Criminal Special Court in Riyadh.
The arrest of these 3 "moderate" clerics in September 2017 triggered a chorus
of condemnation from abroad, including from the United Nations and numerous
human rights organizations like Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International.
Their detention occurred two months before the Ritz Carlton saga in which Crown
Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MbS) ordered the arrest of scores of wealthy and
prominent Saudi royals, merchants, and billionaire moguls during the infamous
"anti-corruption drive."
Adwah, Qarni, and Omari have been tied to the Muslim Brotherhood-inspired Sahwa
movement. Since the crown prince's ascendancy, his fears of revolutionary
activism in the region spreading into Saudi Arabia have prompted the
authorities in Riyadh to wage a campaign of repression against Sahwa-affiliated
Islamists in the kingdom.
From MbS's perspective, the potential for the movement to compete with him for
power while operating outside of his control represents an unacceptable threat
not only to the Saudi monarchy's Islamic legitimacy but also to its survival.
Awdah was punished for tweeting that he hoped for a resolution to the Qatar
crisis shortly after MbS had a telephone conversation with the emir of Qatar on
September 8, 2017. This cleric spent half of the 1990s behind bars because he
advocated political change in the kingdom.
Awdah has delivered hundreds of lectures and produced hundreds of articles that
mainly address Islamic law. He is known for promoting "moderate" and
"democratic" values. Awdah is the assistant secretary-general of the
International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS), a Qatar-based institution
understood to be affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, which the Saudi
government recognises as a terrorist entity. The kingdom's public prosecutor
has leveled 37 charges against him.
Qarni also landed in trouble after pushing for a rapprochement between Riyadh
and Doha. He is a preacher, academic, and author who had 2.2 million Twitter
followers at the time of his arrest. Omari, a popular broadcaster who has
enjoyed much popularity with younger Saudis, has earned a reputation for being
relatively progressive on gender issues and for condemning violent extremism.
Omari has also been a member of the IUMS. Following his arrest, Saudi Arabia’s
public prosecutor charged Omari with "forming a youth organization to carry out
the objectives of a terrorist group inside the kingdom" along with at least 29
other crimes, recommending capital punishment.
These executions would further demonstrate that MbS is ignoring outside
pressure regarding the kingdom’s record on human rights. The execution of 37
(mostly Shi'a) Saudi citizens in April was arguably about testing the waters to
see how the international community, especially the United States, would
respond. Considering the lack of any significant pressure on Saudi leadership
from the White House throughout the Jamal Khashoggi affair, MbS likely feels
emboldened to take actions without fearing any consequence in terms of a
backlash from the Trump administration.
If Awdah, Qarni, and/or Omari receive the death penalty, their executions could
only reinforce this notion that America’s current leadership is indifferent to
Riyadh's human rights record or the Saudi government’s targeting of dissidents
abroad, such as Iyad el-Baghdadi in Norway.
"These executions would further demonstrate that MbS is ignoring outside
pressure regarding the kingdom’s record on human rights."
There are important geopolitical dimensions to these three scholars’ files.
Odah, Qarni, and Omari are not dissidents or revolutionaries. None of them
called for the royal family to step down from power. For most of their careers,
they avoided criticizing Al Saud royals. Yet when MbS began changing Saudi
conduct on the international stage in major ways, the crown prince did not
receive their support. Given that all three expressed sympathy for Qatar, or at
least support for a Saudi-Qatari rapprochement, their executions would be
strong evidence of Riyadh’s refusal to soften its tone when it comes to Doha.
The fate of these 3 Islamic scholars will likely have major ramifications for
Saudi-Turkey relations too. On May 27, Yeni Safak published an open letter to
King Salman written by Yasin Aktay, an advisor to Turkish President Recep
Tayyip Erdogan. Aktay warned the Saudi monarch against executing Odah, Qarni,
and Omari. In his words: “That which will bring disaster to you is executing
Islamic scholars, which was recently announced. Scholars are the inheritors of
prophets, and each scholar is a world on their own. The death of a scholar is
like the death of the world. The killing of a scholar is like the killing of
the world.”
Erdogan's advisor also argued that the fate of these three Saudi scholars is
not merely a domestic issue for Saudi Arabia. "The matter of Islamic scholars
is not an internal affair. The scholars in question are assets who are
acknowledged and revered by the whole Muslim community. They are not your
subjects; they are our common treasures, whose advice we heed, and who are
beacons of light with their knowledge and stance. The sin of detaining them
even an hour in the dungeon, let alone executing them, is enough to destroy an
entire life."
Aktay called on King Salman to use his country's riches to alleviate problems
across the Islamic world and to support Turkey’s quest to pursue justice in the
case of Jamal Khashoggi, assassinated by Saudi agents in Istanbul last year.
The advisor’s letter displayed respect to King Salman but did not addressing
MbS. Erdogan’s circle is attempting to make distinctions between King Salman
and MbS, for instance by emphasizing early in the Khashoggi case that King
Salman was not implicated or when Erdogan exchanged Eid greetings with King
Salman in June. By asking King Salman to spare Awdah, Qarni, and Omari from
executions, Erdogan is attempting to use his relationship with the Saudi
monarch to prevent what many in the Sunni Muslim world consider a major
injustice.
"The matter of Islamic scholars is not an internal affair. The scholars in
question are assets who are acknowledged and revered by the whole Muslim
community."
Turkey may want to buy more goodwill from the Saudi king at a time when Saudi
media outlets are calling for a boycott of Turkish goods. Nervous about how
Saudi Arabia could hurt Turkey economically by pulling out its investments from
the country, officials in Ankara are keen to prevent a further deterioration of
bilateral ties that could severely harm Turkey financially. If King Salman
intervenes to spare these 3 Islamic scholars from the death penalty, such a
development could possibly reduce tensions in the kingdom’s relationship with
Turkey. If not, Ankara and Riyadh could see a sharp increase in friction.
(source: albawaba.com)
IRAN:
5 to 10 Prisoners Scheduled to Be Executed at Rajai-Shahr Prison
At least 5 death-row prisoners were transferred to the solitary confinement of
Rajai-Shahr Prison on Sunday. Some sources say the real number of the
transferred prisoners is 2 times more.
According to IHR sources, on the morning of Sunday, June 16, at least 5
prisoners were transferred to the solitary confinement of Rajai-Shahr prison in
the Iranian city of Karaj.
Most of the prisoners are sentenced to death for murder charges. If they fail
to win the plaintiffs’ consent, they will be executed on Wednesday. According
to the Iranian Islamic Penal Code (IPC) murder is punishable by qisas which
means “retribution in kind” or retaliation. In this way, the State effectively
puts the responsibility of the death sentence for murder on the shoulders of
the victim’s family. In qisas cases, the plaintiff has the possibility to
forgive or demand diya (blood money).
2 of the prisoners are identified as Shahin Sheykhan and Ali Davari, from ward
1 of the prison. IHR could not yet confirm the identity of the rest.
**************************
Iran's Regime Is Murdering Prisoners
The Iranian regime’s President Hassan Rouhani tries to paint himself as a human
rights defender but the actual evidence discredits this notion, according to
political scientist Dr Majid Rafizadeh who has been writing about the
suspicious deaths of political prisoners in Iran’s prisons.
Last week, political prisoner Alireza Shirmohammadali was stabbed to death in
the Greater Tehran Central Penitentiary, dying before the guards even got to
the scene.
Shirmohammadali, 21, was on a hunger strike to protest prison conditions when
he died, shedding light on an important situation that the regime would rather
keep hidden, and it appears that the regime orchestrated his murder by removing
guards from the ward, bribing prisoners to attack him, and cutting telephone
lines.
In a letter, Shirmohammadali wrote: “We went on a hunger strike because of the
lack of facilities and threats to personal safety inside the prison… The safety
of our lives is of no concern to the prison authorities… Just yesterday, Reza
Haghverdi, one of the prison officers, told us very directly that our hunger
strike is going to end with death certificates… We have asked the authorities
to look into our requests many times but they have not done so.”
Shirmohammadali was arrested in July 2018 on vague charges of “insulting sacred
religious beliefs,” “insulting the supreme leader” and “propaganda against the
state” for comments he posted on social media. These charges carry the death
penalty in an attempt to stop people from criticising the Regime.
Under Iranian law, prisoners of different categories are supposed to be house
separately, so that political prisoners aren’t housed with murderers, but this
did not happen for Shirmohammadali and he is far from the only one.
During the widespread anti-regime protests last year, thousands of Iranians
were arrested, including Vahid Heydari and Sina Ghanbari. Heydari, 22, and
Ghanbari, 23, died shortly afterwards in police custody, with authorities
claiming that both men killed themselves. The regime could provide no credible
evidence that the men would do this, but brushing off suspicious deaths as
suicides is something that the mullahs are used to.
They are still trying to claim that Iranian-Canadian Environmentalist Professor
Kavous Seyed-Emami committed suicide after being arrested for “spying” when he
was actually monitoring rare animals with the permission of the regime.
And these are just some of the deaths reported by the Regime. The actual number
of deaths is likely much more.
Dr Majid Rafizadeh wrote: “In a nutshell, more and more people are being killed
in Iran’s prisons. This should cause alarm in the international community and
particularly the UN Human Rights Council, whose duty it is to prevent such
atrocities and promote human rights. Instead of appeasing the Iranian regime,
the EU must also hold Tehran accountable.”
(source for both: Iran Human Rights)
ISRAEL:
PM: Full severity of the law must be exhausted----Right-wing MKs call for
execution of Palestinian charged with raping 7-year-old; Lawmakers allege that
suspect was nationalistically motivated, but police say it appears to have been
criminal in nature
Several right-wing lawmakers demanded that a Palestinian man accused of raping
a 7-year-old Israeli girl be put to death, though police believe that the crime
was likely not nationalistically motivated, as several politicians have
alleged.
On Sunday, police indicted a 54-year-old Palestinian custodian from the central
West Bank village of Dir Kadis for the kidnap and rape of a 7-year-old girl in
a nearby settlement.
A growing list of right-wing lawmakers on Monday were demanding the death
penalty for the suspect.
Yisrael Beytenu head Avigdor Liberman, who has pushed legislation to make it
easier for courts to impose the death penalty in certain terror cases, called
the incident “a well-planned attack on a small, innocent and helpless girl.”
“This is not pedophilia. This is pure terror — one of the worst kinds I have
heard in recent years,” he said in a statement.
“This is exactly the type of case in which I would not hesitate, and demand the
court to sentence the despicable terrorist to death,” Liberman added, accusing
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of having blocked the legislation.
Liberman has proposed a law which would allow a death penalty conviction in
cases of murder, but not rape.
“The vile person who committed this terrible act has no right to exist in this
world — he and all those who helped him,” said Union of Right-Wing Parties
chairman Rafi Peretz.
Peretz’s No. 2 Bezalel Smotrich tweeted, “If death could only be imposed on
this scum. Nothing less. Such a monster does not deserve to breathe air in our
world.”
The suspect, who has not been named, was charged Sunday with rape in aggravated
circumstances, assault, and kidnapping.
According to the indictment, the defendant began working earlier this year as a
maintenance staff member at a school in the central West Bank. There, he
established a connection with the victim by giving her candy. He then brought
the girl to a building near the school that was under construction, forcibly
held her there, raped her, then released her.
A police official said they were treating the incident as a criminally, and not
nationalistically, motivated attack.
The official said authorities were searching for an additional 2 suspects who —
according to the victim’s testimony — pinned her down and laughed while the
defendant raped her.
Netanyahu condemned the attack in a tweet but stopped short of explicitly
calling for the death penalty. “The courts must exhaust the severity of the law
with everyone responsible for this terrible act,” he wrote.
Labor MK Shelly Yachimovich accused the right-wing lawmakers of only speaking
out against rape when there are suspicions that the act was nationalistically
motivated.
They are “cynically and nationalistically dancing on the blood of a girl who
was the victim of a shocking rape,” she said.
An attorney for the parents of the girl, Haim Bleicher from the Honenu legal
aid organization, also issued a statement claiming that the crime had been
nationalistically motivated.
According to the attorney, the attackers had told the victim that she had
“deserved” what had happened to her.
The indictment followed a 3-month investigation carried out by the police. The
defendant had denied all charges during the investigation, putting his word
against the girl’s testimony.
The West Bank settlement where the defendant was employed was not named in the
charge sheet and the girl’s parents have obtained a gag order on the identity
of their daughter.
(source: The Times of Israel)
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