August 12
IRAN:
Campaign Pressuring Tehran to Release 8 Environmentalists
Social media users have interacted regarding the issue of 8 environmentalists
facing security charges in Iran, 1 week after they started a hunger strike. 2
hashtags were launched to pressure Iran to release the activists.
Kaveh Madani, water management expert, tweeted that 564 days have passed since
arresting the activists, and 8 days since the hunger strike. He stressed that
their only demand is to work based on justice.
Human Rights Watch said last week that the authorities should immediately
release all eight environmentalist experts detained for over 18 months without
being provided with the evidence concerning their alleged crimes.
"Members of the Persian Wildlife Heritage Foundation have languished behind
bars for over 550 days while Iranian authorities have blatantly failed to
provide a shred of evidence about their alleged crime," said Michael Page,
deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch.
"The authorities should take the long-overdue step of releasing these defenders
of Iran’s endangered wildlife and end this injustice against them," Page added.
HRW quoted a reliable source as saying that the environmentalists on hunger
strike are demanding that authorities end their legal limbo and either release
them on bail until a verdict is issued against them or transfer them to the
public ward of Evin prison.
They are inward 2-Alef of Evin prison, which is under the supervision of the
IRGC’s Intelligence Organization, the source added.
Their trial in Branch 15 of Tehran’s revolutionary court was halted before
March, then resumed at the beginning of August. The court reportedly did not
allow lawyers to review the evidence before the trial opened on January 30.
Article 48 of Iran’s 2014 criminal procedure law says that detainees charged
with various offenses, including national or international security crimes,
political, and media crimes, must select their lawyer from a pre-approved pool
selected by Iran’s judiciary during the investigation.
Defendants had been under psycho-social torture and were coerced into making
false confessions, experts said.
On February 10, 2018, a few weeks after their arrests, family members of Kavous
Seyed Emami, a Canadian-Iranian professor and environmentalist arrested with
the other members of the group, reported that he had died in detention under
suspicious circumstances.
Iranian authorities claimed that he committed suicide, but they have not
conducted an impartial investigation into his death.
Several senior Iranian government officials have said that they did not find
any evidence to suggest that the detained activists are spies.
On May 22, 2018, Issa Kalantari, the head of Iran’s Environmental institution,
said that the government had formed a committee consisting of the ministers of
intelligence, interior, and justice and the president’s legal deputy, and that
they had concluded there was no evidence to suggest those detained are spies.
Kalantari added that the committee said the environmentalists should be
released.
On February 3, Mahmoud Sadeghi, a member of parliament from Tehran, tweeted
that according to the information he has received, the National Security
Council headed by President Hassan Rouhani also did not deem the activities of
their detained conservation activists to be spying.
On October 24, 2018, Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi, the Tehran prosecutor, said that
the prosecutor’s office had elevated the charges against four of the detainees
to "sowing corruption on earth," which includes the risk of the death penalty.
Dolatabadi claimed that the activists were "seeking proximity to military sites
with the cover of environmental projects and obtaining military information
from them."
(source: aawsat.com)
CHINA:
China Clarifies Inmate Rights in Death Penalty Cases
In an effort to improve the protection of death row inmates’ rights and
welfare, China’s Supreme People’s Court released a new guideline on August 9 to
clarify and control capital punishment "review and execution procedures,"
according to China Daily.
Set to take effect on September 1, the guideline is composed of 13 articles and
states, among other things, that inmates nearing the date of their execution
are only able to meet with close family members - including spouses and
children. More distant relatives, as well as friends, are also allowed to meet
with a death row inmate ":subject to reason."
The guideline goes on to state that courts are responsible for informing
convicts on death row that they have the right to meet with family, and, if a
person refuses an invitation to visit an inmate, the incarcerated individual
must also be notified. Meetings with children or family members under 18 years
of age require parental approval; video calls can be arranged after review if
it is concluded that an in-person meeting may harm a child’s psychological
wellbeing.
In addition to noting that condemned individuals’ last words can be recorded in
audio or video format, the China Daily article states that the Supreme People’s
Court is "reviewing the death penalty itself," although no further details are
provided.
In China, it is not uncommon for lower level, local courts to sentence
criminals to death, although all sentences involving capital punishment must be
submitted for approval to the nation’s top court.
This review process began in 2007, when, for the 1st time in more than 20
years, China decreed that all death sentences must be submitted to the Supreme
People’s Court for final approval. The intention was to bring consistency to
the assignment of life-ending punishments and reduce the number of executions.
While most of the people handed the death penalty in China are convicted of
murder or drug crimes, China’s top court announced last month that those
involved in "extremely vile" sexual assault against children will be sentenced
to death.
On the same day as the announcement, convicted rapist He Long was executed in
Shandong province. He was found guilty of raping girls under 14 years of age
and forcing them into prostitution, according to Xinhua.
Statistics on the number of executions carried out in China each year are not
released by the Central Government in Beijing.
(source: thatsmags.com)
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