[Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Jan. 10


PAKISTAN:

Man gets death sentence for murdering wife


Additional District and Sessions Judge Rana Nisar Ahmad Khan on Thursday
awarded death sentence to Abdul Khaliq, a resident of Murree, who axed his
wife to death on a family dispute in 2006.

The convict was also sentenced to 10-month imprisonment and a fine of Rs
0.3 million. According to details, Abdual Khaliq killed his wife Dilshad
on November 30, 2006. The Murree Police Station had registered FIR under
section 302/324/337 and filed a challan against the murderer in the court.

(source: Daily Times)






IRAN:

Executions and amputations rise in Iran


Iran hanged 7 men convicted of murder and drug smuggling in different
cities, newspapers reported Thursday, bringing the number of publicly
disclosed executions in the first 2 weeks of this year to 23.

The daily newspaper Iran reported that two men, identified only by their
1st names as Mojtaba and Muhammad-Hossein, were hanged for murder
Wednesday in the southern city of Jahorm. 3 others, convicted of drug
trafficking, were hanged in the eastern city of Birjand on Wednesday, the
daily Jomhouri Islami reported. The paper added that 2 others convicted of
murder were hanged in the northern city of Tonekabon but did not specify
when.

The authorities hanged 13 people on Jan. 1 and 3 others after that.

According to a news agency count based on reports in local newspapers,
Iran hanged 298 people in 2007, compared with 177 in 2006. If the increase
in executions continued at the present rate, the number of hangings this
year would surpass 400.

Human rights groups in Iran this week expressed shock after the judicial
authorities disclosed they had amputated the left feet and right hands of
5 criminals convicted of armed robbery in the province of
Sistan-Baluchistan.

A human rights group founded by Shirin Ebadi, the lawyer and Nobel peace
laureate, condemned the executions and amputations.

"Unfortunately, the violation of human rights in Iran has not only been
expanded in some fields, it has also found new dimensions," Ebadi's group,
Defenders of Human Rights, said in a statement Wednesday.

While amputation punishments are not new in Iran - they were revived when
the Islamic penal code was imposed after the 1979 Islamic revolution - the
government has rarely publicized such sentences.

Moreover, amputation sentences have been for either hands or feet, not
both. In the newly disclosed instances, the authorities cut off both the
right hand and left foot, making it difficult, if not impossible, for the
condemned people to walk even with a cane or crutches.

The amputations were carried out in the southern province of
Sistan-Baluchistan, near the border with Pakistan, where the authorities
have faced increasing insecurity as a result of attacks by minority Sunni
insurgents opposed to the Shiite government.

"We have constantly protested about the existence of such punishments in
our penal code," Ebadi said in an interview.

She added: "But the government ignores our protests. These laws are
against international conventions Iran has signed, and must change."

Among those reported executed on Jan. 1 was a 27-year-old woman and mother
of 2 who had killed her husband when she was 23. The woman, Raheleh
Zamani, was hanged at Tehran's Evin prison despite a promise by
authorities to postpone her execution by a month. A feminist group was
trying to get the consent of the victim's family to save her life. She had
been married at the age of 15 and abused by her husband during their
marriage, according to the women.

(source: Agence France Presse)