[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Jan. 28



IRAN----executions

Iran hangs 6


Iran has hanged 4 men convicted of rape and 2 convicted of murder in
prisons in the northeastern city of Mashhad and the central city of
Isfahan.

The 4 convicted rapists were sent to gallows on Tuesday in a prison in
Mashhad, Khorasan newspaper said.

The report did not provide any other information except that the men were
aged between 18 and 20 years.

The Fars news agency later reported that 2 men were executed for murder on
Wednesday in a prison in the central city of Isfahan.

Ahmad A. was hanged for murdering Najmeh R. around 2 years ago, while Reza
A. stabbed to death Hossein Yazdani, 21, around the same time, it said.

The latest hangings bring to at least 38 the number of executions in Iran
so far this year.

Iran executed at least 246 people last year, according to an AFP count.

Since last year, the Islamic republic has stepped up its use of the death
penalty in what it says is a bid to improve security in the society.

Amnesty International says Iran carried out more death sentences in 2007
than any other country apart from China which executed 317 people.

Capital offences in Iran include murder, rape, armed robbery, drug
trafficking and adultery.

(source: Sky News)


******************************


Bulgarian lorry driver faces the gallows in Iran


4 months since he disappeared without trace, Bulgarian lorry driver Zhivko
Roussev, from Gulubovo, has been found inside an Iranian jail on death
row. He was caught ferrying 135kg of heroin.

The news was confirmed by the Foreign Ministry, which formed an emergency
task force late on January 27 to evaluate the situation. A spokesman for
the ministry told 24 Chasa that "a Bulgarian citizen is under
investigation for drug trafficking. The expected sentence is the death
penalty. The ministry is working on the case after we were informed by the
Iranian authorities."

The Bulgarian driver was caught by police in the north-west town of Tabriz
in September 2008. All along his daughter had reckoned that he had gone to
Armenia to be with a girlfriend. His employer, a Bulgarian company,
initially did not disclose any information but eventually they had
declared the man as missing. Eventually it transpired that the 55-year-old
man, Zhivko Stefanov Roussev, hadbeen arrested after police found a hidden
compartment in his lorry with 135kg of heroin.

Iranian authorities have informed the Bulgarian ambassador to Tehran that,
in accordance with local law, anyone caught with more than 100g of heroin
faces the gallows, regardless of nationality.

The Bulgarian company has made no attempt to intervene, either with the
Iranian authorities, or to contact the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry. The
case will be re-examined during a visit by the Iranian deputy foreign
minister who is arriving in Sofia on February 2.

In 2008, 230 people in Iran were executed, 317 in 2007. Murder, rape,
armed robbery and drug trafficking are all punishable by hanging.

(source: Sofia Echo)








UGANDA:

Muslims Advised on Wrangles


THE leader of the Seventh Day Adventist (SDA) in Uganda has appealed to
the different Muslims factions to stop attacking each other.

"I appeal to you to shun this behaviour because in trying to destroy one
person, you end up destroying the whole institution and religion," said
John Luga Wani.

"Rather than making news for the public, take charge and be responsible,"
he advised. He appealed to Muslims to sort out their problems quietly
rather than expose them to the public.

Wani said this while at the inauguration ceremony of new board members of
the Inter Religious Council of Uganda (IRCU) at the Gadaffi Mosque in Old
Kampala yesterday.

Mufti Shaban Ramadhan Mubajje who is also the chairperson of council of
presidents for ICRU, called upon the new members to exercise
accountability and responsibility in their work.

"You are charged with the duty of promoting love, tolerance, peace and
enhancing sustainable development," said Mubajje.

The 10-member and five ex-officio board was inaugurated at a ceremony
which attracted all the leaders of the major faiths in Uganda.

The board will serve for a 3- year term.

At the same function, IRCU bid farewell to the outgoing secretary general,
Jowad Kezaala.

Kezaala is credited for turning IRCU into a stable organisation that
delivered essential services in peace building and reconciliation and
HIV/AIDS related services across the country.

Commenting on the death penalty, Mubajje praised the Government for
upholding the death penalty, saying it made people afraid of committing
heinous crimes.

He explained that according to Islam, a criminal should be paid using the
same currency as he has done to the other.

"By killing a person, the killer should know that he is also killing
himself," said Mubajje.

He explained that if it is scrapped, especially in African countries,
murders would increase.

However, Wani said the death penalty should be abolished because it makes
people more vengeful.

"When people know that they have been pardoned, they tend to refrain from
doing bad, but if they know they will die, murders will instead increase,"
he said.

(source: All Africa News)

****************

Mubajjje for death penalty


The Mufti of Uganda, Sheik Ramathan Mubajje has hailed the Supreme Court
judges for upholding the death sentence. The Supreme Court recently
refused to declare the death penalty unconstitutional as had been prayed
by petitioners in the land mark case.

Mubajje says people who kill others should be killed in order to
discourage other people from committing murder.

He says even the Koran supports heavy punishments like death to people who
commit capital crimes like murder and rape.

Mubajje who was addressing a group of Moslems today said that lifting the
death penalty would encourage people to commit capital crimes.

But anti death sentence campaigners say that the death sentence is not a
sufficient deterrent against committing murder, with most people who
commit murder and other crimes that might generate a death sentence
committing such crimes while they are fully aware that they will be
sentenced to death and executed if they commit the crime.

The Supreme Court ruled that the death penalty is constitutional but
ordered that anyone on death row who is not executed within three years
should have his or her sentence reverted to life imprisonment.

The petitioners had complained that the long time many prisoners spend on
death row subjects them to psychological torture of waiting for long to be
killed.

(source: UgPulse.com)