[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Sept. 21


CHINA----execution

China executes Pakistani man on drugs charges


China has executed a Pakistani man, Zahid Husain Shah, despite last-ditch 
appeals for clemency, his family says.

Mr Shah, 35, was arrested in 2008 and was convicted last year of drug 
smuggling.

He was put to death by lethal injection in Shanghai on Wednesday morning.

Human rights groups had called on Beijing to stop the execution and urged 
Islamabad to take up appeals on his behalf. There was no comment from either 
government.

Relatives were allowed one last meeting with Mr Husain at Shanghai Detention 
Centre on Wednesday morning.

His cousin, Tasneem Fatima, told the BBC the family expects to travel back to 
Pakistan later this week, once his body has been returned to them.

The last thing he told her was that he was innocent, she said.

4 other Pakistanis arrested with Mr Shah were sentenced to life imprisonment.

According to Mr Husain's relatives, he was framed for a crime he did not 
commit.

"Executing someone for drug-related offences violates internationally accepted 
standards for imposing the death penalty," said Sam Zarifi, Amnesty 
International's Asia-Pacific director.

The human rights group argues that no-one sentenced to death receives a fair 
trial in China, where thousands of executions for drug trafficking take place 
every year, more than the rest of the world combined.

(source: BBC News)

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

Man lives on after execution2011-09-21 08:42


A man supposedly executed for robbery 9 years ago has been found living with 
his family in Beijing, New Express Daily reported yesterday.

Tang Jianmin, an innocent migrant worker from central China's Hubei Province, 
had no idea a robber had used his name, and the truth was not discovered by the 
authorities until 2009, 7 years after the execution, the newspaper reported.

The convict was actually Tang's cousin, Zhang Wenhua. When Zhang was detained 
by the police, he claimed he was Tang. No one verified his identity, the 
newspaper said.

Before he committed a series of robberies in 2000, seriously injuring 2 women, 
Zhang was wanted for a murder in 1997. He may have given a false name in the 
belief he was escaping a more serious charge, according to the newspaper.

Zhang - under the name of his cousin - appealed against the death sentence but 
the judgment was upheld by a higher court.

Zhang was shot on June 6, 2002, under Tang's name, while his real name remained 
on the police wanted list.

Xu Hao, Zhang's schoolmate and a teacher from Xiangyang, Hubei, received the 
death penalty with a 2-year reprieve in 1999 as Zhang's accomplice in murdering 
a security guard at a hospital.

Xu and his family deny he committed the crime and have been trying to reverse 
the verdict. Xu's sentence was years ago reduced to 20 years for good behavior.

He is still in jail.

(source: Shanghai Daily






IRAN----public execution of juvenile

17-year-old Alireza was hanged in public in Karaj early this morning


17-year-old Alireza Mollasoltani was publicly hanged in Karaj (west of Tehran) 
early this morning.

Alireza Mollasoltani was convicted of stabbing Ruhollah Dadashi, the Iranian 
champion of weightlifting.

The state-run Fars news agency reported that, before he was hanged from a 
crane, Alireza was crying loudly and asking for forgiveness while calling for 
his mother and some religious figures.

Several human rights organizations and the Norwegian government had called the 
scheduled execution "unlawful" and urged the Iranian authorities to stop the 
execution and respect the UN conventions that the Iranian government has 
ratified.

Iran has ratified the UN convention on the Rights of the Child, which bans the 
death penalty for offences committed by persons under the age of 18.

Alireza Mollasoltani was born in December 1993. He was still a minor at the 
time of the execution. After the execution, Ali Rezwanmanesh, the 
representative of the Judiciary present at the scene of execution, told news 
reporters that "Alireza was not a minor, according to Sharia, since in the 
Sharia the lunar calender in used and the years are shorter."

Iran Human Rights strongly condemns today’s execution of 17-year-old Alireza.

Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, the spokesperson of Iran Human Rights said in a 
comment: "Alireza’s execution is unlawful, according to international laws and 
the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and the head of the Judiciary Sadeq Larijani 
should be held responsible for today’s execution and other unlawful executions 
that take place in Iran". He added: "The international community should not 
tolerate the execution of children in 2011."

(source: Iran Human Rights)






INDIA:

Senior lawyer Ramchandran to defend Kasab in SC


Top advocate Raju Ramachandran has been appointed to defend the 26/11 Mumbai 
terror attack accused Ajmal Kasab in the Supreme Court. Kasab has filed a 
petition in the apex court challenging the death penalty.

Speaking to CNN-IBN, senior advocate Raju Ramachandran said," it's a call of 
duty."

A trial court had sentenced Kasab to death on 5 counts in May 2010. The Bombay 
High Court had later upheld the sentence.

(source: IBN Live)






PAKISTAN:

Death penalty for seven Pakistanis who killed teenagers ---- The brothers were 
apparently mistaken for robbers


A court in Pakistan has given the death penalty to seven people who were caught 
on camera beating 2 teenaged brothers to death last year.

6 others were sent to life in jail while 9 policemen, including the then police 
chief of Sialkot district, were given 3-year jail terms.

Video of the killings in Sialkot showed police officers standing by as a mob 
beat the pair to death.

The brothers were mistaken for robbers, officials said.

Footage showed the youths protesting their innocence as they were beaten with 
sticks and wires.

The brothers, Mughees Butt, 19, and Muneeb Butt, 15, were then strung up on 
poles.

At one point, the screaming youths ask to be shot so their ordeal could end. 
The case caused outrage in Pakistan.

The anti-terrorism court in the city of Gujranwala announced its sentences 
shortly before midnight on Tuesday.

A total of 27 people had been charged in the case. 5 were acquitted on grounds 
of insufficient evidence.

The policemen were found guilty of not intervening, and possibly abetting, the 
killings. Those convicted can appeal in the high court.

(source: BBC News)