[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

April 28


SAUDI ARABIA:

Saudi silent over woman’s arrest


The authorities in Saudi Arabia are yet to provide details over the arrest of a 
Sri Lankan woman on charges that she had dabbled in witch craft, a senior 
official with the External Affairs Ministry (EAM) said today.

Director Publicity at the EAM Mr. Sarath Dissanayake said the Lankan Mission in 
Riyadh had been instructed to follow up the matter at the earliest because if 
the woman is convicted she faces the death penalty.

"For their part the Saudi authorities have so far failed to bring the matter to 
the notice of the Sri Lankan Mission and this is a cause to worry", Mr. 
Dissanayake said.

The woman was arrested earlier this month after a Saudi couple complained to 
the authorities that her daughter acted in an abnormal manner when ever the 
Lankan woman was nearby and she was subsequently arrested.

Apart from that which appeared in the media there are no other details of the 
arrest and the follow-up action taken by the Saudi authorities, he added.

Saudi Arabia is a monarchy, with no known written criminal code and judges’ 
make their decisions from interpretations of the Islamic Shariah Law.


SYRIA:

Young woman activist Yara Shammas facing possible death sentence


As United Nations observers try to carry out their mission with considerable 
difficulty, Reporters Without Borders would like to draw attention to the Assad 
regime’s many violations of freedom of information, which include jailing those 
who have the courage to inform us about the situation in Syria.

“We call for the immediate release of all the professional journalists, citizen 
journalists and netizens jailed by the regime,” Reporters Without Borders said. 
“The Syrian authorities have undertaken to carry out Kofi Annan’s peace plan, 
which envisages the release of all prisoners of conscience. It is high time the 
authorities kept their promises.”

Reporters Without Borders is particularly concerned about the fate of Yara 
Michel Shammas, 21, who was arrested with 11 other activists in a café in the 
old part of Damascus on 7 March and was transferred to a prison in Homs. 9 new 
charges were brought against her on 22 April, including one under article 298 
of the criminal code which carries the death penalty.

Article 298 says: “A life sentence of forced labour will be passed on anyone 
committing an act that aims to cause a civil war or communal strife by arming 
Syrian citizens or inciting them to take up arms against each other, or to 
incite a massacre or looting in one or more localities. If this act achieves 
its aim, the guilty party will be sentenced to death.”

An information technology specialist, Shammas is the daughter of Michel 
Shammas, a well-known human rights lawyer active on Facebook. Anwar Al-Bonni, 
the head of the Syrian Centre for Legal Study and Research, said “what is 
happening to Yara Michel Shammas is clearly a way of putting pressure on the 
lawyer Shammas.”

(source: Reporters Without Borders)