[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Dec. 8


IRAN:

Kurdish prisoners on hunger strike in Urmia face threat of execution


The hunger strike of Kurdish political prisoners in the Urmia central prison 
continues for the 18th day as administrators are responding to the protest with 
a threat of execution.

The hunger strike by 27 Kurdish political prisoners was launched in protest 
against the Iranian regime's decision for the transfer of criminal prisoners to 
the political prisoners' ward in the central Urmia prison.

Information obtained from the prison reveals that the Iranian intelligence 
service has many times threatened the prisoners on strike with execution or 
transfer to other prisons south of the country since their protest began.

Osman Mostafapour who is also taking part in the protest has reportedly been 
interrogated by an intelligence officer this week. It is reported that in 
response to the threats uttered in order for the ending of the hunger strike, 
the political prisoners remain determined to continue their protest until their 
demand is met and non-political prisoners are removed from their ward.

In the meantime, the health of the political prisoners is reported to be 
deteriorating as the hunger strike continues for the 18th day. Ali Reza Rasuli 
is reported to be refusing treatment despite having been referred to hospital 
several times.

Names of 27 prisoners participating in the hunger strike are: Ali, Wali and 
Jafar Afshari (brothers), Sherko Hassan Pur, Mohammad Abdullah, Xizir Rasuli 
Rad, Saman Nasim, Amir Maladoost, Sirwan Najawi, Jafar Mizayi, Ibrahim Resapur, 
Abdullah Efxeri, Abdurhaman Sileman, Ebudllah Omeri, Seyd Sami Hiseni, Ebdulla 
Hemudi, Ehmed Temuyi, Osman Mistefa Pur, Behroz Alxani, Mistefa Rehman, Yusif 
Kakememi, Seyd Cemal Mihemedi, Eli Reza Resuli, Sores, Hebib Efsari and Mistefa 
Dawudi.

(source: Firat News)






CHINA:

8 sentenced to death for China attacks; Convicts accused of carrying out 2 
deadly attacks in the violence-torn far-western Xinjiang region.


A court in China has sentenced 8 people to death for allegedly carrying out 2 
deadly attacks in the violence-torn far-western Xinjiang region, state media 
said.

5 others were given suspended death sentences, a penalty normally commuted to 
life in prison, state broadcaster CCTV reported on Monday.

Another 4 were jailed over the attacks, which killed 39 people at a market and 
1 at a train station this spring. Several attackers also died.

In 1 incident, assailants armed with knives and explosives reportedly attacked 
a train station in the regional capital Urumqi in April, killing 1 person and 
wounding 79 on the final day of a visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping. 2 
assailants also died.

In May, 39 people were killed, along with 4 attackers, and more than 90 wounded 
when assailants threw explosives and ploughed 2 vehicles through a market in 
Urumqi, state media said.

Over the past year, at least 200 people have died in a series of clashes and 
increasingly sophisticated attacks in the region and beyond it.

The sentences are the latest in a series of harsh punishments by Chinese 
authorities, who are in the midst of a "strike hard" campaign against violence 
in Xinjiang.

Xinjiang is frequently hit by unrest prompted by fierce tensions between 
China's ethnic Han majority and the Turkic-speaking Muslim Uighurs, with 
authorities regularly blaming Uighur fighters for the violence.

Some Uighurs in the region are hostile to the Communist Party's leadership.

They said they were victims of discrimination and left out of the benefits of 
development in Xinjiang, which has seen an influx of Han Chinese moving in from 
elsewhere in the country.

Xinjiang, a resource-rich region in China's far west, which abuts Central Asia, 
is home to about 10 million Uighur Muslims, who mostly follow Sunni Islam.

Experts and human rights activists said that policies regarding religion and 
culture adopted by China stoke tensions in the region.

(source: Agence France-Presse)






EGYPT:

Court Suggests Death Penalty for 4 Brotherhood Leaders; A Cairo court refers 
four Muslim Brotherhood leaders to Egypt's grand mufti to consider the death 
penalty.


A Cairo court on Sunday referred 4 Muslim Brotherhood leaders, who are on trial 
for the killing of 9 and injuring more than 90 in 2013, to Egypt's grand mufti 
to consider the death penalty.

The defendants in the case include 17 Brotherhood leaders, among which are 
former Parliament Speaker Saad El-Katatni, Brotherhood Supreme Guide Mohamed 
Badie, and his deputy Khairat El-Shater, according to the Al-Ahram newspaper.

The top Brotherhood leaders involved in the case are not among those referred 
to the grand mufti, however, the report stressed.

The court has set February 28 2015 for a final verdict on the remaining 
defendants.

The defendants are accused of murder, inciting violence, and possession of live 
ammunition.

The sentences are the latest in an ongoing crackdown against the Muslim 
Brotherhood which began in 2013 when the army ousted Islamist President 
Mohammed Morsi.

Last week, a court sentenced 188 defendants to death for a violent attack on a 
police station after Morsi's ouster that left 11 police personnel and 2 
civilians dead.

More than 500 people were sentenced to death in March for a separate attack on 
a police station in Minya on the same day.

In April, another 683 supporters of Morsi, including leading members of his 
Muslim Brotherhood, were sentenced to death as well.

The rise of mass convictions in Egypt has been described by the United Nations 
as "unprecedented".

The United States and the European Union have decried the mass convictions as 
well, but Egypt rejected the criticism, terming it "unacceptable interference 
in the judiciary affairs".

(source: Israel National News)






AUSTRALIA:

Kalynda Davis, Peter Gardner, Bali 9 pair face execution


At least a dozen Aussies face the firing squad in Asia, nearly 50 years after 
the last Australian was hanged on home soil.

3 Australians are currently on death row and up to 9 others face the firing 
squad if found guilty.

Sydneysiders Kalynda Davis, 22 and Peter Gardner, 25, are the most recent 
Australians to face execution after they were busted in China for trying to 
smuggle ice into Australia from China.

They are thought to be among 9 Australians in the Chinese court system who face 
the death penalty.

Throughout the world 58 countries still carry out executions, including popular 
holiday locations such as the USA, Indonesia, China, Vietnam and Malaysia.

Australia's most well known death row inmates are Bali 9 members Myuran 
Sukumaran and Andrew Chan who have been facing the ultimate penalty since 
February 2006.

New Indonesian President Joko Widodo recently endorsed the execution of 5 death 
row inmates, but it is believed they do not include the Australian pair.

The pair appealed to the previous president for clemency 2 years ago, but their 
appeals have not been heard.

4 other Bali 9 members had their sentences increased to the death penalty on 
appeal and then reduced again after another appeal.

Australian citizen Pham Trung Dung faces the death penalty in Vietnam after 
trying to smuggle 2 suitcases of heroin on a flight to Sydney.

Schapelle Corby once faced the death sentence for smuggling cannabis in her 
bodyboard bag into Bali, but after an agonising wait during her trial was given 
a 20-year sentence.

The last Australian to be executed was Melbourne man Van Tuong Nguyen, 25, who 
was hanged in December 2005.

Nguyen was hanged in a Singapore jail in 2005 after he was arrested at Changi 
Airport with almost 400 grams of heroin.

3 Australians were executed in Malaysia in the 1980s and 1990s.

(source: Herald Sun)






SAUDI ARABIA:

Drug mules' execution


The relatively high number of Pakistanis executed for drug smuggling this year 
in Saudi Arabia raises key questions about how these individuals are able to 
slip through our borders, and what is being done by the authorities here to 
demolish the criminal networks that facilitate this trade.

As per 1 figure recently cited in the media, at least 15 Pakistanis have been 
executed for drug trafficking by Riyadh in the current year.

These drug mules usually belong to the working class and are duped and then 
forced by criminals to carry contraband abroad. Criminals try and ensnare 
individuals with promises of visas and jobs in the kingdom.

Hailing from financially disadvantaged backgrounds, these men find the 
prospects of making a better life abroad irresistible.

Yet once such individuals take the traffickers' bait, they are forced to carry 
drugs across borders, or suffer the consequences. Often, as soon as the drug 
mules land at Saudi airports, they are rounded up by local authorities, and 
once the narcotics are discovered it is pretty much a guarantee of ending up on 
death row.

Of course, there is much to question about the transparency of the Saudi legal 
system in this regard, especially when it comes to prosecuting foreigners. 
Representatives of international monitor groups including Human Rights Watch 
have termed it 'arbitrary'.

While this newspaper opposes the death penalty, we realise that drug 
trafficking is a serious crime. We must ask then what our own government is 
doing to crack down on networks in this country involved in the drug trade. 
While drug mules are executed by foreign governments, the powerful players in 
this country that exploit these men remain largely untouched.

The state must rectify this with stricter monitoring of individuals at airports 
used to transport drugs abroad and by dismantling the local networks involved 
in smuggling narcotics. Also, a public awareness campaign is needed to warn 
potential drugs carriers not to fall prey to glittering but suspect offers of a 
passport to Middle Eastern prosperity.

(source: Editorial, Dawn)



INDIA:

Govt plans stringent punishment for hijackers


The government will introduce a bill seeking stringent punishment, including 
death penalty, for hijackers. The bill will be moved in the Rajya Sabha this 
week.

The Union Cabinet on December 2 approved the new legislation strengthening an 
earlier bill introduced in the Rajya Sabha in 2010.

Sources said the government would now withdraw the Anti-Hijacking Amendment 
Bill, 2010, and introduce the new bill. The current law, the Anti-Hijacking 
Act, 1982, was last amended in 1994.

The Business Advisory Committee of the Rajya Sabha is learnt to have allotted 
two hours for the discussion of the bill.

After the hijacking of Indian Airlines Flight IC-814 in December 1999, it was 
felt necessary for awarding death penalty to perpetrators of the act of 
hijacking. The incident of 9/11, where aircraft were used as weapons, also 
created the need to further amend the existing Act.

(source: Deccan Herald)

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

Court convicts 4 persons in 1975 L N Mishra murder case


Nearly 40 years after the then Railway Minister Lalit Narayan Mishra was killed 
in a bomb blast at a function at Samastipur Railway Station in Bihar, a Delhi 
court today convicted 4 persons for the charges of murder and criminal 
conspiracy.

District Judge (DJ) Vinod Goel convicted the 4 persons, Ranjan Dwivedi, 
Santoshananda Avadhuta, Sudevananda Avadhuta and Gopalji for various offences 
punishable under the IPC, including sections 302 (murder), 120-B (criminal 
conspiracy), 326 (voluntarily causing grievous hurt by dangerous weapon or 
means) and 324 (voluntarily causing hurt).

The court also held them guilty for offences punishable under the Explosive 
Substances Act.

"Vide separate detailed judgement, accused Ranjan Dwivedi, Santoshananda 
Avadhuta, Sudevananda Avadhuta and Gopalji are convicted for offences under 
sections 120-B, 302, 326, 324, 34 (common intention) of the IPC," the judge 
said.

The court has fixed December 15 for hearing the arguments on quantum of 
sentence in the case. They will either get life term or death penalty. All of 
them were out on bail in this case.

"All these accused be taken in custody," the court said, adding, "Now to come 
up for hearing on quantum of sentence on December 15."

Lawyers for the 4 convicts, who were present in the court and appeared 
devastated, said they will appeal against the court order.

The case relates to the bomb blast at a function attended by Mishra at 
Samastipur Railway Station on January 2, 1975. He succumbed to injuries the 
next day.

Besides Mishra, 2 persons had died in the bomb blast while 7 others were 
injured.

Over 200 witnesses, including 161 prosecution witnesses and more than 40 
defence witnesses, were examined in the case.

Advocate Ranjan Dwivedi, who was 24-year-old at that time and the youngest 
among the 4, was named as an accused in the case along with 4 Ananda Marga 
group members, 1 of whom has died.

The charge sheet in the case was filed on November 1, 1977 in a CBI court in 
Patna. The case was shifted to Delhi in 1979 on a plea by the then Attorney 
General to the Supreme Court.

(source: Press Trust of India)






INDONESIA:

Komnas HAM urges Jokowi to drop executions plan


The National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) has called on President 
Joko "Jokowi" Widodo to review a plan to execute 5 drug traffickers on death 
row by the end of this year, demanding that he instead fall back on issuing 
life sentences to the convicts.

Komnas HAM stated that Indonesia does not yet have a reliable enough legal 
system for it to implement the ultimate punishment of death, with many law 
enforcement officers still missing their mark in upholding justice.

Komnas HAM commissioner Roichatul Aswidah cited wrongful arrests and bribery 
involving officials, to mention 2 examples, as irregularities that were 
commonly found in the country???s judicial system.

"We need to first make sure that our legal system is reliable before we 
implement [the death penalty]," she told The Jakarta Post on Sunday.

"Komnas HAM is officially against the death penalty. It is the worst violation 
of human rights because it violates people's right to life."

Jokowi has been subject to protests from human rights defenders in the country 
as well as abroad following a plan to execute the 5 drug convicts later this 
month. The 5 are among 64 inmates currently on death row.

Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Tedjo Edhy 
Purdijatno said the execution of the 5 convicts was due to the President's 
instruction.

According to the National Narcotics Agency (BNN), 77 drug traffickers have been 
on death row since 2004. Nine of them have been executed, 2 of whom were 
executed last year, including Nigerian drug smuggler Adam Wilson in March and a 
Pakistani drug smuggler in November.

Roichatul said the national rights body had found cases where foreigners 
convicted of drug smuggling had undergone unfair procedures, such as the 
absence of interpreters during the legal process.

Although the government has yet to reveal the identities or nationalities of 
the drug convicts to be executed this month, rights activists, agreeing with 
Komnas HAM, gave a reminder that the executions would hamper the government's 
efforts to save Indonesians in other countries from the same punishment.

"How can our government convince foreign counterparts to spare the lives of 
Indonesians who are on death row while we still implement such a punishment?" 
said Poengky Indarti, executive coordinator of Jakarta-based human rights 
watchdog Imparsial.

"Additionally, in terms of the effort to combat drugs, the government can 
implement the law by closely monitoring and fighting drug dealers, including 
those backed by high-ranking officials," she added.

Newly appointed head of the Agency for the Placement and Protection of 
Indonesian Migrant Workers (BNP2TKI) Nusron Wahid previously revealed that 
there were 280 Indonesian migrant workers facing the death penalty abroad who 
required protection.

Meanwhile, there are 236 other Indonesians facing the death penalty abroad due 
to their involvement in drug abuse and trafficking.

During a meeting with the House of Representatives Commission I overseeing 
foreign affairs earlier this year, former foreign minister Marty Natalegawa 
told lawmakers that the government had saved 184 Indonesians from the death 
penalty abroad.

According to the Foreign Ministry's data, 20 of them were saved from the death 
penalty from January to May this year, while the rest had been saved from 2011.

(source: Jakarta Post)

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

Kiwi drug smuggling suspect refusing to speak to Bali police


The Whanganui man detained in Bali for allegedly smuggling 1.7 kilograms of 
methamphetamine into the holiday island is refusing to co-operate with police.

Antony de Malmanche, 52, was arrested when he arrived at Denpasar Airport last 
Monday off a flight from Hong Kong, allegedly carrying the drug in his 
backpack. He could face the death penalty if convicted.

He is being detained in a holding cell at police headquarters in Denpasar where 
the police commissioner has told ONE News de Malmanche is refusing to speak to 
police about his case.

"He cannot be questioned by narcotics investigators unless he's in the presence 
of a lawyer and I understand that de Malmanche is yet to obtain a lawyer," says 
ONE News correspondent Steve Marshall.

"If he cannot afford a lawyer here in Bali, he will be given legal aid," 
Marshall says, reporting from near the police headquarters.

De Malmanche's physical condition is said to be okay and the New Zealand consul 
is expected to arrive in Bali from Jakarta in the next day or two to assist 
him, Marshall reports.

Video taken by a ONE News cameraman today shows de Malmanche in the police 
cell.

Under Indonesian law, police can hold a suspect for 30 days without charge, 
then can apply for a further 30 days.

Death penalty

Prime Minister John Key, meanwhile, says the Government will make its 
opposition to the death penalty clear to Indonesia's President Joko Widodo if 
it looks like de Malmanche will face a firing squad.

Mr Key says he thinks it's a known fact that the New Zealand Government doesn't 
support the death penalty.

"If it looks as if that's how it's going to progress, then obviously we'll make 
that very clear to the Indonesian President. But let's see how things play 
out," Mr Key said at his final post-Cabinet press conference of the year.

"We will obviously continue to provide him consular support and make sure he is 
getting the right legal support which will be provided to him, I'm sure not by 
the taxpayer necessarily," Mr Key said. "But outside of that we'll just have to 
see how things progress."

Earlier today, New Zealand police denied a suggestion by an Australian 
journalist, Michael Bachelard, that they tipped off Bali police to arrest de 
Malmanche when he arrived in Bali.

(source: ONE news)