[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Oct. 1



KIRIBATI:

Kiribati copycat killings of women trigger death penalty bill debate


The proposed reinstatement of the death penalty in Kiribati is triggering 
public criticism.

The Parliament of Kiribati late last month passed the first reading of an 
amendment to the penal code to permit the use of capital punishment in certain 
criminal cases.

This comes after the violent deaths of 5 Kiribati women this year, allegedly at 
the hands of their partners or husbands.

Taberannang Korauaba, editor of the Kiribati Independent, says the deaths 
sparked public outrage which motivated the government to push forward the 
proposed bill.

"The killings were seen as copycats and sparked criticism and public outcry," 
he says.

Kiribati President Anote Tong could not be reached for comment as he was 
currently visiting the Arctic. However, following the bill's 1st reading he 
said it would work as a deterrent for deliberate killings.

"Now you have different levels of murder and what people are saying is, you 
know there should be different degrees of punishment also given the severity 
and the gruesomeness or the brutality of the act," he told Radio Australia.

Referendum considered

According to the Kiribati parliamentary process, the bill cannot become law 
until it passes its second reading in Parliament in December and is then signed 
off by the President.

In the meantime the government is forming a review committee and is considering 
holding a referendum to gauge the public's reaction to the proposal.

"There are mixed reactions to this bill, but based on what I read in our news 
is that many people oppose it," says Korauaba.

"I don't think it will work in a small country like Kiribati where people live 
close to each other. You even know what the other one is doing or eating. 
Imagine then, when the bill becomes law, how would the accused be executed, 
where, when, and who's going to do the execution?"

The 2 main Kiribati churches have publically opposed the bill, with both 
leaders of the Catholic Church and Kiribati Uniting Church saying capital 
punishment denies the right to life.

The chairman of the Kiribati council of churches, Bishop Paul Mea Kaiuea, says 
there is no evidence to suggest the death penalty will prevent murder.

"In Kiribati we already have life imprisonment for those who kill and we think 
this is more than sufficient for death penalty. The death penalty is a kind of 
a short cut to get rid of those who committed murder based on hatred and 
revenge.

Compassion cited

"As Christian churches we need to have compassion on those who commit murder, 
like Christ himself."

Opposition leader Dr Tetaua Taitai says he does not think the death penalty 
addresses the reasons that motivate murder, such as the effects of alcohol or 
land disputes.

"As a deterrent for deliberate killings, as the President says, I do not agree 
with that as most of the killings from the perspectives of those committing 
them, they have their own reasons for committing them," he says.

"Killing the accused will not deter future incidents unless some of the root 
causes mentioned are tackled."

Kate Schuetze, Pacific researcher for Amnesty International, is surprised there 
has not been more public debate on the bill.

"I think they tend to underestimate the seriousness of such an issue when it 
comes up and dismiss it as something that will never happen. The Pacific 
culture is such that leaders are not directly challenged or questioned, which 
also makes opposition difficult."

Schuetze says she is worried Kiribati will repeat the actions of the Papua New 
Guinea government, which last year rushed through expanded death penalty laws 
in response to the gang rape and violent killings of women accused of sorcery.

Not taken seriously

"There was talk of this in advance, but no one took it seriously and a bill was 
only circulated days before it was passed," she says.

"In the Pacific it is not uncommon for laws to pass quickly without much public 
or parliamentary debate on the issue. I am worried that some governments do 
this deliberately to stop people voicing their opposition."

Tagaloatele Professor Peggy Fairbairn-Dunlop, professor of Pacific Studies at 
AUT University, says she is surprised she has not seen more of a response 
internationally from women in regards to the bill.

"Usually it's the women, in every Pacific society that I know, they've always 
been arguing against inhumane measures of life for life but this one is a total 
mystery for me," says Tagaloatele.

"I would have expected that the women's response would have been similar to 
that of the church, that it is not a Christian way and it is not a culturally 
strong way to address an issue although it is a great wrong to take a life."

Second reading

Shamima Ali, coordinator of the Pacific Women's Network against Violence 
against Women, says the network is currently writing to the President to voice 
its concerns.

"State-sanctioned violence further desensitises people and contributes to the 
acceptance of vengeance and retribution as legitimate sanctions,??? she says.

"Governments must work with civil society to empower women in all areas of life 
and explore non-violent punishment which can actually deter crime, as well as 
work with men to address root causes of violence."

With opposition toward the bill growing, Dr Tetaua Taitai says the government 
will have to take this into account when it comes to the second sitting of 
Parliament in December.

"I have a feeling that the President and the government party will change their 
mind when it comes to its 2nd reading in December this year as the passage of 
its 1st reading was seen as a political ploy to show support for his 
constituency," he says.

"Now he knows that people are not supportive and therefore he will try to come 
up with a good reason for not supporting its 2nd reading in the next Parliament 
in December."

(source: Island Business)






SOMALIA:

Somali Military Court Sentences Three Soldiers to Death Over Robbery


The Somali military court on Sunday (September 28th) sentenced 3 soldiers to 
death for setting up illegal checkpoints and robbing civilian vehicles, 
Somalia's RBC Radio reported.

The court handed down the sentences after the soldiers were found guilty of 
stealing from passenger buses on the Mogadishu-Afgoye road. They have 30 days 
to appeal.

A 4th soldier was charged with the robbery, but was released after the court 
found him innocent, military court spokesman Colonel Abdullahi Muse Keyse said.

Colonel Hassan Ali Nur, who recently assumed chairmanship of the military court 
from Colonel Abdirahman Mohamed Turyare, who now serves as director general of 
the National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA), announced Monday that all 
soldiers found guilty of similar offenses in the future will also face the 
death penalty, Somalia's Goobjoog News reported.

(source: All Africa News)






IRAN:

Fear of Execution: Dissident Cleric Ayatollah Kazemeyni-Boroujerdi Transferred 
to an Unknown Location


Sources close to the dissident cleric Ayatollah Kazemeyni-Boroujerdi say that 
Mr. Boroujerdi has been transferred from his ward at the Evin prison (where he 
is being held) to an unknown location.

According to these sources the prison officials had told him more than a week 
ago that he will be executed in the near future. Mr. Boroujerdi's family 
members are concerned the he might be at imminent danger of execution. Iran 
Human Rights (IHR) urges the international community to react to save Mr. 
Boroujerdi. Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, the spokesperson of IHR said: "We take 
these reports seriously and ask the international community to react before it 
is too late".

Mr. Boroujerdi was arrested in October 2006 and the year later he was 
prosecuted by the Special Clerical Court behind closed doors. According to his 
associates, he was initially sentenced to death, but upon appeals his sentence 
was reduced to 11 years in prison.

According to Amnesty International there are believed to have been 30 charges 
against him. These include "waging war against God" (Moharebeh), for which the 
punishment is death; acts against national security; publicly calling political 
leadership by clergy (Velayat-e Faqih) unlawful; having links with 
anti-revolutionaries and spies; and using the term "religious dictatorship" 
instead of "Islamic Republic" in public discourse and radio interviews.

Background (Amnesty International, 2 April 2014):

Sayed Hossein Kazemeyni Boroujerdi, serving an 11-year prison sentence, suffers 
from a number of illnesses, including diabetes, asthma, Parkinson's disease, 
kidney and heart problems and severe pain in his legs and waist. He has also 
reportedly gone partly blind in 1 of his eyes. His health conditions have 
apparently worsened and he collapses frequently. He has not been provided with 
the medical treatment he requires, though prison doctors said in February 2014 
that he needed to be hospitalized outside the prison. During the 8 years he has 
spent in prison, he has been admitted to hospital 3 times.

He is now held in Evin Prison's Ward for the Clergy: he was imprisoned for 
advocating the separation of religion and state. He has been under increased 
pressure to write and sign "confessions". Prison officials have told him at 
least once, in October 2013, that if he does not write a letter recanting his 
beliefs, he will never be released.

Prison guards reportedly raided Sayed Hossein Kazemeyni Boroujerdi's cell on 15 
March and destroyed his personal belongings. This happened during visiting 
hours when he was with his family. His family members have also been harassed, 
even during a prison visit, when they had to undergo invasive body searches. In 
September 2013 Sayed Hossein Kazemeyni Boroujerdi's wife, Akram Vali Dousti, 
was summoned for questioning by the Special Court for Clerics (SCC).

(source: Iran Human Rights)

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

Stop Woman's Execution ---- Legal Process Plagued With Irregularities


Iran's judiciary should vacate the death sentence of Reyhaneh Jabbari and 
ensure that she receives a fair trial. She was convicted of murdering an older 
man in what she says was self defense. On September 29, 2014, prison 
authorities transferred Jabbari to a prison west of Tehran without explanation, 
raising fears that her execution was imminent, but then returned her to her 
original prison cell overnight.

Jabbari was arrested in 2007 and sentenced to death in 2009 by a Tehran 
criminal court for the murder of Morteza Abdolali Sarbandi, a doctor and a 
former Intelligence Ministry employee. Later that year the Supreme Court 
affirmed the death sentence. Jabbari admitted stabbing Sarbandi in the neck, 
but says that he attempted to sexually assault her. She also said that a third 
person in the room may have caused Sarbandi's death. Jabbari's lawyers contend 
that the judiciary did not properly investigate the cause of death and deprived 
their client of a fair trial. Tehran's prosecutor's office had been reviewing 
the case.

"In light of the serious substantive and procedural questions raised in this 
case, and the fact that it's still under review, officials risk being complicit 
in irreversible harm if they execute Jabbari," said Joe Stork, deputy Middle 
East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch. "Iran's judiciary should 
immediately reverse its death sentence and allow her a fair retrial."

Sholeh Pakravan, Jabbari's mother, told Human Rights Watch that on September 
28, 2014, prison authorities allowed her and Jabbari's lawyer to meet with her. 
They met in Gharchak prison, also known as Shahr-e Rey prison, in Varamin, 55 
kilometers south of Tehran. Pakravan said that a day later she learned that 
prison authorities had transferred her daughter to Rajai Shahr prison in Karaj, 
and that they planned to execute her early on September 30. Pakravan said 
sources inside both prisons, including employees of the prisons, informed her 
of her daughter's impending execution.

Pakravan told Human Rights Watch that the Tehran prosecutor's office had been 
reviewing her daughter's case file, and that the authorities had not informed 
her or the lawyer that they planned to execute Jabbari. Iranian law requires 
judiciary authorities to inform lawyers and family members in advance of an 
execution.

Pakravan said she and others then traveled to Rajai Shahr prison to learn more 
about Jabbari's whereabouts and condition. Official and semi-official news 
outlets said, however, that unnamed "informed judicial sources" denied that 
officials had transferred Jabbari to Rajai Shahr prison, or that they planned 
to execute her.

A source familiar with the case told Human Rights Watch on the morning of 
September 30 that Jabbari had contacted her mother a few hours earlier from 
Gharchak prison to tell her that she was alright, and that plans to execute her 
had been halted for the time being. Another informed source said that 
authorities presented documents to the family showing they had transferred 
Jabbari back to Gharchak prison on September 29.

Pakravan said that no official has informed her or her family that the 
execution order has been halted, and she believes her daughter's life is still 
in imminent danger. Iran's judiciary previously halted Jabbari's execution in 
April 2014 to review the conviction and death sentence.

Mohamed Ali Jedari Foroughi, Jabbari's lawyer until recently, told Human Rights 
Watch that during the 6 months he was in charge of Jabbari's case, prison 
authorities only allowed him to visit her twice. He said judiciary officials 
prevented him from examining Jabbari's case file while Tehran prosecutor's 
office was reviewing it despite the serious questions and ambiguities about 
Sarbandi's cause of death. According to other reports, officials placed Jabbari 
in solitary confinement immediately after her arrest for 2 months and denied 
her access to a lawyer or her family.

Under Iranian law, in murder cases, the victim's survivors retain the right to 
claim retribution in kind, to pardon the alleged killer, or to accept 
compensation in exchange for giving up the right to claim retribution. 
Sarbandi's family has refused to pardon Jabbari. In 2014, Iran's judiciary has 
executed at least 500 prisoners, many of them on murder charges, according to 
rights groups.

Human Rights Watch has called on Iran's judiciary to impose a moratorium on all 
executions in the country due to serious concerns regarding substantive and due 
process violations leading to Iran's implementation of the death penalty. Human 
Rights Watch opposes the death penalty in all circumstances because it is an 
inherently irreversible, inhumane punishment.

"It is unconscionable that in addition to enduring the pain of having their 
daughter on death row, Jabbari's parents must also deal with a judiciary that 
refuses to play by its own rules and fails to provide them with sufficient and 
clear information regarding her condition," Stork said.

(source: Human Rights Watch)

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

Trust Iran? It Just Hanged a Man Who Doubted 'Jonah and the Whale'----Iranian 
President Rouhani speaks reasonably about nuclear negotiations and stabilizing 
the Middle East, but at home the "hanging judges" are still at work.


When Iranian President Hassan Rouhani answered questions from media leaders at 
the United Nations General Assembly about the Iranian nuclear program and ISIS 
last week, there were only occasional brief references to the human rights 
situation back in Iran. When there were inquiries about 3 U.S. citizens being 
held there - a former Marine, Amir Hekmati; Washington Post correspondent Jason 
Rezaian; and Christian pastor Saeed Abedini - President Rouhani said the 
arrests should not be blown out of proportion and the judicial process must run 
its course.

Yet on that same day in Iran, Mohsen Amir Aslani, a prisoner of conscience, was 
executed in the last act of a truly Kafkaesque legal process. Aslani, 37, was 
hanged in Rajaei Shahr Prison in Karaj at dawn on Wednesday September 24 for 
committing heresy and allegedly insulting the Prophet Jonah (Yunus in the 
Qur'an) - the one swallowed by a "big fish"; the 1 that God used to teach the 
lesson of compassion.

On the previous day, a prison official contacted Aslani's parents and asked 
them to come and visit their son one final time. Prior to this, no information 
about his arrest or trial was made public because his family was led to believe 
that by keeping quiet about his arrest, he would eventually be released. News 
broke about his fate only hours before the sentence was carried out, when a 
neighbor's relative posted the news on Facebook and then shortly afterwards the 
Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) reported that Amir Aslani was being 
kept in solitary confinement and was awaiting his execution. This was almost 8 
years after his arrest, and yet was the 1st time word of his situation became 
public.

Before his imprisonment, Amir Aslani was a family man who worked as a 
psychologist but was interested in theology and gave religious classes that 
looked at different interpretations of the Qur'an. This was the cause for his 
arrest and nine months in solitary confinement in Cell Block 209 of Evin Prison 
in 2006. His original sentence was 4 years but was initially reduced to 28 
months by the appeals court until Judge Abolghasem Salavati, an infamous 
"hanging judge," handed down the death penalty on new, unfounded charges.

"His family was led to believe that by keeping quiet about his arrest, he would 
eventually be released."

An informed source told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran the 
day before Aslani's execution that Aslani merely "gave classes on reading and 
interpreting the Qur'an and would give out his comments as booklets." According 
to this source, "Many young people participated in his classes that did not 
meet the approval of the Intelligence Ministry, which is why he was arrested so 
suddenly."

"The last time he saw his family, he told them how he was subjected to 
continuous physical and mental torture and was repeatedly moved between the 
common ward and the quarantine ward to make him believe his execution was 
imminent," according to this source. "He would stay awake until 5 in the 
morning, wait for the cell door to open so they could execute him, but then 
several hours later they would transfer him back to the common ward. He said 
that each time he was tortured by the fear of his own death."

In one of Aslani's religious classes, he told his audience that Jonah could not 
have emerged from the whale's belly and it was this statement that led to his 
charge of insulting the Prophet Jonah. A person close to the family told the 
German broadcaster Deutsche Welle that he was initially arrested for heresy.

Although the appeals court reduced Aslani's sentence to 2 years and 4 months, 
new charges were also added including a so-called "forbidden act," which was 
unspecified. Having been condemned to death by Judge Salavati, Amir Aslani 
argued that the Revolutionary Court had no jurisdiction over his case and so it 
was sent onto the Criminal Court in Tehran where 3 of the 5 judges considering 
his case upheld the death sentence. Following this, it was taken to the Supreme 
Court, which annulled the sentence because there was a lack of evidence and 
legal merit, but it was then taken back to the Criminal Court, which reinstated 
it.

Aslani's lawyer objected once more and the case was sent back to the Supreme 
Court, which this time upheld the sentence. According to Iranian law, if the 
Chief Justice endorses the Supreme Court's decision, the verdict is final, and 
so it was.

That is the way the judicial system in Iran runs its course.

(source: The Daily Beast)