[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Aug. 20


IRAN----executions

2 Public Executions in Zanjan and One Execution in Shiraz's Adel Abad 
Prison----17-year-old Alireza was hanged in public in Karaj early this morning


On Tuesday August 18th 2 prisoners charged with rape were hanged to death in 
public in the province of Zanjan, according to the Justice Department in 
Zanjan. On Sunday August 16th a prisoner, identified as Omar Parastandeh Khial, 
with drug related charges was hanged to death in Shiraz's Adel Abad Prison, 
according to the Baluch Activists Campaign group. Iranian authorities have not 
reported on Khial's execution.

The identities of the 2 prisoners who were hanged to death in Zanjan have not 
been announced to the public. The prisoners were reportedly accused of the 
kidnap and rape of a 9 year old child.

(source: Iran Human Rights)






SAUDI ARABIA----executions

Saudi executes Chadians for killing Frenchman----Victim was shot as he was 
driving home from supermarket


Saudi Arabia on Thursday executed 2 Chadians for killing a French man last 
year.

The interior ministry said Eisa Saleh Hassan and Ishaq Eisa Ahmad were found 
guilty of joining a terrorist organisation and shooting the French national and 
of monitoring vehicles belonging to a consulate in the Red Sea city of Jeddah 
and shooting employees.

The 2 also faced charges of seeking to target foreign nationals and of being in 
possession of weapons to attack people and undermine security.

The court said the duo followed a deviant ideology that permitted the targeting 
of some people.

"Despite all steps the two men took to evade justice, the security agencies 
were able to arrest them and foil their plans," the interior ministry said.

"Investigations led to levelling charges against them and to referring them to 
the competent court. The death penalty ruling issued by the judges was upheld 
by the Court of Appeals and subsequently by the Supreme Court. A royal order 
was issued to carry out the sentence," the ministry said in a statement carried 
by the Saudi Press Agency (SPA).

According to Saudi reports last year, Laurent Barbot, the Frenchman who was 
killed in September on a quiet residential street in Jeddah by the 2 Chadians, 
worked for a military technology systems company.

According to Arab Times, Barbot, in his 40s, was shot through the front window 
of his car while driving back to Al Zahra district's Sierra Village compound, 
home to a large expatriate community.

Barbot reportedly was on his way home from a supermarket located less than 400 
meters from the residential compound and had to slow down at a speed bump.

At that moment, an unknown car pulled up alongside his vehicle and its 
occupants opened fire with a machine gun, striking Barbot in the neck and 
chest.

(source: Gulf News)






PAKISTAN:

Inside the mind of an executioner: Hangman shares his thoughts


An executioner has revealed that his mind is a perfect blank when he takes the 
life of another human being.

Hangman Sabir Massih said he never feels anything when he ties the noose around 
the neck of a prisoner and pulls the lever on a trapdoor, sealing their fate.

"I don't think about them at all," he told BBC correspondent Shaimaa Khalil. 
"For me, it's a technical thing. We have 3 minutes flat to get this done, so I 
try to do it as quickly as possible. I want to get there on time, I want to go 
in and out in the time that's allocated and I want to do the job right."

The Pakistani's relatives have been in the business of death for generations. 
His father, uncles, grandfather and great-grandfather were all hangmen before 
him. "It's just part of our family," he said.

Pakistan lifted a s7-year moratorium on the death penalty last year after 
massacre of 150 students at a school in Peshawar by Taliban militants. More 
than 200 death-row inmates have been hanged in the past 8 months, and the 
country now has one of the highest execution rates in the world, alongside 
Iran, Saudi Arabia and China.

Massih told the reporter that even the very 1st time he took a life, he was 
calm. "I had only seen 1 hanging before, that was done by my father," he said. 
"It was him who taught me at home how to tie a noose properly.

"The superintendent of the jail reassured me and said that there is no reason 
to get confused or to be anxious. He gave me the signal, I pulled the lever and 
opened the trap. It was only after I looked that I saw the person hanging. It 
was a matter of seconds."

Massih's real passion is breeding roosters for cock fighting, and he reserves 
his emotion for the birds. "This is what I think about when I go home," he 
said.

Reporter Khalil told Public Radio International that she suspected his complete 
detachment was a coping mechanism, and he had to maintain a matter-of-fact 
attitude to the grisly job.

He said prisoners sometimes begged for forgiveness, and others could hardly 
walk to the gallows. In 1 case, 2 convicted militants hugged each other before 
their joint execution, 1 saying he could already "smell paradise". Regardless, 
Massih would be waiting silently, with a black cloth to slip over their heads 
and the noose in his hands.

This hangman is not the strange, solitary figure we might imagine. He has the 
support of his friends and the community, many of whom are grateful for the 
return of the death penalty.

This month Shafqat Hussain, who was convicted of murdering a child, was one of 
those executed, and many believed justice was being served. Hussain was only 14 
when he was convicted, and human rights groups say he was tortured into 
confessing, but their protests were brushed aside.

Massih does not feel righteous, but sees death as his duty and the job he is 
paid to do. At the end of the day, he rushes home to his roosters, putting his 
deadly day's work out of his head.

(source: news.com.au)



BANGLADESH:

Leave no stone unturned to bring Bangabandhu's killers to justice


We hope the renewed request sent through Interpol by the Home Ministry this 
week will assist Bangladesh police in confirming the updated locations of the 6 
killers of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who remain at large abroad.

12 former army officers were handed death sentences for masterminding and 
carrying out the August 15, 1975 carnage, following a lengthy trial process 
begun in 1996, after the government scrapped the shameful indemnity act which 
until then had protected Bangabandhu???s murderers from justice.

5 of the officers who faced trial in person or were tracked down subsequently, 
were hanged in 2010 after their appeals were completed. 1 of the remaining 7 
has since died, but the other murderers still escape justice 40 years after 
their heinous crime.

It is welcome that the US ambassador to Bangladesh has made assurances of 
assistance in responding to requests to extradite one of Bangabandhu's fugitive 
killers and an accused war criminal, who are believed to be residing in the 
United States.

The government needs to undertake all possible diplomatic efforts to help 
further such efforts.

Another factor which should also be considered in all extradition requests is 
that some fugitives may be resident in states such as Canada or in the European 
Union, which do not have the death penalty, or whose courts will refuse to 
extradite people to countries where they may be executed.

While it is customary for states under international law not to interfere with 
due legal process in other countries, the government still needs to take 
cognisance of this factor, as at least 1 of Bangabandhu's fugitive killers is 
understood to be in Canada.

Given a choice between being able to extradite a known killer of Bangabandhu 
for imprisonment short of the death penalty, and letting that person escape any 
justice, the former is certainly preferable, because it would ensure the 
accused is held to account and impunity is ended.

As part of its efforts to trace and extradite Bangabandhu's fugitive killers, 
the government should express willingness to allow full rights of appeal and 
guarantee that any death penalty awarded by the courts will be commuted. That 
way at least, justice can be seen to be served and the disgraceful impunity 
with which Bangabandhu's killers have remained at large for so long, can be 
finally ended.

(source: Editorial, Dhaka Tribune)






ZIMBABWE:

Tendai Biti Fights for Abolition of Death Penalty


Prominent Harare lawyer and politician, Tendai Biti, has joined the growing 
list of people calling for the total abolition of the death penalty in 
Zimbabwe.

The new constitution abolished the mandatory death sentences and limited 
penalty to cases of murder committed in "aggravating circumstances."

Biti says death row inmates must be pardoned as he goes back to the trenches to 
fight for people's rights.

The constitution bars death sentences for women and men aged under 21 or over 
70 at the time of committing the crime.

Zimbabwe carried out its last execution on July 22, 2005, yet an estimated 95 
to 120 prisoners remain on death row in the country.

Amnesty International called the 10-year hiatus in executions a "milestone for 
the protection of the right to life and the eventual abolition of the death 
penalty in Zimbabwe."

Amnesty International director for Southern Africa, Deprose Muchena, says the 
death penalty is a violation of the right to life and Zimbabwean authorities 
must take urgent steps to get rid of the hangman's noose and abolish the death 
penalty altogether.

Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who is also the minister responsible for 
justice, has also vowed to take the lead in lobbying for the abolishment of the 
death penalty in the country.

(source: voiceofamericazimbabwe.com)






NIGERIA:

HURIWA mulls death penalty bill to check graft----huriwa-logoCondemns 
presidential screening of judges, smear campaign against Anyim, others


To strengthen deterrence, the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria 
(HURIWA) said it would propose a bill on death penalty for anyone convicted of 
stealing from the public purse.

National Coordinator of the group, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, told newsmen in 
Abuja yesterday that HURIWA would be sending a draft of the proposed 
legislation to the National Assembly when it reconvenes next month.

Onwubiko disclosed that the proposed bill would specifically target those who 
steal public funds meant for essential services, especially in the health, 
education, roads, water, electricity and defence. He applauded President 
Muhammadu Buhari's ongoing anti-graft campaign, though faulting the handpicking 
of judges for cases involving corrupt persons.

Warning against the breach of the constitution and the principle of separation 
of powers, he noted that such measures are tantamount to the President 
operating like a monarch keen to usurp the duties of the judiciary. He added: 
"We can't allow the nation go through jungle justice any more.

"We do not see any merit in the President setting up a panel to screen judges 
in a bid to get the incorruptible ones. As the head of the executive arm, he 
doesn't have the power to screen judges. This is a democracy. He cannot confer 
on himself the powers unknown in our constitution."

Onwubiko also enjoined Buhari to be wary of those keen on undermining top 
government functionaries in former President Goodluck Jonathan's administration 
merely to settle political scores.

He cited the recent claims by the former Chairman of NEPZA, Dr. Cairo Ojougboh, 
against the former Secretary to Government of the Federation (SGF), Senator 
Anyim Pius Anyim, on the Abuja Centenary City project as a deliberate attempt 
to smear the good names of officers that served in Jonathan's government.

According to him, a 2-week independent investigation by 27 non-governmental 
bodies on the platform of HURIWA and the Association of African Writers on 
Human and Peoples Rights (AFRIRIGHTS) on the issue found that Anyim complied 
with due process.

The findings include that on March 6, 2015, Anyim wrote to Jonathan on the 
"despicable conduct of the former Chairman of NEPZA, Dr. Cairo Ojougboh, which 
has threatened not only the operations of NEPZA but indeed its image before 
many international investors that do business with the agency."

More so, the allegations were independently investigated by then Chief of Staff 
and found weighty enough that Jonathan, on April 29, 2015, removed Ojougboh as 
chairman of NEPZA and made him chairman of the Nomadic Education Commission, it 
added.

(source: Nigerian Guardian)