[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Aug. 21



GLOBAL:

Gay People At Risk After Ashley Madison Hack ---- Gay people who used the 
dating site could face the death penalty in some countries after their details 
were exposed by hackers.


People living under oppressive regimes who used the Ashley Madison adultery 
dating site to arrange secret liaisons could be at risk of prison or the death 
penalty.

The hacking of the site has exposed millions of people, including hundreds in 
Saudi Arabia where adultery is potentially punishable by death.

The site was predominantly used by people looking to cheat on their partner, 
but it is thought that many single gay people used the service to avoid 
detection by oppressive governments.

Homosexuality is punishable by death in Saudi Arabia, while in Qatar - where 50 
members of the site are registered - it carries a 5-year prison sentence.

Sky's Technology Correspondent Tom Cheshire said one Reddit user based in Saudi 
Arabia has even fled the country after being exposed.

He said: "Ashley Madison was sold as a way to get casual hook-ups for cheating 
spouses, but some users in the Middle East say they used it as a discreet way 
of having meetings with homosexual men who didn't want to be identified.

"There are 1,200 email addresses with the Saudi Arabia suffix where homosexuals 
face the death penalty.

"More than 50 accounts are from Qatar where homosexual relationships are 
punishable by 5 years in prison.

"And there are 1,500 from Turkey where homosexuality isn't illegal but you can 
get kicked out of the country or banned from military services."

Details of the site's 37 million members were obtained by hackers in July, who 
demanded that the site be shut down.

This week, with the site still online, they released the data on the dark web.

Among those exposed are civil servants, senior military officers and university 
professors.

(source: Sky News)






MAURITANIA:

Raif Badawi: Wife of Saudi blogger launches campaign to free African writer on 
death row for criticising prophet Mohamed


The wife of Raif Badawi, the Saudi blogger sentenced to 10 years in jail and 
1,000 lashes for insulting Islam, has launched a campaign to free an African 
writer who is on death row in Mauritania for criticising the prophet Mohamed.

In an article for The Independent, Ensaf Haider said that while "millions of 
people around the world" had campaigned for her husband's release, the case of 
Mohamed Cheikh Ould Mkhaitir risked being forgotten by the international 
community.

The 30-year-old journalist was arrested in January last year after publishing 
an article on the website of the newspaper Aqlame. In it, he criticised the 
Mauritanian caste system and said that certain social groups were being 
marginalised because of their religion.

Mr Mkhaitir later "repented" during a pre-trial hearing at a military police 
station and again during his trial in December last year, telling a court in 
the city of Nouadhibou he had not meant to insult Islam but intended to 
denounce those who used religion to belittle others.

Despite Mauritanian law stating that leniency must be shown if a defendant 
repents, the judge convicted him of having "lack of respect for the prophet" 
and handed down a death sentence - the 1st imposed in Mauritania for apostasy 
since the country gained independence in 1960.

Ms Haider, who has led the international campaign for her husband's release, 
said Mr Mkhaitir "could be executed at any time" if pressure was not placed on 
the Mauritanian government to reconsider his sentence.

"Millions of people around the world rallied to the support of Raif Badawi; who 
will care for a poor young man in Mauritania?" she wrote. "He will be executed 
for blasphemy - by those who insist that Isis does not represent Islam."

Dozens of human rights organisations signed a joint statement in March calling 
for Mr Mkhaitir to be freed, describing him as "a prisoner of conscience who 
has not committed any crime but was merely peacefully exercising his right to 
freedom of thought, conscience, expression and religion".

However, there have since been no updates on his case. His lawyer told 
Mauritanian television earlier this year that his condition in prison was 
"miserable" and that he had been tortured and placed in solitary confinement, 
Ms Haider said.

Gaetan Mootoo, Amnesty International's West Africa researcher, said: "The use 
of the death penalty is always abhorrent, but it raises additional concerns in 
cases like that of Mohamed Cheikh Ould Mkhaitir where a dubious law is being 
used to stifle free speech.

"Mohamed Cheikh's trial was blatantly flawed and his repentance - which should 
have entitled him to leniency - was twice ignored by the authorities. We 
continue to call for his immediate and unconditional release."

The writer's case has numerous parallels with that of Mr Badawi, who was 
arrested in June 2012 over material published on his Saudi Arabian Liberals 
website. While he has been in prison, the 31-year-old activist has received a 
number of awards for promoting freedom of expression and has been nominated for 
the Nobel Peace Prize.

Mr Badawi has so far only received 1 round of 50 lashes, which are supposed to 
be carried out weekly. Earlier this month his family learned that the kingdom's 
Supreme Court is reviewing his case, raising the possibility that his draconian 
sentence may be reduced - but Ms Haider says "the flogging could still happen 
at any time".

(source: The Independent)