[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Nov. 4



SAUDI ARABIA:

Saudi Arabia Is Set to Crucify Pro-democracy Teenage Protester


Ali Mohammed Baqir al-Nimr, a 17 year old Saudi Arabian, was arrested in 
February 2012, and is slated to be executed by crucifixion at the hands of the 
Saudi Arabian government, who disregarded any form of due process whatsoever to 
prosecute al-Nimr under the charge of "encouraging pro-democracy protests using 
a Blackberry."

For this alleged crime, al-Nimr will be taken to a public square and have his 
head chopped off as onlookers watch, leaving his corpse hung there for people 
to see as a warning. Al-Nimr was tortured into giving a false confession, never 
had a lawyer, had his appeal done in secret without his knowledge. A criminal 
justice system as medieval and gruesome as this should not exist in the world 
today.

"Saudi Arabia may so far this year have executed at least 134 people, which 
already represents 44 more than the total for the whole of last year," United 
Nations Human Rights Experts wrote in a press release. "Such a surge in 
executions in the country makes Saudi Arabia a sad exception in a world where 
States are increasingly moving away from the death penalty."

To allow this crucifixion to occur is an inexcusable injustice and contradicts 
International Law as well as the law of the Saudi Arabian government. Saudi 
Arabia's recent appointment to the UN's Human Rights Council is a farce when 
they perpetuate egregious human rights violations and enact barbaric methods of 
punishment themselves.

The European parliament recently passed a resolution urging Saudi Arabia to 
stop the execution and issue a moratorium on the death penalty. The Prime 
Minister of France, Francois Hollande, has also spoken out to Saudi Arabia on 
behalf of Al-Nimr. The leader of the Labour Party in the UK, Jeremy Corbyn, has 
called upon the UK Prime Minister David Cameron to put pressure on the Saudis 
as well. As a global leader, the United States cannot be silent when such stark 
human rights violations occur at the hands of our presumed allies. The Obama 
administration.

Al-Nimr's family is extremely worried that his execution can come at any 
moment. The last time they spoke with him, he reported being kept in solitary 
confinement. The boy's fate lies in the hands of 79 year old King Salman, who 
has already been under intense scrutiny over Saudi Arabian led bombings in 
Yemen that have killed thousands of civilians, and two tragic incidents in 
September, a crane collapsing and a stampede, that killed hundreds of people in 
Mecca.

The alleged reason for Al-Nimr's arrest and sentence is surmised to be his 
relation to his uncle, Nimr al-Nimr, a well-known Shiite cleric. His uncle was 
a leader of protests against the Saudi government, demanding they treat 
Shiites, a minority in Saudi Arabia, as equals. The uncle was shot in the back 
of a police car in 2012. As subsequent protests increased, so did the charges 
filed against the boy.

Saudi Arabia is abusing its power to dissuade any forms of dissent, and has one 
of the highest execution rates in the World. The country has dismissed 
criticism as protecting the rights of the killer. The United Nations and global 
leaders need to put more pressure on Saudi Arabia to curb their human rights 
violations. Instead, Saudi Arabia was selected as one of the nations to oversee 
a United Nations panel on human rights. In September, Saudi Arabia's ambassador 
in Geneva was elected chair of the UN Human Rights Council that appoints 
independent experts to investigate violation claims. The legitimacy of the 
council is completely undermined by having a leader presiding over it that 
perpetuates human rights violations within their own borders on a regular 
basis. The United Nations should be holding the perpetrators of human rights 
violations accountable, not rewarding them. Calling on Saudi Arabia to release 
Ali Mohammed Baqir al-Nimr is an opportunity to reverse lax policies that 
accept such cruel forms of capital punishment to go without any sort of 
repercussions. The Death Penalty has no place in the 21st century," said UN 
Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon in a press release. The words and policies of the 
United Nations are completely pointless if they refuse to capitalize on the 
opportunity to call out Saudi Arabia to change their practices.

(source: Huffington Post)






PAKISTAN:

Persecuted Church----Christian Mom Asia Bibi in Good Health as Death Penalty 
Case Awaits Supreme Court Review in Pakistan


Good news has recently been released concerning Pakistani Christian Asia Bibi, 
a mother of 5 who is on death row for blasphemy. Her only "crime,"

offering water to her Muslim co-workers from the same cup out of which she, a 
Christian, had drank.

Due to the overall volatility of the situation, rumors of Asia Bibi's declining 
health began to surface around the internet in October of 2014. These rumors 
claimed that Asia Bibi was vomiting blood and was having difficulty walking. 
Similar rumors appeared in June of 2015 claiming that Asia Bibi's health was so 
terrible that she might not live long enough to be executed.

Fortunately, these rumors were recently debunked by her attorney, 
Saif-ul-Malook, after he visited her in the Multan prison. Malook was contacted 
by several foreign news agencies claiming that his client's health was 
worsening. When Malook and Asia Bibi's husband visited her to verify the 
reports, they said she looked healthy and normal, but asked her if she had 
suffered from any serious illness. According to the World Watch Monitor report, 
Malook said that, "Asia has totally denied she ever suffered any serious 
illness since 2009 in prison."

I also spoke with Mr. Malook yesterday, and he confirmed that Asia is in good 
health. He told me that his visit gave Asia hope. The prison officials were 
surprised that he was able to make Asia, a prisoner on the death row, smile, 
Mr. Malook said.

This is very encouraging news of her wellbeing as her execution for her 
Christian faith remains temporarily suspended as the Supreme Court of Pakistan 
prepares to review her case.

In another recent development, the Supreme Court of Pakistan issued a judgment, 
upholding the conviction of Mumtaz Qadri, the security guard who shot and 
killed former Governor Salman Taseer. Qadri confessed during the trial that he 
killed Taseer because Taseer had called for reforming Pakistan's blasphemy laws 
and had met with Asia Bibi in an effort to seek a presidential pardon for her. 
Qadri pled not guilty, however, arguing that he was justified in killing Taseer 
because Taseer had blasphemed by criticizing the blasphemy laws.

Although many in Pakistan and around the world are praising the Pakistani 
Supreme Court's decision upholding the death sentence (and, yes, it is a good 
decision because it upheld Qadri's conviction under both murder and terrorism 
charges), the Court's lengthy reasoning in reaching that decision is alarming. 
The Court dedicated a significant portion of its judgment to discussing Qadri's 
failure to meet his burden of proving that his defense of justification was 
valid because he had not verified whether Taseer had in fact committed 
blasphemy.

While framing the issue, the Court said:

[T]he issue involved in this case is not . . . whether anybody is allowed to 
commit blasphemy by defiling the sacred name of the Holy Prophet Muhammad 
(peace be upon him) or not . . . whether a person committing blasphemy can be 
killed by another person on his own . . . but the real question [is] . . . 
whether or not a person can be said to be justified in killing another person 
on his own on the basis of an unverified impression or an unestablished 
perception that such other person has committed blasphemy.

By framing the issue in such a way, the Court avoided the real issues, i.e., 
whether Qadri was justified in killing Taseer even if Taseer had blasphemed and 
whether speech that disparages the Prophet Muhammad's name provides adequate 
provocation to justify murder.

Answering the issue that it framed, the Court reasoned, inter alia, that the 
appellant (the killer) had not made any effort to ascertain whether Taseer had 
in fact committed blasphemy. Such reasoning leads to an inference that, had 
Qadri ascertained that Taseer had blasphemed, Qadri would have been justified 
in killing Taseer.

Based on Qadri's confession and all the available evidence, which Qadri did not 
deny, the Court could have upheld the conviction based on a simple holding that 
Pakistani law does not allow a private individual to take the law in his own 
hands by killing another individual, even if that individual had broken the 
law. It is the state's job to punish somebody after due process.

Perhaps the Court was trying to appease the mullahs and their fundamentalist 
followers by its reasoning. Such appeasement is in vain, however, because the 
mullahs would have only been happy if the Court had released the murderer. 
Perhaps the Court had to go through such an analysis and give due deference to 
Islamic law because, after all, according to the Constitution of Pakistan, 
Sharia is part of Pakistan's law. Nevertheless, the Court's reasoning leaves it 
open for a future vigilante to argue the defense of justification if he does 
his due diligence to ascertain that the alleged blasphemer had indeed 
blasphemed before killing him.

While it is encouraging that Asia Bibi is in good health, she remains on death 
row and her attorney will be facing the same Supreme Court. We ask Christians 
around the globe to continue to pray for her release, for her safety, and for 
the safety of her supporters within Pakistan.

Our work in Pakistan to defend persecuted Christians will continue, vigorously 
fighting these unjust and inhuman blasphemy laws. We will also continue 
aggressively advocating across the globe for Asia Bibi's freedom.

(source: Shaheryar Gill, aclj.org)






ZAMBIA:

Court upholds death sentence


The Supreme Court has upheld the death sentence slapped on a man of Mpika 
District for the murder of his wife.

Davison Kunda 45 faces the death penalty following the verdict by the Highest 
Court of Appeal to dismiss his appeal.

Mr Kunda appealed to the Supreme Court after the Kabwe High Court handed down 
the death sentence for the murder of his wife Muma Mulengwa.

He was indicted of having murdered his wife on MAY 23, 2004 in Mpika.

Upholding Mr. Kunda's death penalty, Supreme Court Judge Gregory Phiri observed 
that there were no extenuating circumstances to substitute his death sentence.

During trial in the Lower Court, Mr Kunda contended that at around 03:00 hours 
on the fateful day he had inadvertently axed his wife whilst aiming for a wild 
beast, which was by the door inside his house.

He argued that he had earlier dreamt about the wild beast in question and was 
suspecting his wife's grandfather of being a witch.

Meanwhile, Police in Chipata, Eastern province, are holding a 33-year-old man 
of Moth residential area for allegedly defiling his 8-year-old daughter.

Eastern Province Police Commissioner, Eugene Sibote has confirmed this to ZANIS 
in an interview.

The man, who is a security guard, allegedly used to take advantage of the girl, 
and repeatedly defiled her, whenever she was left in his custody, by his wife.

Mr Sibote has explained that the suspect's wife was not aware of the girl's 
ordeal, because he used to threaten to kill her, if she ever told her mother.

However, the matter was only revealed after the couple reported to police that 
the girl was missing, because she had not returned home, after school.

Mr Sibote explained that the girl, who is in Grade 1 was only found, after she 
narrated to the owner of a nearby shop, that she was being repeatedly defiled 
by her father.

(source: Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation)






EGYPT:

Egyptian regime that sentenced me to death now the toast of London----'I was 
forced to live in exile in the UK after being handed a death sentence by the 
military regime that Cameron is hosting in Britain'


Prime Minister David Cameron's invitation to General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to 
visit Britain this week was a real shock to me. I was forced to live in exile 
in the UK after being handed a death sentence by the military regime that 
Cameron is hosting in Britain, the worl'ds oldest democracy that abolished the 
death penalty decades ago.

On 16 June, the military-appointed highest Islamic authority in Egypt ratified 
a death sentence against me and more than 100 other defendants, including 
former president Mohamed Morsi, members of his administration and public 
figures. I had worked in Morsi's presidency as an aide in his liaison team with 
international media.

Dubbed "the Grand Espionage" case, the ludicrous charges against me and other 
defendants include allegations of espionage with a range of foreign entities 
with seemingly conflicting interests, including Britain and the US, along with 
Hamas, Iran and Hezbollah. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International 
dismissed the trial as a charade, deeply flawed, politically motivated and 
lacking any evidence. The EU, US and UK have all condemned the verdicts.

While I'm encouraged by the UK and other Western governments condemning the 
verdicts, I'm shocked by the fact that this appears to mean nothing in 
practice, as Downing Street rolls out the red carpet for Sisi and his henchmen.

I received the news of my death sentence while I was studying for a graduate 
degree in Britain. However, in Egypt, many of my friends and former co-workers 
are facing the threat of being executed for crimes they have not committed. 
Most of them are held in solitary confinement, some have already worn the red 
uniform designated for those on death row and are subjected to forms of 
psychological and physical torture that no human should endure.

At least 7 people have been executed since the 3 July military coup. The regime 
is likely to carry out more sentences at any moment. And the situation in Egypt 
is more likely to deteriorate if the Sisi regime is allowed to gain 
international credibility and acceptance.

The human rights record of Egypt since the Sisi coup has become a thing of 
legends, even in comparison to the darkest and most oppressive regimes the 
world has ever witnessed. Official reports by Amnesty International and Human 
Rights Watch make absolutely horrific reading and convey a state that has 
dispensed with any regard for humanity, let alone human rights.

No other regime in the world has handed down more death sentences against its 
political opponents over such a short period of time as the Sisi regime has 
done since 3 July 2013. And this is a regime famous, too, for its targeting of 
female activists: 200 of them are currently behind bars, hundreds more have 
been subject to sexual harassment as a matter of state policy and dozens have 
been victims of extrajudicial killings, including many of my friends and 
co-workers. The British government has sent an extremely dangerous and 
unfortunate message to the people of Egypt: we value our economic interests way 
above any consideration for democracy, human rights and freedom. Britain 
remains the largest investor in Egypt, and maintains strong military ties with 
the Egyptian army.

The chief of staff of the Egyptian army, General Mahmoud Hegazi, has been 
hosted in London and hailed by British military officials as a partner in 
counter-terrorism efforts. His leading role in the bloody dispersal of a 
peaceful sit-in on 14 August 2013 in the aftermath of the coup may amount to 
crimes against humanity.

Embracing a military dictatorship does not serve British interests. History 
shows that repression fuels extremism. The so-called War on Terror that Sisi 
claims to be waging is all smoke and mirrors. You only have to read the report 
published by HRW which clearly highlights that it is the repressive policies of 
Sisi and his regime that are fanning the flames of terrorism. The UK 
government's acceptance of Sisi as a partner in the War on Terror is not only 
deeply flawed, it is counter-productive and extremely dangerous.

Democracy is the perfect antidote to terrorism. This is why with oppressive 
dictators like Sisi in power and the support of Western states, terrorists will 
always have more and more stories to tell frustrated young Muslims in order to 
recruit them to their evil ideology. If we trace the timeline of the Islamic 
State (IS) group coming to prominence, we would find it inextricably linked to 
the coup in Egypt.

Cameron has referred to Syria's Bashar al-Assad as "a recruitment sergeant for 
ISIS" and accused him of creating the recent immigration crisis. There is every 
reason to say the same about the Sisi regime in Egypt. The only difference is 
that Egypt has not collapsed. The world left Syria bleeding for four years 
until it was caught by surprise with a massive flow of refugees into Europe, 
fleeing death. How many years are we going to wait until millions of Egyptians 
flee an impending conflict to European beaches which lie so close to Egypt's 
shoreline?

I can already hear the refrain, "Egypt is not Syria" and it reminds me of the 
words I heard on my way to Tahrir on 25 January 2011 that "Egypt is not 
Tunisia". It isn't, but the international community seems intent on not 
learning any lessons from the past.

(source: Sondos Asem is a Master of Public Policy Candidate at the University 
of Oxford. She previously served as a foreign press coordinator at the Egyptian 
Presidency----Middle East Eye)

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

Cameron must urge Sisi to end mass death sentences says Reprieve.


David Cameron must use a visit by Egypt's President Sisi to urge an end to mass 
trials and death sentences for political prisoners, including an Irish teenager 
held since 2013, human rights organization Reprieve has said.

President Sisi is expected to visit London later this week for talks with the 
Prime Minister. Since seizing power in July 2013, he has overseen the handing 
down of thousands of death sentences in mass trials of political protestors, 
journalists, and others. Among them is a teenager from Dublin, Ibrahim Halawa, 
who is assisted by Reprieve.

Ibrahim - whose family are traveling from Dublin to London tomorrow to coincide 
with President Sisi's visit - was 17 when he was arrested during the military's 
breakup of protests in 2013. He faces the death penalty in a mass trial 
alongside 493 other people, and is being tried as an adult, despite having been 
a juvenile when he was arrested.

Ibrahim has been tortured throughout his 2 and a half years of pre-trial 
detention, and has only been allowed to meet a lawyer once. His trial has been 
repeatedly postponed, amid chaotic hearings in which the many defendants have 
been unable to see or hear proceedings. Ibrahim has reported being beaten for 
complaining about the unfair trial conditions.

The UK government has told Reprieve that Mr Sisi's visit will be "an 
opportunity to discuss at the highest level the values which are important to 
Britain, as well as our mutual interests in inclusive economic growth, 
democratic transition, a rules-based international system and security." 
Reprieve has written to the Prime Minister asking him to request that Sisi: 
release Ibrahim and other prisoners held on charges relating to protests; 
review the punitive mass death sentences handed down in the past 2 years; and 
commit to an end to political detentions, mass trials and torture in Egypt.

Commenting, Maya Foa, head of the death penalty team at Reprieve, said:

"President Sisi has presided over a brutal wave of repression, including death 
sentences handed down en masse in shocking trial conditions designed to punish 
political dissenters. Reports of torture, unacceptably long periods of 
pre-trial detention, and terrible obstacles to due process are rife - and the 
scores of victims include juveniles such as Ibrahim Halawa. If the UK is 
serious about encouraging Egypt to follow a 'rules-based system', David Cameron 
must use Sisi's visit this week to call strongly for an end to these abuses."

(source: ekklesia.co.uk)