[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Oct. 1



SOMALILAND:

Somaliland's British-educated president urged to save mentally-ill man from 
death row----Faisa Ali, from west London, says court ignored evidence of her 
brother's long history of psychosis


The sister of a mentally-ill man who faces execution by firing squad in 
Somaliland has pleaded with the country's British-educated leader to issue him 
a presidential pardon.

Faisa Ali's brother Abdullah, who has a history of psychosis, has been 
sentenced to death by the country's supreme court for shooting dead of his 
friends during an argument.

With appeals through the legal system now exhausted, his sister, who lives in 
west London, is now appealing for an intervention by Ahmed Mohamed Mohamoud, 
the country's president.

Mr Mohamoud spent part of his early life in Britain and has a degree from 
Manchester University.

She has also appealed help from Grant Shapps, the current Minister of State at 
Britain's Department for International Development, who visited Somaliland this 
summer, and whose department is bankrolling a 20 million pounds national 
development fund for Somaliland.

"The court have made their final decision, so my only chance now is to appeal 
to the president, who I know has a long history with Britain and a good 
relationship with the British government," Ms Ali, 27, told The Telegraph on 
Thursday. "I am asking him to act to show mercy before it is too late."

Mr Ali's family say that the court ignored medical evidence that he had a long 
history of mental illness, including 2 years spent in a psychiatric hospital in 
the Somaliland capital, Hargiesa. He was discharged last year, only for his 
problems to get worse, leading to an argument with an old friend that led to a 
weapon being grabbed and his friend being shot dead. Guns are often held in 
civilian hands in Somaliland.

After being kept in prison for a year, Mr Ali was sentenced to death by firing 
squad last month.

Ms Ali, a dental nurse, added that the family of the victim had turned down an 
offer of blood money that could have led her brother being spared his life.

"I feel very sorry for them and I sympathise with their loss," she said. "But 
my brother is mentally ill and does not deserve to die, and the court should 
recognise that. To be honest, if it was any other way, and he had simply killed 
this man in a normal fight, I would not be going to these lengths on his 
behalf."

The family's case has been backed by the pressure group Human Rights Watch, 
while the European Union has raised concerns about the wider use of the death 
penalty in Somaliland, which executed six prisoners by firing squad last April 
after 9 years in which no executions were carried out. The EU described it as 
"a step back in the progress made in spreading the rule of law in Somaliland".

Somaliland is a semi-independent region in the north-west of Somalia, which has 
enjoyed relative peace and stability in the last 20 years compared to the rest 
of the country. It seeks to become fully independent.

Mr Ali's sister added that irrespective of the outcome of her brother's case, 
she planned to start a campaign to advocate for mentally ill people in 
Somaliland. "There is nobody there to look out for their interests," she said.

(source: BBC news)






EGYPT:

2 death sentences against militant Habara upheld in same week


Cairo Criminal Court handed down the 3rd death sentence to Adel Habara on 
Thursday for his role in killing 25 Egyptian soldiers in Rafah, North Sinai in 
August 2013.

The court will uphold or commute the sentence on Nov. 14 after consulting the 
Grand Mufti for an unbinding religious opinion. A total of 34 other defendants 
in the case were given the same penalty.

A court had ruled the same punishment for Habara in December 2014, but the 
Cassation Court accepted a retrial request from the defendant.

Similarly, Habara received another death sentence from Zagazig Criminal Court 
Tuesday in a retrial for contacting the Islamic State group (IS.) He had been 
given the same sentence in the 1st trial in May.

Habara was sentenced to 7 years in prison over 5 separate sentences through his 
trials for insulting his judges.

In his Thursday hearing, Habara and the other defendants did not chant or make 
any reactions, unlike their behavior in previous session, according to Youm7.

(source: The Cairo Post)






ETHIOPIA:

How Ethiopia has cracked down on people smugglers


Metema, in Ethiopia's north-west, was once a people smuggler's paradise.

It was from here that Haimanot, aged just 16, gathered all her belongings, 
borrowed 3,000 Ethiopian birr ($140) and crossed the border into Sudan in 
search of a better life.

She travelled at first on foot under cover of darkness and with the help of an 
Ethiopian smuggler, who had promised to take her first to Sudan's capital 
Khartoum, then on to Libya.

"I was not in school and I could not find a job here in Ethiopia, so I decided 
to make the journey to Europe to try and make something out of myself," she 
tells me.

But she never made it out of Sudan.

After running out of money in Khartoum she did odd jobs for a year, trying to 
raise enough money to pay another group of smugglers to take her northwards.

Things went from bad to worse and she was arrested by Sudanese police and spent 
weeks in prison.

"It was the scariest period of my entire life. I was arrested by police and 
they fired shots at me when I tried to escape.

"I was then arrested and beaten up by some 15 police officers," she says, three 
months after returning home.

Migrant magnet

Haimanot's story is not unique in Metema, where nearly everyone we spoke to 
knew of friends, relatives or neighbours who had crossed the border in the hope 
of a better life in Europe.

Many Eritreans - one of the largest groups of migrants reaching Europe - would 
also pass through the town.

Now as Europe grapples with an influx of migrants, Ethiopia's government has 
intensified a crackdown on the smugglers it blames for luring thousands abroad.

"This was and is still a big problem in Metema," says the town's mayor, Teshome 
Agmas.

"Smugglers are luring the young and old and then dumping them in the deserts or 
even killing them if they can't afford the money required to complete the 
journey.

"We had to do something and that is why we joined the government crackdown."

The government says it has arrested more than 200 smugglers operating along its 
700km (435-mile) border with Sudan this year and has begun a massive awareness 
programme to inform the public about the dangers of making such perilous 
journeys.

It was spurred into action after 30 Ethiopian Christian migrants were killed in 
Libya by Islamic State militants in April.

Ethiopians were shocked by the killings after the Libyan branch of IS released 
videos of the men being beheaded and another group being shot.

More than 100 traffickers have been arrested in Metema, which also attracts 
migrants from neighbouring South Sudan and Somalia.

At one point more than 250 people were crossing the border into Sudan through 
Metema each day.

But after the police intensified patrols, smugglers were forced to seek 
alternative routes into Sudan, through heavily forested and mountainous areas.

"We are telling the smugglers that we are coming for them if they do not stop," 
the mayor said.

Death penalty proposal

The Ethiopian government has also proposed harsher punishments for people 
smugglers.

The justice ministry has presented parliament with a bill that could see 
convicted smugglers facing the death penalty.

It has also embarked on a massive awareness campaign to dissuade the young 
people from making that perilous journey across the deserts and the 
Mediterranean.

The government has already banned Ethiopians from going to Middle East to work 
as domestic workers in 2013 because of the abuse some have suffered there.

Officials believe it is having an impact on some.

26-year-old Alemtsehay Gebreselassie, who runs a cafe in a village next to 
Metema, said that after listening to some of the warnings, she decided to stay 
put.

"I watched videos and TV programmes that show the dangers of illegal migration 
- and the house maids splashed with boiling water and thrown out from buildings 
[in the Middle East]," she said.

"I don't want to make such an attempt. I am much happier here despite life 
being tough."

But many Ethiopians are still living in extreme poverty in towns like Metema, 
and some I spoke to - who did not want to be named because of the crackdown - 
are still prepared to risk everything for a better life elsewhere.

(source: BBC news)