[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

April 1


IRAN:

Arjang Davoudi's Death Sentence Reduced to 5 Years Imprisonment


Arjang Davoudi, political prisoner in Rajai Shahr prison says; his death 
sentence has been reduced to 5 years imprisonment in exile. He should be ready 
by 14th June to be exiled to Zabul prison.

According to the report of Human Rights Activists News Agency in Iran (HRANA), 
the death penalty for the old political prisoner in Rajai Shahr prison, in 
Karaj, Arjang Davoudi, was reduced to 5 years imprisonment and exile to Zabol 
prison.

Mr. Davoudi in this regard told HRANA's reporter: "A few days before the new 
year I was informed in prison that the appeals court has broken my execution 
sentence and turned it to five years imprisonment in exile and I should wait 
until June 14, 2016, to be transferred to Zabol prison."

He continued: "I have been told, as Zabul prison was a detention center, 
probably I would be transferred to the prison of Zahedan."

It should be noted that, the aged political prisoner, Arjang Davoudi, who has 
served his first 10-year-sentence, during this period of imprisonment and due 
to another verdict, has been sentenced to 20 years and 8 months imprisonment, 
and then by Branch 1 of the Revolutionary Court in Karaj, he was charged with 
supporting and working effectively in advocating the goals of the People's 
Mojahedin Organization in prison, and sentenced to death."

(source: HRA News Agency)






YEMEN:

Baha'i Adherent Faces Death Penalty----End Persecution of Religious Minority


Yemeni authorities should drop all charges against a member of the Baha'i faith 
detained since December 2013, apparently for his religious beliefs. Prosecutors 
are expected to seek the death penalty for Hamed Kamal Muhammad bin Haydara in 
a court hearing scheduled for April 3, 2016.

Yemeni authorities should stop the persecution of the country's Baha'i 
community, Human Rights Watch said.

"The Yemeni authorities have committed an injustice by prosecuting Haydara for 
his religious beliefs and compounding that injustice by seeking to execute 
him," said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director. "The charges should be 
dropped and Haydara should be released."

Haydara was detained on December 3, 2013, by officers from Yemen's National 
Security Bureau (NSB), an intelligence agency. He was held in an NSB detention 
center in the capital, Sanaa, for almost a year, as officers beat him and 
subjected him to electric shocks and other mistreatment.

On January 8, 2015, the Specialized Criminal Court prosecutor issued an 
indictment claiming that Haydara was an Iranian citizen, using a false name, 
who arrived in Yemen only in 1991. Yet photocopies of his Yemini ID and 
passport provided by his wife show he was born in Yemen in 1964. The prosecutor 
also charged him with collaborating with Israel by working for the Universal 
House of Justice, the Baha'i supreme governing institution, which is based in 
Haifa, Israel. The prosecutor also alleged that Haydara lured potential Muslim 
converts to the Baha'i faith through charitable giving and tried to "establish 
a homeland for the followers of the Baha'i faith" in Yemen.

In the indictment, which Human Rights Watch reviewed, the prosecutor charges 
Haydara under Yemen's penal code with committing, among other crimes, "an act 
that violates the independence of the republic, its unity, or the integrity of 
its lands," "working for a foreign state's interests," "insulting Islam," and 
"apostasy." The prosecutor is seeking "the maximum possible penalty," which for 
some of these charges is death, as well as confiscation of his property.

4 members of the Baha'i community who have been monitoring the court 
proceedings told Human Rights Watch that since Haydara's 2013 arrest, his case 
has had 13 court hearings, but he has only been allowed to attend 3. The local 
human rights group Mwatana monitored the most recent hearing, on February 28, 
2016, for which Haydara was absent. The director of Mwatana, Radhiya 
al-Mutawakil, who was at the session, said the judge asked the prosecutor, 
Rajeh Zayyed, about Haydara's absence, but received no explanation.

Zayyed claims to have had 14 interrogation sessions with Haydara, but according 
to Haydara's lawyer, Abdulkarim al-Hamadi, the prosecution only interrogated 
Haydara twice, and brought him to the prosecutor's office twice more but then 
did not question him. Al-Hamadi has only been allowed to communicate with his 
client by phone.

At the February 28 hearing, Zayyed reiterated that the prosecution is seeking 
the death penalty. Human Rights Watch opposes the death penalty in all 
circumstances as an inherently cruel form of punishment.

Haydara's wife, Elham Muhammad Hossain Zara'i, told Human Rights Watch that in 
a September 4 meeting with one of the judges presiding over the case, he 
threatened her with prison because of her faith and told her that all Baha'is 
should be in prison.

Since the Houthis, also known as Ansar Allah, took control of Sanaa and other 
areas of Yemen in September 2014, the judiciary has significantly slowed its 
processing of cases, though many employees within the judiciary system have 
remained the same.

Most of the charges against Haydara relate to his practice of the Baha'i faith. 
They violate the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), 
which Yemen ratified in 1987. Article 18 states: "Everyone shall have the right 
to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. This right shall include 
freedom to have or to adopt a religion or belief of his choice, and freedom, 
either individually or in community with others and in public or private, to 
manifest his religion or belief in worship, observance, practice and teaching."

Yemen's penal code includes provisions that impose criminal penalties for 
renouncing Islam as well as attempting to convert Muslims to other faiths.

About 1,000 Baha'i members live in Yemen. The case against Haydara is not the 
1st of its kind, representatives of the global Baha'i community said. In June 
2008, National Security officers arrested Behrooz Rouhani, a Baha'i man, and 2 
visiting Baha'i friends, all of whom carried Iranian passports, at Rouhani's 
home in Sanaa. Rouhani told Human Rights Watch that the officers handcuffed and 
blindfolded them and then searched his home, confiscating many Baha'i books, 
video cassettes, and documents. They said they were kept handcuffed and 
blindfolded the first 2 days of their detention.

Officers arrested a 4th Baha'i man, who carried an Iraqi passport, the next 
day. Rouhani said that officers interrogated him about his faith the 1st week 
every night for 5 or 6 hours, accusing him of trying to convert Muslims and of 
collaboration with Israel. The 4 were released without charge after 120 days. 
The authorities told them to leave Yemen within 2 months, but this order was 
later revoked and 2 of them still live in Yemen.

A person who was at the trial told Human Rights Watch they heard the 
prosecutor, Zayyed, use derogatory language against the Baha'i community, 
saying that its members committed hostile acts toward Yemen.

Immediately after an earlier hearing in Haydara's case, on March 8, 2015, 
Zayyed apprehended two members of the Baha'i community who had been monitoring 
the trial, Nadim al-Sakkaf and his brother, Nader Tawfiq al-Sakkaf, both told 
Human Rights Watch. They said that Zayyed tried to get the judge to issue a 
court order to formalize the arrest but he refused, so after checking their 
names off a list of members of the Baha'i community and holding them in the 
courthouse guard booth for 2 hours, he transferred them to the Political 
Security Organization's headquarters. Security forces held them for two days, 
interrogating them several times about their faith and asking for names of 
other members, then released them without charge.

Local human rights activists have reported that past Yemeni governments also 
imposed unlawful restrictions on other religious minorities, including 
Christian, Jewish, and Ismaili individuals. Based on comments she said she 
heard from NSB officers, Zara'i fears authorities may deport Haydara to Iran. 
Punishing citizens with exile is a violation of fundamental rights under 
international law. Article 12 of the ICCPR states, "No one shall be arbitrarily 
deprived of the right to enter his own country." The United Nations Human 
Rights Committee, the international expert committee that monitors compliance 
with the ICCPR, has interpreted article 12 to mean that this includes exiling 
or banning citizens based on repressive domestic laws. The committee concluded 
that, "There are few, if any, circumstances in which deprivation of the right 
to enter one's own country could be reasonable. A State party must not, by 
stripping a person of nationality or by expelling an individual to a 3rd 
country, arbitrarily prevent this person from returning to his or her own 
country."

Even if Haydara were found not to be a Yemeni citizen, under international law 
he still may not be deported to a country where he faces persecution or abuse. 
Because of his Baha'i faith, Haydara would probably face persecution in Iran, 
Human Rights Watch said.

Haifa, in present-day Israel, has been the Baha'i faith's administrative 
headquarters since 1868, when the city was under Ottoman rule. The Iranian 
government, like the Yemeni authorities in Haydara's case, routinely uses the 
connection to accuse Baha'is in Iran of spying for Israel, with which Iran has 
hostile relations. The Baha'i faith originated in Iran, but its members suffer 
severe persecution there, including arbitrary detention and prosecution related 
solely to their religious activities, restrictions on access to higher 
education, confiscation of property, and destruction and desecration of their 
cemeteries. Iran???s judiciary often charges and convicts Baha'is of unlawful 
links with foreign governments, including Israel. 7 leaders of the Iranian 
Baha'i community are serving prison sentences, ranging from 7 to 20 years, on 
charges that include propaganda against the state and espionage on behalf of 
foreign governments.

"The prosecution of Hamed Kamal bin Haydara is symbolic of the broader attack 
on Yemen's Baha'i community," Stork said. "If the current authorities want to 
show the world that they represent an inclusive Yemen, they need to release him 
and anyone else being held for their opinions and beliefs."

(source: Human Rights Watch)






UGANDA:

Supreme Court ruled that all death sentences not carried out in 3 years are 
automatically commuted to life imprisonment


Inmates on death row at Luzira Maximum Prison have petitioned Parliament over 
what they claim is the current flawed system in the Judiciary, which sees many 
poor Ugandans with no financial ability to hire quality lawyers sent to the 
gallows.

In their petition channeled through Serere Woman MP, Alice Alaso, the Luzira 
death row inmates contend that the policy of lawyers on state briefs, though 
well intentioned, is actually turning out to be a poisoned chalice.

State brief is where government pays a lawyer to represent an indigent person 
accused of an offence that can fetch him a death penalty. This is a requirement 
under Article 28 of the constitution as part of a right to a fair hearing.

"These inmates complain that lawyers on state briefs simply go through the 
motion while representing them. They hardly meet them and go to court once or 
twice because the state does not pay them well," Alaso told the House.

Alaso visited Luzira prison 'condemned section' recently as part of her 
research work on the Law Revision (Penalties in Criminal Matters) Miscellaneous 
Amendment Bill, 2015 - a private members Bill.

The Bill seeks to amend a raft of sections in the Penal Code Act, Trial on 
indictments Act, UPDF Act, and Anti-terrorism Act relating to mandatory death 
penalty following the landmark Susan Kigula case.

In the Kigula case judgment, the Supreme Court ruled that all death sentences 
not carried out in 3 years are automatically commuted to life imprisonment. 
Therefore, the Bill seeks to remove all reference to mandatory death penalty 
prescribed in the above Acts of Parliament and restrict application of the 
death penalty to the "most serious crimes" by converting the maximum penalties 
prescribed in those Act into imprisonment for life.

According to Alaso, the Bill also seeks to give effect to the commitment made 
by Government to the United Nations following the 1st periodic review of 
Uganda's human rights record, to consistently apply the rulings of the court by 
converting all death penalties not carried out within 3 years to imprisonment 
for life.

"The inmates want lawyers on state briefs to be paid well in order not to 
compromise their defense," Alaso noted.

The inmates also complained about missing record of judgment in courts of first 
instance which has in many times impended their attempt to appeal their 
conviction and sentence.

Inmates told Alaso that absence of records of judgment means that the only way 
they can have their convictions and sentences overturned is through a retrial 
which they admitted is almost impossible.

According to Ugandan Prison Services spokesperson, Frank Baine, there are 297 
inmates at Luzira prison on death row.

Those convicted by military court marital, Alaso said, the process of appeal as 
provided for under the UPDF Act is as unwieldy and convoluted.

"There are inmates who have been in Luzira on death row since 1999 and attempts 
to appeal their conviction are problematic because of the UPDF Act," Alaso 
said, without delving into the sections that make appealing against convictions 
hard.

(source: newvision.co.ug)





TRINIDAD & TOBAGO:

Death penalty is long overdue


We must agree that since the criminals are aware there is no substantial 
punishment for the crimes committed here in Trinidad and Tobago, they will 
continue to kill our people, rape our citizens and in some cases decapitate 
them for unknown reasons.

Both the United National Congress (UNC) and People's National Movement (PNM) 
had given us promises and promises that crime is the number one item on their 
agenda. But that was ole talk before and it is again today.

The UNC had introduced the Death Penalty Bill but it did not pass in Parliament 
because it needed the 11 vote that were lacking by the PNM opposition under the 
UNC administration.

Now that the PNM is in Government, none of the ministers including the PM has 
since advocated to reintroduce capital punishment.

In fact, they are all more silent than ever whilst our citizens are murdered 
from left to right.

The last time we heard or observed hanging carried out was under the Basdeo 
Panday government in the matter of Dole Chadee and his gang.

How come the Panday government was able to carry out capital punishment and now 
we can't even get pass the threshold for reintroduction?

Is our Government complicit when it comes to implementing the death penalty 
once again?

The governments past and present have invested immense amounts of money to 
fight crime and secure our borders from the importation of drugs and arms, they 
have purchased patrol vessels and sophisticated technology to prevent or abate 
the criminality in our country, but it all appears to be a waste of time and 
money.

It is obvious that criminals are the ones who are in charge here. They have a 
cache of AK 47s, AR15s, and now they have hand grenades and probably rocket 
propel grenades.

The current situation warrants that our Government do something soon before the 
Red House goes up in smoke and rubble.

The PNM has a golden opportunity to reintroduce the death penalty regardless of 
all the naysayers, the Privy Council and Pratt and Morgan ruling. We are at the 
mercy of the criminals and absolutely nothing solid is coming forth from the 
people we vote for. And in addition, these ministers took an oath of office to 
protect and safeguard the lives of our citizens.

I say it is highly warranted that our Government reintroduce the Capital 
Punishment Bill in Parliament for support from the opposition which I firmly 
believe will support the bill since they were the ones who initially brought it 
to Parliament.

Mr Prime Minster your administration prevented the passage because of the 11 
votes that were required. Please send a message to the criminals that your 
Government will not tolerate the killing of our citizens.

Jay G Rakhar

New York

(source: Letter to the Editor, Trinidad Daily Express)