[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

April 11



BANGLADESH:

Nizami's review plea hearing defers till May 3


The Supreme Court today deferred till May 3 the hearing on the review petition 
filed by condemned war criminal Motiur Rahman Nizami.

The four-member bench of Appellate Division headed by Chief Justice Surendra 
Kumar Sinha passed the deferment order following a time petition moved by 
Nizami's lawyer Khandaker Mahbub Hossain.

He prayed to the court to shift the date for hearing citing his personal 
difficulties.

On March 29, Nizami filed the petition praying to the apex court to acquit him 
of all the charges on which he was found guilty and awarded death penalty.

Nizami mentioned 46 grounds in the 70-page petition.

On October 29, 2014, the International Crimes Tribunal-1 handed down the death 
penalty to Nizami on four charges of war crimes, including murdering 
intellectuals during the Liberation War in 1971. The 71-year-old was also 
awarded life imprisonment on the four other charges.

The SC on January 6 this year upheld his death sentence on three charges and 
life term imprisonment on 2 other charges.

On March 15, the apex court released the full verdict. The ICT issued death 
warrant for him hours after the SC had released its full verdict.

The following day, the jail authorities read out the judgment before the 
convict.

(source: The Dialy Star)






TAIWAN:

Taiwanese rally for death penalty after child's beheading


Hundreds of Taiwanese rallied Sunday to show support for retaining the death 
penalty, after the beheading of a child in a street attack shocked the island.

Demonstrators dressed in black and held white roses in mourning for the 
four-year-old girl murdered on March 28 near a Taipei metro station. Many wore 
stickers reading "Death penalty is necessary."

The girl's mother tried to stop the attacker but was pushed away. Several 
bystanders were also unable to stop the man, who decapitated the child with a 
kitchen knife.

Police said the 33-year-old had previously been arrested for drug-related 
crimes and had sought treatment for mental illness. He was attacked by an angry 
mob while in custody.

The killing came less than a year after the throat of an 8-year-old girl was 
slit in her school restroom in Taipei. It sparked widespread public anger and 
fresh debate about capital punishment.

Taiwan resumed capital punishment in 2010 after a 5-year hiatus. But executions 
are reserved for the most serious crimes such as aggravated murder and 
kidnapping.

Some politicians and rights groups have called for its abolition, but various 
opinion surveys show majority support for the death penalty.

"Taiwan is not safe, so death sentences are needed to deter crimes and they 
should be carried out. I hope this will make our society safer for all 
children," said office worker Chen Pei-chi, who took her sons aged three and 
six to the Taipei rally.

"I am really sad and angry that these random murders of children keep 
happening. All child-killers should be sentenced to death for hurting 
defenceless children and destroying their families, as losing a child is 
unbearable," said housewife Wu Chiu-mei, who has a 3-year-old grandson.

In 2012 the murder of a 10-year-old boy in a playground reignited debate over 
the death penalty, after the suspect reportedly said he was anticipating free 
board and lodging in jail and would get a life sentence at most even if he were 
to kill two or 3 people.

(source: The Daily Star)






PAKISTAN:

Pakistan court issues arrest warrant for former president Musharraf


Pakistan's Anti-Terrorism Court issued a nonbailable arrest warrant on Friday 
against former president and military leader Pervez Musharraf for detaining 
more than 60 judges after declaring a state of emergency in 2007. The 
proceedings were held without Musharraf, who left the country for Dubai after a 
court removed him from the exit control list last month to seek medical 
treatment. However, the judge told his lawyers that Musharraf should have 
obtained specific permission from the court before departing the country. He is 
ordered to appear in court in Pakistan on April 22.

The case against Musharraf has been ongoing since 2014. Pakistan's Sindh High 
Court (SHC) in June 2014 lifted a travel ban that had prevented Musharraf from 
leaving the country. Musharraf was indicted in March of that year on charges of 
high treason. If convicted, Musharraf could face the death penalty. Musharraf 
pleaded not guilty to each of the charges against him, including unlawfully 
suspending the constitution, firing Pakistan's chief justice, and instituting 
emergency rule in 2007. Musharraf called the charges politically motivated and 
maintained that the country had prospered under his 2001-2008 rule and that his 
declaration of a state of emergency was not unconstitutional.

(source: Jurist.org)






IRAN----executions

5 Prisoners Hanged in Northern Iran on Drug Charges


On the morning of Saturday April 9, 5 prisoners were reportedly hanged at 
Rasht's Lakan Prison (in the provine of Gilan, northern Iran) on drug charges.

The prisoners had reportedly been transferred out of their wards on Thursday 
April 7 and taken to solitary confinement cells in preparation for their 
executions.

According to close sources, Rashid Kouhi, Seyed Javad Mirzadeh and Hossein 
Farhadi are the names of 3 of the prisoners. Iran Human Rights is in the 
process of investigating the identities of the 2 other prisoners. All 5 
prisoners were reportedly on death row for drug related offenses.

According to Amnesty International, 36-year-old Rashid Kouhi was arrested in 
September 2011 and sentenced to death by the revolutionary court in Rudbar (a 
county in Gilan) for possession and trafficking 800 grams of methamphetamine. 
Close sources say prison authorities contacted Kouhi's family on April 7 and 
instructed them to come in for their last visit with him on Friday April 8 
before his scheduled execution the next day.

Iranian authorities have admitted multiple times in the past that the death 
penalty has not decreased the volume of drug crimes in Iran, but Iranian 
authorities still continue to hang prisoners on drug charges. Human rights 
groups, including Iran Human Rights, have reported close to a thousand 
executions carried out in Iran in 2015. According to the annual death penalty 
report by Iran Human Rights, 66% of the executions carried out in 2015 in Iran 
were for drug related offenses.

(source: Iran Human Rights)

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

Iran regime executes man despite appeal by rights group


Iran's fundamentalist regime on Saturday executed student Rashid Kouhi despite 
an appeal by Amnesty International for the sentence to be halted.

Mr. Kouhi, 36, was executed earlier in the day on Saturday in Rasht???s Lakan 
Prison in Gilan Province, northern Iran, sources said.

On Friday Amnesty International said Mr. Kouhi's scheduled execution 
demonstrated the Iranian authorities' utter disregard for the right to life and 
their determination to continue with a staggering execution spree that saw 
nearly 1000 people put to death last year.

Family members of Rashid Kouhi received a call from prison authorities on 
Thursday informing them that they should go to Lakan Prison to have a final 
meeting with him on Friday before his execution the following day.

Rashid Kouhi was arrested at a checkpoint in Roudbar, Gilan province on August 
24, 2011.

"The officers who stopped him conducted a search of his bag where they found 
800 grams of crystal meth. He was a student at the time. He was tried and 
sentenced to death following a grossly unfair trial by a Revolutionary Court in 
Roudbar in February 2012," according to Amnesty International.

Said Boumedouha, Amnesty International's Middle East and North Africa Deputy 
Director, said on Friday: "The imminent execution of Rashid Kouhi days after 
Iran was revealed to be the world's 2nd highest executioner in 2015 in Amnesty 
International's annual death penalty report, highlights the authorities' 
determination to maintain their horrifying rate of executions."

"The Iranian authorities must halt the execution of Rashid Kouhi immediately. 
The use of the death penalty for drug-related offences is a blatant violation 
of international human rights law. Instead of stepping up their rampant 
execution spree the Iranian authorities must take steps to abolish this 
ultimate cruel and inhuman punishment."

The human rights groups said: "The court's verdict, which has been reviewed by 
Amnesty International, is less than a page long and does not contain adequate 
reasoning. He did not have access to a lawyer during questioning and met a 
state appointed lawyer for the 1st time during his trial. He was held in 
Roudbar for 2 years before being taken to Lakan Prison in Rasht."

Rashid Kouhi was denied the right to appeal his death sentence.

"It is appalling that Rashid Kouhi has been denied the right to an appeal which 
is a fundamental element of the right to a fair trial. The Iranian authorities 
must urgently halt his execution and give him a chance to appeal his death 
sentence in a fair trial without recourse to the death penalty. Failing to do 
so will be an irreversible injustice," said Said Boumedouha.

The human rights group said on its website: "At least 977 people were executed 
in Iran in 2015."

(source: NCR-Iran)






SOMALIA----executions

Journalist murder: Somali court executes 2 Al-Shabaab militants


The Somali military court on Saturday executed 2 Al-Shabaab militants behind 
last year's murder of a female journalist who worked for state media.

The court found that Abdirisak Mohamed Barow, 28, and Hassan-Nur Ali Farah, 37, 
killed Hindiya Haji Mohamed, the journalist working for Radio Mogadishu and 
National Television on December 3 last year, Xinhua reported.

The execution by firing squad occurred at a field in General Kahiye Police 
Academy in Mogadishu.

"Barow and Farah, were sentenced to a death penalty on March 20 and they are 
executed for their involvement and killing of the journalist, Hindiya Haji 
Mohamed," said 1 of the prosecutors.

The prosecutor added that the executed men were members of the AlAl-Shabaab 
militant group.

Hindiya was killed early December in 2015 while her husband, who was also a 
journalist for the same station, was killed on September 20 in 2012.

Somalia is considered to be one of the worst places where journalists operate. 
More than 25 journalists have been murdered in Somalia since 2007, according to 
data from the Committee to Protect Journalists.

(source: Business-Standard)