[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

April 12




PAKISTAN----executions

2 murder convicts hanged


A murder convict was hanged at the Faisalabad Central Jail on Tuesday. A 
spokesperson for the Prisons Department said Adeel Shahzad, a resident of Raza 
Abad, had killed his aunt Zahida Naseem and her 3 children on February 18, 
2001, in a Pir Mehal police precinct. ATC Judge Raja Akhtar had issued black 
warrants for Shehzad. Muhammad Ashraf, alias Achoo, who had killed a man in 
2000, was hanged in Sahiwal District Jail on Tuesday.

(source: Express Tribune)






FRANCE/IRAN:

Air France's gay flight attendants protest Iran route, cite death penalty


A gay flight attendant working for Air France launched an online petition 
against homosexual staff being forced to fly to Iran. It comes after female 
cabin crew members refused to fly on the route because they didn't want to be 
forced to wear headscarves.

"Sure, our sexuality isn't written on our passports and it doesn't change the 
way we work as a crew," the flight attendant, identified only as 'Laurent M,' 
wrote in an open letter to the French government and Air France CEO Frederic 
Gagey.

"But it is inconceivable to force someone to go to a country where his kind are 
condemned for who they are," he continued.

The online appeal, titled 'Gay stewards from Air France don't want to fly to 
the death penalty in Iran', points out that homosexuality is punishable by 
death for adults in Iran. It also notes that gay minors face a punishment of 74 
lashes in the Islamic Republic.

The petition has so far received over 2,000 signatures.

It comes just 1 week after Air France flight attendants and female pilots 
refused to fly the Paris to Tehran route because they didn't want to be forced 
to wear headscarves and loose trousers.

2 organizations representing the female cabin crew, the SNPNC and Unsa PNC, 
said that forcing women to fly to Tehran would have been "an attack on freedom 
of conscience and individual freedoms," as well as the "freedom of women."

The female staff members eventually achieved victory, with the airline 
accepting that they could refuse to work on the route without facing 
punishment. Air France suspended flights to Tehran in 2008, but is resuming the 
route next week after international sanctions against Tehran over its nuclear 
program were lifted.

(source: rt.com)