[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

april 24



EGYPT:

Egypt military court postpones verdict on 28 Morsi supporters for 3rd time


In February, the court sentenced eight of the 28 defendants to a preliminary 
death sentence but did not issue sentences for the remaining 20 defendants

An Egyptian military court postponed on Sunday the issuing of a verdict in the 
trial of 28 alleged supporters of ousted president Mohamed Morsi who were 
accused of planning attacks on military and police personnel to 29 May.

In February, the court sentenced 8 of the 28 defendants to death. The court did 
not issue sentences for the remaining 20 defendants.

15 of the defendants are detained, while the rest are on the run and being 
tried in absentia.

The court referred its initial death penalty verdicts to the Grand Mufti of 
Egypt -- the country's leading authority on religious edicts - for a 
non-binding consultation as per Egyptian law.

In March, the court postponed issuing a verdict in the case until 3 April 
without stating reasons. The verdict was further postponed on 3 April to 24 
April.

The court is set to confirm or reverse the death sentences and rule on 
1st-degree sentences for the 20 remaining defendants.

The awaited verdicts will be subject to appeal in the military cassation court.

(source: ahramonline.com)






SAUDI ARABIA:

Saudi court approves death sentence for activist


Saudi Arabia's Court of Cassation endorsed Saturday a death sentence handed 
down to an activist from the Shia community, 4 months after the execution of a 
respected cleric by Riyadh sparked international outrage.

The court approved the sentence handed down to Yusof al-Mosheykhas, a citizen 
of the Shia-dominated city of Awwamiyah in the eastern region of Qatif, Naba' 
TV reported.

According to the report, Mosheykhas was arrested 2 years ago after he attended 
several anti-government protests in his hometown. He was convicted of attempted 
terrorist act in an initial trial and was incarcerated in January 2014.

Rights campaigners expressed concern about the imminent execution of 
Mosheykhas, saying the activist could be put to death in an unknown location 
without prior notice. That has been the case for other Saudis and foreigners 
convicted of involvement in terror activities.

Back in January, Saudi Arabia executed Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, a highly respected 
Shia cleric and an outspoken critic of Riyadh from Qatif, only to trigger 
massive condemnations around the world.

Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province, an oil-rich region which includes Qatif and 
Awwamiyah, was the scene of clashes between people and police since an uprising 
began there in early 2011.

Riyadh has faced criticism by human rights groups and governments in the West 
over its imposition of numerous restrictions on freedom of speech and the harsh 
way the courts deal with dissent. Notable activists, including Raif Badawi, a 
31-year-old blogger who has been sentenced to 1,000 lashes and 10 years in jail 
for his writings on the internet, has been behind bars in Saudi Arabia since 
2012.

On Friday, the United Nations torture committee called on the Saudi government 
to stop physical punishment, including flogging and amputations, carried out 
against the convicts in the kingdom while it expressed concern about the abuse 
of bloggers, activists and human rights lawyers in prisons.

(source: presstv.ir)






AUSTRALIA:

Australia should do more to stamp out capital punishment


The Bali 9 ringleaders Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran were executed by firing 
squad on the Indonesian island of Nusa Kambangan a year ago next Friday. Even a 
year on, it stands as yet another case of barbarism in the cause of political 
expediency, lives cut short and the potential for good extinguished for no 
reason.

The 9-year legal wrangle that surrounded their conviction and incarceration, 
further complicated by the murky behaviour of authorities, not least the 
Australian Federal Police, ended with the execution of the pair. Naturally, 
they had support from those against the death penalty, but their long residency 
on death row garnered such widespread sympathy and support from Australia and 
elsewhere that for a while it seemed some good could come from such a 
groundswell of opposition.

The Bali 9 pair faced execution along with criminals from the Philippines, 
France, Nigeria, Ghana, Indonesia and, potentially, a mentally ill Brazilian. 
The 2 Australians' lives were not worth more or less than the fellow condemned 
or the thousands executed in Indonesia and other countries each year. But when 
the pair were hurriedly taken to Nusa Kambangan, the barbarity of capital 
punishment was brutally underscored, hopes for reform were replaced by impotent 
outrage. Australia recalled its ambassador Paul Grigson in protest. It was 
unprecedented, but he was back in Jakarta by the following June.

Indonesia's justification for killing offenders in the name of deterrence was 
exposed as a fraud. To many in the West, the need to punish for punishment's 
sake remains an Old Testament throwback to an-eye-for-an-eye. It has no place 
in any modern, civilised, democratic nation. Indonesia's culpability in 
reviving executions for convicted drug criminals and denying the Australian 
pair clemency was no better or worse than the policies of China for killing 
political prisoners or indeed so many states in the US for killing murderers. 
It is simply wrong.

6 Australians have been executed since 1986 and around the world today there 
are some dozen or so in jails, detained for serious offences or charged with 
crimes that carry the death penalty. They include Peter Gardiner, the dual 
Australia-New Zealand citizen caught with 30 kilograms of methamphetamine. This 
week he is awaiting a Chinese court decision on whether or not he is to face a 
firing squad.

Generally, Australia could make sure capital punishment is prominent in its 
broader discussions about human rights and justice issues with countries to our 
north, not least China. Nearly 90 % of the 1634 people Amnesty International 
estimates were executed around the world in 2015 occurred in just 3 countries: 
Iran, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. However, these figures exclude China, where 
numbers are thought to top 1000 but remain a state secret.

There will always be different opinions on the fundamentals of crime and 
punishment. Many people favour capital punishment, but we support the 
contention that having fewer world citizens exposed to the death penalty 
represents a giant step forward for the common good of humanity.

Australia abolished the death penalty in 1973, accepting that the extinguishing 
of a human life by the state is repugnant. Clearly, judicial killing can never 
equal the score; it is the victory of revenge over redemption. The practical 
argument, too, is persuasive. Death is absolute. It leaves no room for error or 
doubt, and abuse by unaccountable authoritarian regimes. Information remains 
limited but Amnesty International claims 150 US prisoners sent to death row 
since 1973 have later been exonerated. Others have been executed despite 
serious doubts about their guilt.

By pushing for the abolition of the death sentence everywhere, Australia will 
make itself a more credible advocate for Australians anywhere.

(source: Editorial, Sydney Morning Herald)

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

Life after Myuran and Andrew: The legacy of the executed Bali 9----It is a year 
since Bali nine members Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan were executed in 
Indonesia, but they are not forgotten.MO<

We speak to 2 prisoners inside Bali's Kerobokan jail about the legacy of 
executed Australian Myuran Sukumaran.

One of the life-affirming legacies of executed Bali 9 members Myuran Sukumaran 
and Andrew Chan can be found on a crowded footpath in Kuta.

On a stool outside a jewellery shop, Billy Surya Adji sits sketching in his 
makeshift B Billy gallery, oblivious to the snarl of traffic along Legian Kaja 
Street.

His body is dead, but still his soul is here.

Billy met Chan and Sukumaran inside Bali's Kerobokan jail, where he was serving 
more than 4 years for possessing crystal meth and marijuana, in 2013.

Sukumaran persuaded him to join drawing classes in the BengKer (workshop), an 
oasis of art the man once known as the "ringleader" of the Bali 9 heroin 
smugglers had helped establish behind bars.

"When I started focusing on painting, I stopped [taking drugs] completely, 
because Myuran hated drug users," Billy says. "He would get so angry he would 
throw stuff."

When Billy was clean, he started playing tennis, where he met Chan, who was 
involved in the jail's church and sport activities.

"Andrew was a jokester. He would taunt us during tennis, saying 'you will lose, 
you will lose, you will lose' ... and then he would end up losing himself."

Billy says he would probably still be using and selling drugs if he hadn't 
started painting and playing tennis.

Now, he works as an artist, with commissions coming from passers-by and his 
Facebook and Instagram accounts.

"I believe the reason I am clean is first the painting, Myuran's influence and 
the tennis."

Just after midnight on April 29, 2015, Chan and Sukumaran were among 8 
prisoners tied to a post and shot dead on the penal island of Nusakambangan?, 
known as Indonesia's Alcatraz.

Nine years earlier, they had been sentenced to death for their role in a foiled 
attempt to smuggle 8.3 kilograms of heroin from Indonesia to Australia.

Chan's widow, Febyanti Herewila?, recalled the men died singing 10,000 Reasons 
(Bless the Lord), the same song they had sung at their wedding less than 72 
hours earlier.

"They all managed to finish the first verse and the second halfway and then 
they took him," she said at Chan's memorial service. "Andrew managed to end it 
well."

The men's Indonesian lawyer, Todung Mulya Lubis, would later describe it as the 
darkest moment of his life. "I failed. I lost." he tweeted at 4am.

Todung, Indonesia's most famous human rights lawyer, has been fighting for the 
abolition of the death penalty in Indonesia since 1979.

Until the bitter end, he had been hopeful President Joko Widodo would grant 
mercy. "My clients changed ... they did not deserve to die," he says.

"I noticed Andrew became a very religious person, preaching, giving sermons in 
Kerobokan, and then you see how Myuran did all his paintings, sharing his 
knowledge with the other inmates.

"They did not do any drugs. There are other inmates who still do drugs, but not 
Andrew, not Myuran, they are clean. That's why I thought they deserved to be 
pardoned."

Late in 2015, a draft bill for a new criminal code was submitted to Parliament.

Under the draft, which is yet to be debated, Todung says someone given the 
death penalty could have their sentence commuted to life or 20 years if they 
could demonstrate they had changed.

"That's the 3rd way, the Indonesian way, in solving this problem," he says.

"[Indonesia] wanted to find a way to answer the criticism from the human rights 
and international communities. I think Andrew and Myuran contributed to ... 
this whole process. That is the legacy, that is the contribution of Andrew and 
Myuran."

The last ghastly days before the executions will be forever etched in my mind. 
The anguished wailing of Raji Sukumaran? as she begged the President for her 
son's life. Chan's brother, Michael, holding back tears, as he said no family 
should ever have to experience this.

Sukumaran entrusted his beloved art room and T-shirt printing business in the 
jail to two Iranian prisoners serving life sentences at Kerobokan.

He asked Denise Payne and Tina Bailey, who taught yoga, art and dance classes 
at Kerobokan jail, to help the Iranians.

"He told us to remind them that when he was gone his ghost would come back and 
haunt them if they didn't make sure the programs continued," Bailey recalls.

Walking back into Kerobokan jail after the executions was incredibly difficult. 
The loss of the men is still felt viscerally there.

"The first yoga class was so painful. Everyone was teary-eyed the whole time. 
It was such an obvious void," Payne says.

"But even if I didn't want to, it was like Myuran was pushing me: 'Come on 
Payne, you made a promise."

The latest T-shirt design from the jail's workshop features a striking image of 
Sukumaran releasing doves of peace from a map of Australia.

Ali Reza Safar Khanloo, who was asked to take over the T-shirt printing studio, 
is sending the design to Sukumaran's family to commemorate Myuran's birthday in 
April.

"I want to show to his family we are here and we are always thinking of you," 
he says.

Ali's relationship with Sukumaran was like that of a father and son.

"When he left, I understand why he was pushing me. Sometimes when I need help 
and I am stressed about the work or the guards, I think: 'What would Myuran 
do?' Suddenly people come to order a T-shirt and I feel Myuran has sent someone 
to me."

Rouhallah Series Abadi also still feels Sukumaran's presence. Rahol, as he is 
known, was entrusted with the art room.

"Please help people in here; they need some colour," Sukumaran told him.

"I get goosebumps every morning I walk in here," Rahol says. "His body is dead, 
but still his soul is here."

Keeping the rehabilitation programs going inside Kerobokan has not always been 
easy.

"Myuran had funding from sources we never knew about," Payne says. "Tina and I 
had to figure out what to do. How to organise lunches, how to keep people 
motivated to keep going. There was a lot of trial and error, a lot of cash out 
of our own pockets."

A generous donation meant Payne was able to buy 20 yoga mats. However, within 
months, they had been stolen or commandeered as mattresses in the jail. "We 
need new mats always."

But somehow everyone has pulled together. Ali is experimenting with producing 
skateboards and bags, as well as T-shirts, in the prison workshop.

Former inmates - including Billy Surya Adji - return to Kerobokan jail to 
attend Bailey's art classes.

"I miss Myuran and am committed to keeping his story alive and the story of the 
power of art to transform people's lives alive," Bailey says.

"I saw it in him and I see it in others. That is why I keep doing what I do, 
believing it will make a difference."

Bailey served communion to Sukumaran and his family on Nusakambangan two days 
before he died. The day of the executions, she prepared his last paintings - 
still wet to the touch - to be sent back to Australia.

"So, in a way, I was surrounded by Myu that day."

7 months after his death, GQ Magazine named Sukumaran artist of the year. His 
mentor, Archibald Prize-winning artist Ben Quilty?, is not yet ready to speak 
about his friend and student.

He says he will have more to say next year, when a show of Sukumaran's work 
tours Australia. It will open in Sydney, about the 50th anniversary of the 
death of Ronald Ryan, the last man legally executed in Australia.

Meanwhile, Febyanti Herewila told Marie Claire magazine she hoped to open a 
youth centre on Sabu Island near West Timor in honour of Chan.

It was something the couple, who were both pastors, dreamed of doing together; 
holding music classes and providing a place for young people to play sport and 
learn.

Julian McMahon was the longest-serving member of Chan and Sukumaran's team of 
Australian lawyers, working for the 2 men pro bono for almost a decade.

Death penalty cases have been part of the Melbourne barrister's work for 13 
years - he also represented Australian drug trafficker Van Tuong Nguyen, who 
was hung in Singapore in 2005.

He believes Chan and Sukumaran's legacy in Australia has been a calm level of 
acceptance at both the public and political level that the death penalty is 
unacceptable.

"I think it's been a developing idea basically since the execution of Van 
Nguyen, which many people rightly thought was an appalling outcome," McMahon 
says.

"The public consciousness was awakened to the reality of executions, which 
hadn't really featured in public life for a long time. It was on a slow burn 
until the lead-up to the executions of Chan and Sukumaran. Their case led to 
such intense analysis, discussion and political input, it is now beyond dispute 
that we simply understand as a nation the death penalty is unacceptable."

McMahon is the president of Reprieve Australia, dedicated to eradicating the 
death penalty worldwide. Historically, it has sent young legal interns to 
assist with death penalty cases in the United States, but it is refocusing its 
advocacy to the Asia Pacific region.

The fight against the death penalty is like other long-term human rights 
battles, such as slavery or sexual abuse, McMahon says.

The voices opposing the death penalty in Europe and the Americas have never 
been as strong. (German Chancellor Angela Merkel tackled the Indonesian 
President about the thorny issue during his trip to Europe last week.)

At the same time, Amnesty International reported a 54 % increase in executions 
globally in 2015. Indonesia is preparing for a fresh round of executions.

"Simultaneously there are gains and losses," McMahon says.

But he is buoyed by the Australian government's activism.

In September, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop told the United Nations General 
Assembly that Australia would use a seat on the UN's Human Rights Council to 
wage a tireless campaign to end the death penalty around the world.

Australia, France and Norway will co-host the Sixth World Congress against the 
death penalty in Oslo in June.

"The Australian government has clearly stepped up its focus and willingness to 
fight the death penalty," McMahon says.

"If we were sitting having a beer three years ago, would Australia have been 
one of the major sponsors of an anti-death penalty conference, with someone as 
senior as Philip Ruddock leading the delegation? I wouldn't have said: 'Yeah, 
that would happen'."

(source: Sydney Morning Herald)






IRAQ:

Report: Islamic State Executes 250 Women for Refusing Slave Marriage


Kurdish news outlets have reported the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) executed 250 
girls and women who refused to become their sex slaves or enter temporary 
marriages with terrorists.

"At least 250 girls have so far been executed by IS for refusing to accept the 
practice of sexual jihad, and sometimes the families of the girls were also 
executed for rejecting to submit to IS's request," announced Said Mamuzini, the 
Kurdish Democratic Party spokesman.

The Islamic State has implemented this practice since they took over large 
areas of Syria and Iraq for their self-declared caliphate.

In December 2014, Iraq's Ministry of Human Rights claimed that the Islamic 
State murdered 150 women because they refused to marry or engage in sexual acts 
with the terrorists.

"At least 150 females, including pregnant women, were executed in Fallujah by a 
militant named Abu Anas Al-Libi after they refused to accept jihad marriage," 
said the Ministry. "Many families were also forced to migrate from the 
province's northern town of Al-Wafa after hundreds of residents received death 
threats."

The militants buried the victims in mass graves in the city. The families who 
left lost many children after the militants stranded them in the desert.

8 months later, another report from Mosul surfaced that said the Islamic State 
killed another 19 women who refused to have sex with terrorists.

"Isis [has] executed 19 women in the city of Mosul during the past 2 days," 
declared Mamuzini. "The penalty decision came on the background of the refusal 
to participate in the practice of sexual jihad."

Militants claim they adhere to a very conservative interpretation of Islam, one 
that apparently allow them to run brothels and keep sex slaves. They allow 
women from the West to perform "sexual jihad" for the terrorists. A 2013 edict 
allows this behavior "to boost the morale of fighters." Islamic State issued 
its own edict in June after conquering towns in Iraq. Jihadists set up brothels 
filled with kidnapped females and placed British women in charge. One Yazidi 
sex slave begged the West to bomb the brothel at which she was held to end her 
suffering. A video in November showed militants laughing and joking about 
buying female Yazidi slaves.

The Islamic State issued a manual that teaches militants how to treat their 
female slaves.

"It is permissible to buy, sell, or give as a gift female captives and slaves, 
for they are merely property, which can be disposed of," wrote the author.

The author writes that men can use the females as sex slaves only when the 
master is the exclusive owner of that slave.

"If she is a virgin," the guide explains, "he [her master] can have intercourse 
with her immediately after taking possession of her. However, is [sic] she 
isn't, her uterus must be purified [first]..."

It also encourages pedophilia.

"It is permissible to have intercourse with the female slave who hasn't reached 
puberty if she is fit for intercourse."

(source: breitbart.com)