[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

July 6



IRAN:

Shahram Ahmadi in Imminent Danger of Execution after Request for Retrial 
Rejected


Shahram Ahmadi is in imminent danger of execution after his lawyer's request 
for a retrial was rejected by Iranian authorities.

Iran's Supreme Court has reportedly rejected a request for retrial regarding 
the case of Shahram Ahmadi, a political prisoner on death row in Karaj's Rajai 
Shahr Prison (northern Iran). Mr. Ahmadi, who is a Sunni Muslim preacher, is in 
imminent danger of execution for Moharebeh (enmity against God).

Mr. Ahmadi was arrested in Sanandaj (in the province of Kurdistan, northwestern 
Iran) by Iranian authorities on April 26, 2009, after he was shot and injured 
by security agents. He was reportedly taken to the hospital and later 
transferred to a detention centre in Sanandaj operated by the Ministry of 
Intelligence.

He endured more than 40 months in solitary confinement cells in Ministry of 
Intelligence detention centres in Sanandaj and Zanjan. He was severely tortured 
and accused of relations with Salafi groups and the assassination of a Sunni 
Friday prayer Imam in Sanandaj. In an unprecedented move, Iranian authorities 
reportedly transferred Mr. Ahmadi's case file from Sanandaj to branch 28 of 
Tehran's Revolutionary Court, presided by a corrupt judge by the name of 
Moghiseh. In accordance with the judicial process in Iran, the case file of 
defendants must be examined or investigated where the alleged crime was 
committed. Mr. Ahmadi was reportedly sentenced to death by Judge Moghiseh based 
on forced confessions.

According to Mr. Ahmadi's lawyer, his client has never possessed or used a 
weapon and has never harmed anyone. The lawyer, who had filed the request for 
the retrial, wrote in his appeals about the psychological and physical tortures 
his client endured in order for the Iranian authorities to extract confessions 
from him. Mr. Ahmadi has written multiple letters from prison denying the 
assasination charge against him and claiming that he was arrested only because 
he is a preacher of Sunni Islam.

Mr. Ahmadi's brother, Bahram, was executed at Karaj's Ghezelhesar Prison by 
Iranian authorities on December 27, 2012 along with nine other Sunni Muslim 
political prisoners. Bahram was reportedly arrrested by Iranian authorities on 
September 19, 2009 when he was under the age of 18. On March 4, 2014 6 other 
Sunni Muslim political prisoners were executed by Iranian authorities in Ghezel 
Hesar Prison: Hamed Ahmadi, Jahangir Dehghani, Jamshid Dehghani, Kamal Molaei, 
Sedigh Mohammadi, and Hadi Hosseini.

There are currently at least 35 Sunni Muslim political prisoners in Rajai Shahr 
Prison who are in imminent danger of execution.

(source: Iran Human Rights)






PHILIPPINES:

Bill to re-impose death penalty filed in Philippines----First bill filed under 
President Rodrigo Duterte seeks to reintroduce capital punishment for 'heinous 
crimes'


A bill seeking to re-impose the death penalty in the Philippines has become the 
first to be filed under the presidency of Rodrigo Duterte.

Local media reported Wednesday that the bill proposes that those convicted of 
certain "heinous crimes" be executed by legal injection, and was filed by Davao 
del Norte Representative Pantaleon Alvarez -- Duterte's choice for Speaker of 
the House of Representatives -- and Representative Fredenil Castro of central 
Capiz province.

"Philippine society is left with no option but to deal with certain grievous 
offenders in a manner commensurate to the gravity, perversity, atrociousness 
and repugnance of their crimes," according to House Bill No. 1 of the newly 
sworn in 17th Congress.

After winning the May 9 election on a crime-fighting campaign, Duterte vowed to 
work toward re-introducing the death penalty, which had been abolished for a 
2nd time in 2006.

Duterte -- a lawyer by profession -- served 22 years as the mayor of southern 
Davao, overseeing its transformation from a crime-ridden hovel to a peaceful 
and investment-friendly city.

He has pledged to curb corruption and criminality within 3 to 6 months of his 
presidential term, which began June 30.

In House Bill No. 1, Alvarez underlined the need to revive the death penalty 
due to the country's crime rate having "grown to such alarming proportions 
requiring an all-out offensive against all forms of felonious acts".

"There is evidently a need to reinvigorate the war against criminality by 
revising a deterrent coupled by its consistent, persistent and determined 
implementation," Alvarez and Castro said.

Listed among the "heinous crimes" that could be subject to the death penalty 
are human trafficking, illegal recruitment, treason, rape, qualified piracy and 
bribery, kidnapping and illegal detention, robbery with violence against or 
intimidation of persons, terrorism and drug-related cases.

"The imposition of the death penalty for heinous crimes and the mode of its 
implementation, both subjects of repealed laws, are crucial components of an 
effective dispensation of both reformative and retributive justice," the bill's 
authors stressed.

The Philippines became the 1st Asian country to prohibit the death penalty 
under its 1987 Constitution, drafted after the overthrow of late dictator 
President Ferdinand Marcos.

Capital punishment was restored in the 1990s -- as allowed under the 
constitution with the approval of Congress -- before being abolished in 2006.

As Davao City mayor, Duterte imposed bans on public smoking, and the selling of 
alcohol and the operation of entertainment spots past midnight.

In 2015, however, Amnesty International alleged that "death squads" under his 
control were responsible for 700 extrajudicial executions in the region. 
Duterte reported to have responded that it was more like 1,700.

(source: aa.com.tr)