[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

April 11



IRAN----executions

Execution of a Prisoner After Heart Attack


In a heinous crime on April 5, 2017, a seriously ill prisoner was hanged in 
Esfahan prison. Houshang Servati was executed while 2 days earlier, after his 
transfer to solitary confinement, had suffered a heart attack. He had 5 
children.

The regime's henchmen keep persecuting and torturing prisoners to the last 
moments and their transfer to solitary confinement for the implementation of 
death sentence is accompanied by beating and insults.

On April 4, another ill prisoner was executed after 4 years detention in Tabriz 
prison. Before his arrest, he was exempt from military service because of 
mental illness.

In another development, on the morning of April 6, Gohardasht prison guards 
raided halls 30 and 35 of Ward 10 of the prison, insulted and humiliated 
prisoners and destructed their belongings, and took away their medications.

(source: Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran)

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

Prisoner Hanged on Rape Charges


A prisoner was reportedly hanged at Kerman Central Prison onrape charges. A 
report by the press department of the Judiciary in the province of Kerman has 
identified the prisoner as "V.F.", 32 years of age. The date of the execution 
was not mentioned in the report.

(source: iranhr.net)

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

Iran responsible for 2/3 of Middle East's executions in 2016: Amnesty 
International


Amnesty International today said that Iran was the Middle East and North Africa 
(MENA) region's leading executioner in 2016, putting at least 567 people to 
death. That number included at least 2 and as many as 7 children.

Iran was followed in the rankings by Saudi Arabia - which executed at least 154 
people - and Iraq, where at least 88 were executed.

Worldwide, the organization said that China executed more people than all the 
other countries in the world put together, with "thousands" of death sentences 
handed out each year.

China lists only 85 executions carried out between 2014 and 2016 in its state 
database, but Amnesty International found news reports of 931 individuals 
executed in that time. The organization said that figure still represents but a 
fraction of the total put to death.

Excluding China, however, countries from MENA carry out 83% of global 
executions.

"4 out of the world's top 6 executioners - Iran, Saudi Arabia and Iraq and 
Egypt - are from the MENA region and execution rates in these countries remain 
appallingly high." said James Lynch, Head of the Death Penalty team at Amnesty 
International.

While the number of executions in the region was down 28% from 2015, the 
organization said that year had seen an unusually high number of executions.

The number of people executed in Egypt doubled in 2016, from 22 to 44. The 
country is now ranked 6th worldwide for executions.

"Many MENA states justify their use of the death penalty by claiming that they 
are acting to counter grave security threats, despite there being no evidence 
that the death penalty deters violent crime," Lynch added.

The organization also said that death sentences in Iran, Saudi Arabia and Iran 
were often imposed after "grossly unfair" trials, many of which relied on 
"confessions" obtained through torture.

(source: albawaba.com)






JAPAN:

Rights group renews criticism of death penalty in Japan


Japan executed 3 people last year and imposed 3 new death sentences in what 
Amnesty International has also described as a secretive system.

A global report on death sentences and executions for 2016 cited the executions 
last March of Yasutoshi Kamata, 75, and Junko Yoshida, 56, and the November 
execution of Kenichi Tajiri, 45. All 3 were hanged, with Yoshida the 1st woman 
to be executed in Japan since 2012.

The figure was unchanged from 2015, when 3 prisoners were also hanged.

In its report, Amnesty said Japan imposed 3 new death sentences in 2016 and 141 
people remained on death row as of the end of the year. Of these, 129 had their 
death sentence finalized, it said.

The human rights group also renewed its criticism of Japan's practice of 
executing people with mental or intellectual disabilities, while highlighting 
that the country and the U.S. were the only members of the Group of 7 developed 
nations to carry out executions.

Amnesty said in November that "secretive executions can't hide the fact that 
Japan is on the wrong side of history when it comes to the death penalty."

"Executions in Japan are shrouded in secrecy with prisoners typically given 
only a few hours' notice, but some may be given no warning at all. Their 
families, lawyers and the public are usually notified about the execution only 
after it has taken place," it said.

Last October, the Japanese Federation of Bar Associations formally issued a 
declaration stating its opposition to the death penalty and calling for 
authorities to abolish the punishment by 2020 and replace it with life 
imprisonment.

The move set the legal profession against the government, which has executed 17 
people since Prime Minister Shinzo Abe came to power in 2012.

(source: Japan Times)






CHINA:

Amnesty criticises 'rogue state' China as global death penalty toll 
falls----Rights group calls on Beijing to publish figures to allow informed 
debate about use of capital punishment


Amnesty International has sharply criticised China for continuing to conceal 
the number of people it sentences to death, as the human rights group reported 
a fall in executions globally last year.

The number of executions around the world fell by more than a 1/3 to 1,032 
across 23 countries in 2016, compared with 1,634 in 25 countries in 2015. Iran, 
Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Pakistan were the top executioners.

It is estimated that China executes thousands of people, but Beijing does not 
release statistics and considers the number of death sentences to be a state 
secret.

Nicholas Bequelin, Amnesty's east Asia director, said: "It is time for China to 
stop being a rogue state in the international community with respect to the 
death penalty and finally allow the Chinese people to have a proper, informed 
debate about capital punishment in the country."

China has a conviction rate of about 99.9% and criminal trials heavily rely on 
confessions. Rights activists say suspects are often tortured or coerced into 
admitting guilt.

The Chinese government claims it has reduced the use of the death penalty and 
taken steps under a policy of "killing fewer, killing cautiously". As part of 
this, the county's top court must now approve death sentences handed out by 
lower courts.

But without concrete statistics, activists say there is no way to verify 
government claims. "There is absolutely no way to tell if death sentences are 
going up or down in China," Bequelin said. "Members of the international 
community have become very complacent on taking China's word at face value."

For years, China has rebuffed requests by the United Nations for more data on 
executions and ignored UN resolutions to increase transparency.

In 1 high-profile case that highlighted the problematic use of the death 
penalty, last year a man was exonerated 21 years after he was executed by 
firing squad for murder.

China's court system has a database of sentences, but it is largely incomplete, 
Amnesty found. Hundreds of death penalty cases were missing from the official 
judicial database, including all instances of foreigners sentenced to die over 
drug-related offences.

"China doesn't want to be embarrassed and they don't want the extra scrutiny," 
said William Nee, a China researcher at Amnesty. "We're talking about thousands 
of lives - not only wrongful executions but also cases where people are perhaps 
guilty but there are mitigating circumstances or issues of fair legal 
representation."

The 2 largest offences that were omitted from the government database were drug 
charges and so-called terrorism cases. There are 46 crimes punishable by death 
in China, including drug offences, arson and embezzlement.

Amnesty singled out China's use of the death penalty in terrorism cases, mainly 
centred on the north-west Xinjiang region, home to the Turkic Muslim Uighur 
ethnic group.

Authorities launched a "strike hard" campaign after a series of attacks, which 
included death sentences being handed out in public trials held in sports 
stadiums. "Whenever we've seen a strike hard campaign, we've traditionally seen 
increases in death sentences," said Nee.

Uighurs accounted for about 4% of death sentences, despite accounting for only 
0.7% of China's total population, according to a partial analysis of capital 
punishment data.

A year after its founding in 1921, China's Communist party said it wanted to 
???abolish the death penalty, abolish corporal punishment". But by the time the 
Communists took power in 1949, the death penalty was frequently used against 
party enemies, and in less the 3 years 712,000 people were executed, according 
to official figures, during the "Campaign to Suppress Counter-revolutionaries".

Behind China, Iran executed at least 567 people in 2016, mostly for drug 
crimes, the Amnesty report said, followed by Saudi Arabia with at least 154 
executions and Iraq with 88.

The United States carried out 20 death sentences last year, the lowest number 
since 1991, and the number of people sentenced to die dropped to the lowest 
since 1973.

(source: The Guardian)

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

China's death penalty highest in the world, report says


The Chinese government may still be executing several thousand people, even 
though officials have claimed the death penalty only applies to an "extremely 
small" number of cases.

According to Amnesty International's 2016 global review of the death penalty, 
China outranks Iran and Vietnam, while putting to death more people annually 
that all other countries combined, The Washington Post reported Monday.

Describing the level of capital punishment in place as "grotesque," Amnesty 
stated thousands of people are executed every year in a court system that lacks 
judicial process in the trials.

"Given the lack of an independent judiciary in China, the dominant role of the 
police, and the systematic overreliance on confessions - often extracted 
through torture...there is a very real risk of miscarriages of justice," said 
William Nee, author of the Amnesty report.

Past convictions have been overturned.

In December, China cleared the name of a man who was convicted of rape and 
murder 2 decades ago.

Nie Shubin, executed by firing squad, was found not guilty but only after his 
family campaigned for him and another man eventually confessed to the crimes.

Executions have also helped to supply the country with organ transplants, a 
practice that was in place until 2015, according to the Chinese government.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has declared his plan to reform China's judicial 
system, but the country has yet to publish the exact number of executions still 
taking place in the country.

China's top legal official, Supreme People's Court President Zhou Qiang, has 
claimed executions are carried out in an "extremely small number of cases" and 
only for the "most severe offenses," writes Nicholas Bequelin, East Asia 
regional director at Amnesty.

But secrecy involving the executions remains an issue despite efforts at 
reform, according to Amnesty.

Iran registered the second highest number of executions, more than 560, in 
2016, and Vietnam may have put to death 429 people between August 2013 and June 
2016.

The United States fell out of the top 5 with the lowest number of executions, 
or 20, since 1991.

(source: United Press International)






INDIA:

India Posted 81% Increase In Death Penalty In 2016, Says Amnesty 
Report----India awarded as many as 136 death sentences in 2016 as compared to 
75 death sentences in 2015.


India registered an increase of 81 % in death sentences imposed in 2016 
compared to 2015, a study released by Amnesty International has said.

As per the global report on death sentences and executions, India awarded as 
many as 136 death sentences in 2016 as compared to 75 death sentences in 2015 
and the crimes for which capital punishment was awarded mainly included 
murders.

The figure almost doubled in 2016 on account of the new anti-hijacking law, 
which allowed for capital punishment even in cases of hijacking (though only 
for those that result in the deaths of hostages, security personnel or any 
person not involved in the offence), it said.

According to the report, India did not register a single execution in 2016 but 
it had more than 400 prisoners who were to be executed at the end of the year.

In comparison, Pakistan recorded a significant dip of 73 % in the number of 
executions. More than 320 people were executed in Pakistan in 2015 while last 
year, only around 87 people were executed in the country.

The Amnesty International report said that India is among the few countries 
that imposed death penalty for drug related offences.

"The death penalty was imposed or implemented for drug- related offences in a 
number of countries, including China, India, Indonesia, Iran, Kuwait, Laos, 
Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, United Arab Emirates 
and Vietnam," it said.

Amnesty International, which comes out with a report on death sentences and 
executions every year, also said that in 2016, there was a considerable drop in 
number of executions worldwide.

A total of 1,032 persons were executed in 23 countries in 2016 in comparison to 
1,634 executions in 25 countries in 2015, adding that 2 of the 25 countries 
that had executed death penalty in 2015 abolished it in 2016.

Of the total executions in 2016, most took place in China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, 
Iraq and Pakistan, in that order.

The report states that though China continued to be the world's top 
executioner, the true extent of the use of death penalty is unknown as this 
data is considered a state secret.

Among India's neighbours, Pakistan had the highest number of death sentences at 
360, followed by Bangladesh at 245. Sri Lanka had 79 death sentences last year.

For the 1st time since 2006, the USA was not one of the 5 biggest executioners, 
falling to 7th behind Egypt.

The 20 executions in the USA was the lowest in the country since 1991.

(source: Huffington Post)

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

India won't release Pak prisoners after Kulbhushan Jadhav's death penalty


India on Monday decided not to release about a dozen Pakistani prisoners, who 
were to be repatriated on Wednesday, hours after Pakistani army chief approved 
the execution of Indian national Kulbhushan Jadhav for alleged "espionage and 
sabotage" activities.

The government feels that it is not the right time for the release of Pakistani 
prisoners, official sources said here.

The prisoners were to be released as part of the practice by India and Pakistan 
to repatriate nationals lodged in each other's jail after they complete their 
sentence.

The death sentence to Jadhav, 46, was confirmed by Pakistan army chief Gen 
Qamar Javed Bajwa after the Field General Court Martial (FGCM) found him guilty 
of "all the charges", said the military's media wing Inter-Services Public 
Relations (ISPR) in Rawalpindi.

Angered by the development, India today said it will regard as "premeditated 
murder" if Pakistan carries out the death sentence "without observing basic 
norms of law and justice".

Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar summoned Pakistan High Commissioner to India 
Abdul Basit and issued a strongly-worded demarche.

(source: Deccan Chronicle)

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

India has never sent a Pakistani spy to the gallows----What is ironic is that 
Jadhav was not brought before a civil court for trial. Indian officials say 
that this is to do with the fact that they were unable to produce enough 
evidence against him.


India termed the Kulbhushan Jadhav incident as a new low by Pakistan. Jadhav 
accused by Pakistan of being an Indian spy was sentenced to death by Pakistan 
on Monday. While India has raised strong objection to this incident, it also 
says that no spy from Pakistan has ever been sentenced to death in India.

Between 2013 and 2016, India has arrested at least 46 Pakistan spies. None of 
them have been given a death penalty. Even in incidents prior to 2013, no 
Pakistan spy has been awarded a death penalty, Indian officials say.

In the past 4 years 52 men connected to the ISI were arrested by India. In 
2013, 13 agents were arrested while in 2014, the number was at 9. In 2015 and 
2016 then number stood at 20 and 10.

While India maintains that no spy from Pakistan has ever been sentenced to 
death, that could not be said in the case of the neighbour. In 1999, Pakistan 
executed Sheikh Shamim on charges of spying. Sarabjit Singh was also sentenced 
to death. However he was killed by inmates in jail after being on the death row 
for nearly 16 years.

What is ironic is that Jadhav was not brought before a civil court for trial. 
Indian officials say that this is to do with the fact that they were unable to 
produce enough evidence against him. In fact Pakistan appeared to be in a hurry 
and hence tried him before a military court. In the past all Indians arrested 
in Pakistan on charges of spying were brought before a civil court, but in the 
case of Jadhav that norm was broken.

(source: One India News)






PAKISTAN:

Amnesty slams Pakistani court


By sentencing Indian national Kulbushan Jadhav to death, Pakistan's military 
court system has once again showed how it "rides roughshod over international 
standards", Amnesty International said on Monday, questioning the secretive 
court's ability to dispense justice.

"The death sentence given to Kulbushan Jadhav shows yet again how Pakistan's 
military court system rides roughshod over international standards," Biraj 
Patnaik, South Asia Director, Amnesty International, said in response to 
Pakistan military court sentencing Jadhav to death for alleged spying.

"Stripping defendants of their rights and operating in notorious secrecy, 
military courts do not dispense justice but travesty it. They are an inherently 
abusive system that is best left to deal with issues of military discipline, 
not any other crimes," Patnaik said in a statement.

Amnesty opposes the death penalty at all times and in all circumstances, 
regardless of who is accused, the crime, guilt or innocence, or the method of 
execution, he said.

A Pakistan military court sentenced Jadhav to death after he was convicted of 
"espionage and sabotage activities".

The prominent rights group also noted that over 87 executions were recorded in 
Pakistan in 2016 and over 360 death sentences were recorded in the country last 
year.

It said over 6,000 people are known to be under death sentence at the end of 
2016 in Pakistan, which is among the world's top 5 executioners.

(source: Daily Pioneer)

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

Pakistan Defence Minister Says Death Penalty For 'Spy' Kulbhushan Jadhav Is A 
Warning


Pakistan's Defence Minister Khawaja Asif today said the death sentence handed 
out to Indian national Kulbhushan Jadhav for "spying" should serve as a warning 
to those "plotting" against the country.

"Those plotting against Pakistan will not be spared," Asif said.

The statement came after an army court sentenced Jadhav to death after finding 
him guilty of "espionage and sabotage activities" and the army chief Gen Qamar 
Javed Bajwa approved his execution.

Jadhav's sentencing by a Pakistani military court was according to the law, 
Asif told Geo TV.

He said the death sentence handed out to Jadhav should serve as a "warning to 
those plotting" against Pakistan".

Asif said that Pakistan would use all constitutional force available against 
those acting against the sovereignty of the country.

"Soldiers and civilians of Pakistan have given sacrifices for this country and 
their sacrifices demand us to give a befitting reply to terrorists and those 
who aid and facilitate them," he said.

The defence minister further said that Jadhav's "confession" was a public 
document and if India raises the issue of his death sentence, Islamabad will 
reply to New Delhi.

"Jadhav came (to Pakistan) with the approval of the Indian government," he 
claimed and said there is no doubt that India was "fueling terrorism in 
Pakistan."

Replying to a question on dealing the issue on diplomatic and political fronts, 
he said that Pakistan would present the issue on every international forum.

According to Asif, the world had acknowledged Pakistan's struggle against 
terrorism and the country was dealing with this "menace" from both the "eastern 
and western front".

Pakistan sentenced Jadhav to death for carrying out espionage and sabotage 
activities in Balochistan and Karachi, the military's media wing Inter-Services 
Public Relations (ISPR) said in a statement.

India's Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar summoned Pakistan High Commissioner to 
India Abdul Basit and gave a demarche, which said the proceedings that have led 
to the sentence against Jadhav are "farcical in the absence of any credible 
evidence" against him.

Asif rejected the Indian stance of terming death sentence as a premeditated 
murder and claimed Jadhav was involved in carrying out terrorist activities in 
Pakistan and all legal formalities were met during his trial.

He accused India of "committing premeditated murder of the innocent people of 
Kashmir since last 7 decades".

He said New Delhi's stubbornness is the biggest hindrance in the way of the 
relationship between the 2 countries.

(source: PTI)