[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

May 6




IRAQ:

Trini faces death in Iraq



In the wake of 20-year jail sentences imposed 2 Sundays ago in an Iraqi court 
on Rio Claro mother Anisa Mohammed, 53, and just a week earlier on each of her 
3 daughters, the family now fears that Anisa's husband faces the death sentence 
in the next few weeks.

Daud Mohammed, 56, will go on trial in the same Baghdad criminal court where 
his wife was, on April 22, jailed for 20 years after surrendering to Iraqi 
authorities as ISIS insurgents from a foreign country. The entire Mohammed 
family along with 3 other TT nationals, admitted to entering Iraq illegally in 
August last year during the height of ISIS' reign of terror in Iraqi cities.

Anisa's daughters who are also from Navet Village, Rio Claro, have begun to 
serve their 20-year prison term. They are Sabira, 29, Azizah, 32, and Aiydah 
Firdaws Waheed-Hasib, 23. They are all married and Sunday Newsday was told by 
Anisa's father yesterday, that their husbands have not be accounted for. He 
thinks they may have been executed without trial.

Sunday Newsday contacted judicial authorities in Iraq yesterday who confirmed 
the Iraqi authorities had made attempts to obtain travel documents from 
Government for Anisa and her 3 daughters prior to their trial. Iraq wanted to 
deport them to Trinidad but documentation to ascertain their identities, since 
their arrived illegally in Iraq via Turkey, had not been forthcoming.

Whether Government received correspondence and responded, Sunday Newsday was 
unable to confirm with Foreign and Caricom Affairs Minister Dennis Moses or 
National Security Minister Edmund Dillon yesterday. A court protocol officer at 
the Baghdad criminal court who gave only his 1st name, Saif, confirmed the 
trial and jail sentences by Judge Suhail Abdullah. Saif, who spoke incoherently 
in English, said contact was made with Government through diplomatic channels 
before the April 22 court hearings. Minister in the Ministry of the Attorney 
General Stuart Young, when contacted, said, "Our national security apparatus is 
monitoring these developments that we have seen in the international media."

But Umar Abdullah of the Islamic Front said since the sentencing, he had been 
liaising with other nationals legally in Iraq via Facebook, who confirmed the 
Iraqi authorities had opted to deport all nationals associated with ISIS. "I 
was told that our authorities here did not respond," Umar said.

Anisa's father, Nazim Mohammed of Rio Claro, who was among the 114 members of 
the Jamaat-al-Muslimeen in the 1990 attempted coup, and Umar, provided Sunday 
Newsday with a sequence of events which led to the arrests. The Telegraph in 
London also carried the story about the thousands of foreigners facing trial in 
Baghdad as ISIS insurgents in which it highlighted Anisa and her sentence, 
mentioning as well the jail term imposed on daughters Sabira, Azizah and Aiydah 
Firdaws Waheed-Hasib.

Along with hundreds of other foreign women, Anisa, Daud, her daughters and 
their husbands, were detained last August, 30 kilometres south of Mosul. In 
September they were transferred to a detention centre. Human Rights Watch 
visited the centre and discovered the foreign ISIS fighters, among them the Rio 
Claro family, had travelled from their home countries to Turkey, crossed the 
Syrian border and then into Iraq. The women and the men were separated. Umar 
said Anisa and her daughters have not seen their husbands since.

The Telegraph said several women were lined up to face judge Abdullah who 
conducted the trial lasting not more than 7 minutes.

Anisa was asked in Arabic, "Have you entered Iraq illegally? Do you believe in 
the ideology of the Islamic State?" Standing in the dock and through an 
interpreter, Anisa answered in the affirmative to the 1st question and "No" to 
the 2nd.

As to why she arrived in Iraq, the article quoted her as saying, "I had watched 
ISIL videos with my husband and 2 daughters and we decided we wanted to go and 
be part of an Islamic society. I did not know it was a war zone. When we 
arrive, all we saw was Iraqis killing Iraqis, Russians killing Russians and 
Turks killing Turks. We did not find Islam here."

Anisa went on to plead that she is a housewife who remained home with her 
children and when the judge pronounced the 20-year jail sentence, she cried and 
held on to the iron bars of the cell. She pleaded that she was diabetic and 
wanted to return to her home in Trinidad. "I'm old, I'm no threat to anyone. I 
can't do 20 years in jail here," she sobbed.

Duad, arrested by Kurdish soldiers, will be similarly tried. The Iraqi justice 
system views more harshly foreign fighters for ISIS, than their own and Duad 
faces possible death by hanging or firing squad.

Nizam, who is imam of the Navet mosque, said he will continue to seek the 
assistance from the Red Cross to intervene and he did not expect help from 
local authorities. "I am praying every day for my daughter and granddaughters. 
It is all I can do. I beg Allah to help them."

Young said he was personally unaware of any request to Government to intervene, 
adding the situation regarding the families were being monitored. He said, "I 
am not personally aware of any such request from authorities in Iraq. Our 
national security apparatus is monitoring these developments that we have seen 
in the international media and would be in contact with our various 
international allies to ascertain the veracity of these reports."

Umar said despite the 20-year sentence, Government has a moral obligation to 
intervene. Referring to Duad, he said the death penalty hangs over his head for 
a crime of arriving in a country illegally. Umar said, "Government has the 
legal and moral obligation to its citizens wherever they are and should ensure 
that justice is done to them."

(source: newsday.co.tt)








EGYPT:

Lawyers for photojournalist on death row begin closing statements in Egyptian 
court----Defendant stands accused of broad range of crimes including murder and 
attempted murder



Lawyers for Egyptian photojournalist Mahmoud Abu Zeid, who has been imprisoned 
without trial since August 2013, are set to begin their closing statements in a 
court in Cairo on Saturday, with the jailing having become a symbol for many of 
a crackdown on press freedom in the country.

The photographer, known as Shawkan, is potentially facing the death penalty as 
part of a mass trial alongside over seven hundred other defendants. He was 
arrested as he photographed security forces dispersing an anti-government 
sit-in, during which hundreds of protesters and several security forces members 
were killed.

Shawkan is accused of a broad range of crimes, including murder and attempted 
murder, unauthorised assembly and a string of weapons charges - despite his 
legal team arguing he was documenting the protests for the UK photo agency 
Demotix.

His lawyer, Karim Abdelrady, spoke to The Independent from Amsterdam, where a 
debate on press freedom and an exhibition of Shawkan's photographs was recently 
held at the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision. According to Mr 
Abdelrady, Shawkan is "not well psychologically" and his family fear he may 
attempt to end his own life.

Shawkan entered prison with Hepatitis C, while the trial judge last year 
ordered an investigation into allegations he was being denied access to medical 
treatment, something authorities have denied.

Nevertheless, Mr Abdelrady remains optimistic "that Shawkan eventually will be 
acquitted" and suggested that the trial could conclude within months.

A number of international human rights organisations are tracking the case and 
the photographer was awarded the United Nations Educational, Scientific and 
Cultural Organisation???s (Unesco) Press Freedom prize for 2018 on Wednesday 
with jurors praising his "courage, resistance and commitment to freedom of 
expression".

The mass trial has already been repeatedly delayed and there it is possible 
Shawkan's case could be delayed further. In December 2015 the trial was 
postponed because the courtroom was found to be too small to hold the 739 
defendants. Those defendants have remained in pre-trial detention throughout 
that time, despite a maximum 2-year pre-trial detention period determined by 
Article 143 of Egypt's Code of Criminal Procedure.

"Shawkan's imprisonment has become illegal," said Mr Abdelraby.

Justin Shilad, a researcher with the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), 
was more circumspect about Shawkan's future, saying he had seen no "indications 
of leniency" from judge Hassan Farid.

"Egypt is witnessing the worst time to be a journalist in recent memory," Mr 
Shilad added.

Amnesty International has raised multiple concerns about the conduct of the 
trial, highlighting a 2017 court report in which Shawkan was reported to be in 
"very good health". According to the CPJ, during a 2016 trial session, the 
prosecution offered as evidence footage of anti-government protests from 2011 
and 2012 - a year before Shawkan was arrested.

Shawkan's arrest came as the Egyptian security forces cleared thousands of 
protesters from Raba'a Square, Cairo, where they had built a sprawling protest 
city following the ousting of democratically elected president Mohammed Morsi 
by forces loyal to now president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. Over 800 people died as 
the protest was cleared, according to Human Rights Watch.

Shawkan is being held in the notorious Tora prison complex, outside Cairo, 
where Human Rights Watch and others have documented scores of alleged human 
rights violations. Egyptian authorities have said all prisons in the country 
adhere to "international standards".

Also held at Tora are high profile co-defendants in case, including senior 
figures within the Muslim Brotherhood, the pan-Arab political organisation of 
which Morsi was a member and which has been banned and repressed under Mr Sisi.

The Rory Peck Trust, a UK-based charity which supports freelance journalists 
around the world, has been following Shawkan's case since his arrest. "Shawkan 
is part of a whole generation of young freelance journalists who are suffering 
for their work", said Austin Cooper, the charity's North Africa researcher. 
"Without their ability to report freely, Egypt suffers in silence with them 
too," he added.

"Last hearing, Shawkan appeared well and strong, but he is still suffering," 
said Mr Abdelraby.

"He has hopes he will be released very soon."

(source: independent.co.uk)








IRAN----execution

Prisoner Hanged in Eslamabad-e-Gharb Prison



A prisoner was executed at Eslamabad-e-Gharb Prison on murder charges.

According to HRANA news agency, on the morning of Monday, April 30, a prisoner 
was executed at Eslamabad-e-Gharb Prison on murder charges. The prisoner was 
identified as A'zam Khazaei.

A close source told Iran Human Rights, "A'zam Khazaei had shot and killed her 
wife. Her wife's relatives encourage her to divorce A'zam and marry someone 
else because A'zam had been imprisoned twice before."

The execution of this prisoner has not been announced by the state-run media so 
far.

According to Iran Human Rights annual report on the death penalty, 240 of the 
517 execution sentences in 2017 were implemented due to murder charges. There 
is a lack of a classification of murder by degree in Iran which results in 
issuing a death sentence for any kind of murder regardless of intensity and 
intent.

(source: Iran Human Rights)








PAKISTAN:

Pakistan army chief confirms death sentences for 11 Taliban terrorists

Pakistan's army chief has confirmed death sentences for 11 "hardcore 
terrorists" after military courts found them guilty of carrying out multiple 
attacks that killed 60 civilians and security forces in recent years.

In a statement on Saturday, the military said Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa also 
approved imprisonment for three people for their involvement in acts of 
terrorism. It says the 11 convicted Pakistani Taliban had killed 36 civilians 
and 24 troops in separate attacks in the country.

The trials are closed to the public but defendants are allowed to hire lawyers.

Pakistan resumed military trials for militants and lifted a moratorium on the 
death penalty after a 2014 attack on a school in Peshawar that killed more than 
150 people, mostly young students.

(source: Associated Press)