[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

November 6



PAKISTAN:

Only 4 executioners executed 440 death row prisoners


3 out of 7 posts of executioners in Punjab Prisons Department are lying vacant 
as 4 executioners have executed 440 death row prisoners from Punjab jails 
in the last 5 years.

These condemned prisoners were executed after the rejection of their mercy 
appeals since moratorium on capital punishment was lifted 5 years ago, The 
News learnt. Sources informed that the prisoners, who were put to the gallows, 
included murderers, rapists and high profile terrorists detained in different 
prisons of Punjab province. Sources in the Punjab Home Department and 
Inspectorate General of Prison Punjab confirmed that 70 mercy petitions of 
death prisoners were still pending before president of Pakistan.

According to sources in Home Department, many mercy petitions are under process 
for being sent to President Arif Alvi after their appeals against death 
sentence were rejected by higher courts.

According to an official document, a total of 28 prisoners were executed from 
January 2017 to September 2018. 18 out of 28 condemned prisoners were involved 
in crimes of murder, rape and terrorism offence (MC) and were hanged in 
different jails across the province in 2018 so far. The remaining 10 death row 
prisoners were hanged in 2017.

In 2018, the prisoners, who were hanged in different jails in Punjab, included 
M Latif and Ilyas from Attock jail, Asif from Rawalpindi jail, Zahid Iqbal from 
Faisalabad jail, Ramzan from Kasur jail, Shaukat from Lahore, Manzoor Ahmad, 
Abdul Rehman and Riaz Bhatti from Faisalabad jail, Muhammad Tahir from Sahiwal 
jail, Nasir Abbas from Jhang jail and Sher Ali from Bahawalpur.

In 2017, the death row prisoners were hanged in different jails of Punjab, 
included Tariq Iqbal from Multan jail, Shamshad from Faisalabad jail, Yaqoob, 
Ghulam Rasool and Imran, who were hanged on same day, at Sargodha jail. The 
executed prisoners included Qaisar Shah from Gujranwala, Dr Usman, involved in 
blast, was from Faisalabad jail. Hardcore terrorists, including Qaisar Khan, 
Muhammad Umar and other were also hanged. Barkat Ali, Muhammad Adil and another 
hardcore terrorist were hanged in Rawalpindi, Hazoor Bakhsh from Dera Ghazi 
Khan jail, Ilyas from Faisalabad jail, Fazal Haq and Shahid Umar from Sahiwal 
jail, Gulzar from Gujranwala, Muhammad Zaman, Shawaly and Said from Sahiwal, 
Mansha and Salman from Lahore and Naveed Hussain from Adiala were hanged.

(source: The International News)





IRAN:

Iran to execute two Kurdish women on adultery charges


An Iranian court recently sentenced to death 2 Kurdish women on adultery 
charges, a Kurdish rights group reported on Monday.

“A Kurdish woman for Mako by the name of Gulistan Jnikanlou was sentenced to 
death by the Khoy Criminal Court of West Azerbaijan Province, accused of 
committing zina,” reported Hengaw, a group which writes on human rights 
violations involving Kurds in Iran.

“Zina” is an Arabic term, meaning acts of sexual intercourse prohibited by 
Islamic law. The court announced its decision on Sunday.

Jnikanlou, a mother of two children, was arrested on allegations of committing 
adultery in 2017. She was released on bail shortly thereafter.

In the same year, local authorities also arrested a man with whom they claimed 
Jnikanlou had intercourse. The man’s fate is yet unknown.

The punishments Iran hands out according to what the government considers to be 
criminal acts have long been criticized by the international community as well 
as rights groups.

The Khoy Criminal Court also sentenced to death another woman, 37-year-old 
Zahra Derakhshani. She has been in prison for the past two years awaiting 
trial.

Both women were arrested on accusations their husbands made.

For both men and women, Iran’s penal code considers adultery to be a “crime 
against God,” punishable by 100 lashes for unmarried individuals, according to 
a UNHCR investigation into the country’s laws.

Married offenders are sentenced to death by stoning. Cases of adultery must be 
proven either by a repeated confession by the defendant or by the testimony of 
witnesses – four men or three men and two women.

However, in Hodud (morality) crimes such as adultery, the Islamic Republic’s 
penal code gives judges the authority to use their own “knowledge” to arrive at 
a verdict in cases lacking substantive evidence.

The Penal Code also permits a husband to kill his wife and her lover, if he 
caught them in the act.

(source: kurdistan24.net)





ISRAEL:

Israel lawmakers to debate death penalty for Palestinian 
'terrorists'----Palestinians have warned that new death penalty will be aimed 
at political prisoners


Israel's parliament will renew debate next week on a bill that would make it 
easier to sentence Palestinian attackers to death, Defence Minister Avigdor 
Lieberman said on Tuesday while vowing to have it passed.

"After over three years of a stubborn struggle, the death penalty for 
terrorists law will finally be brought to the law committee next Wednesday 
(November 14), and then for its first reading in the Knesset plenum," Lieberman 
said on Twitter.

"We won't relent or stop until completing the mission."

The bill, which passed a preliminary vote by the full parliament in January, 
would ease the requirements military courts in the occupied West Bank must meet 
to sentence Palestinians convicted of "terrorist" crimes to death.

As the law stands now, a panel of three military judges must unanimously 
approve any death penalty in military courts.

The new bill, planned by members of Lieberman's Yisrael Beitenu party at his 
behest, would change the requirement to a majority instead of unanimity.

Israel has not carried out any executions since 1962, when Nazi war criminal 
Adolf Eichmann was hanged.

Israel abolished the use of capital punishment for murder in civil courts in 
1954, though it can still in theory be applied for war crimes, crimes against 
humanity, genocide, treason and crimes against the Jewish people.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has expressed support for the death penalty 
in certain cases.

A law to sentence "terrorists" to death was one of Lieberman's election 
promises in 2015.

Israeli elections are expected to be called in the coming months and 
politicians have been ramping up campaign rhetoric.

Qadura Fares, the director of the Palestinian Society Prisoner's Club, said 
last year that the death penalty bill was aimed at Palestinian political 
prisoners.

"This bill is drafted to be imposed on Palestinian prisoners only, in the 
Israeli military and civil courts, and it will not be extended to Israeli 
prisoners," the statement said.

He pledged that lawyers will "boycott" the Israeli military courts in 
opposition to the law and added that the bill will not allow any future 
prisoners exchange with Israel or the release of Palestinian prisoners.

(source: Middle East Eye)