[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Nov. 22




CHINA:

Xinjiang Authorities Sentence Uyghur Philanthropist to Death For Unsanctioned 
Hajj



Authorities in northwest China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) have 
sentenced a prominent Uyghur businessman and philanthropist to death for taking 
an unsanctioned Muslim holy pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia, according to his 
brother.

Abdughapar Abdurusul, of Bakyol district in Ili Kazakh (in Chinese, Yili 
Hasake) Autonomous Prefecture's Ghulja (Yining) city, "was arrested in July or 
August," his brother Abdusattar Abdurusul recently told RFA's Uyghur Service, 
citing Abdughapar's Kazakh business partners living in Kazakhstan's Almaty 
city.

"The latest I heard is that my brother has been given a death sentence and he 
is waiting for his execution to be carried out ... The reason is that he went 
to perform hajj on his own [instead of joining a state-sanctioned tour group]," 
he added, referring to the annual Muslim holy pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi 
Arabia.

According to Abdusattar Abdurusul, his brother was provided with "no lawyer" 
during a "group trial," suggesting he had been illegally sentenced to death. 
All death sentences should be reviewed by China's Supreme Court in Beijing, but 
it is unclear whether Abdughapar Abdurusul's case has been examined.

Abdughapar Abdurusul, a 42-year-old father of four, owns several shops and 
businesses, and multiple properties, his brother said, and had used some of the 
money he earned to build a mosque for the local community in recent years.

Abdughapar Abdurusul had also sold an old family home for around 1 million yuan 
(U.S. $144,000) in April or May, and was living comfortably before he was 
arrested and all of his family's assets - totaling around 100 million yuan 
(U.S. $14.4 million) - were seized, he said.

"He is a philanthropist who enjoyed helping society ... [but] now the 
government has taken away everything and destroyed his family's lives 
completely," Abdusattar Abdurusul said.

Abdughapar Abdurusul's eldest son Awzer was detained in 2017 after returning 
home from studying in Turkey, and his wife Merhaba Hajim was taken into custody 
in April this year, he added.

Abdusattar Abdurusul said his sister Sayipjamal has been missing for "a long 
time" and is thought to also have been detained, while several of Abdughapar 
Abdurusul's friends "have been sentenced to more than 18 years in prison."

Death in custody

Staff members at the Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture's Public Security Bureau 
and local police stations in Ghulja city refused to answer questions or hung up 
the phone when contacted by RFA about Abdughapar Abdurusul's case.

But a long-time associate who worked with Abdughapar Abdurusul in Ili Kazakh's 
Qorghas (Huocheng) county and is now living in exile told RFA he had also heard 
of the businessman's sentence from local sources, and that his wife had died in 
custody.

"A friend of mine called me, saying that our mutual friend Abdughapar Hajim had 
been sentenced to death," the associate said, speaking on condition of 
anonymity and using an honorific title to denote that Abdughapar Abdurusul had 
completed a pilgrimage to Mecca.

"[I also heard] that his wife had already died in prison," he added.

The associate said that "more than 50' people in Abdughapar Abdurusul's circle 
of friends - including several police officers - had been arrested and 
imprisoned before him, but that he was the only to have been sentenced to 
death.

When asked why Abdughapar Abdurusul might have been given such a harsh 
sentence, the associate said he was unsure, "but the Chinese government is 
killing Uyghurs for no particular reason."

A former close neighbor of Abdughapar Abdurusul's named Turghunay, who is now 
living in exile in Turkey, also told RFA she had heard of his sentence and that 
Merhaba Hajim had died in detention.

"I heard that Abdughapar Hajim was arrested in May or June and, prior to that, 
his eldest son Awzer had been arrested, followed by his wife, Merhaba Hajim," 
she said.

"I don’t know if he was arrested because of his wealth or having gone on hajj, 
but when I heard the news about his death sentence ... I was devastated."

Turghunay said that Merhaba Hajim had "died in a [political] re-education 
camp," where authorities have detained Uyghurs accused of harboring "strong 
religious views" and "politically incorrect" ideas throughout the XUAR since 
April 2017.

"The death certificate was given to the family by the authorities," she said, 
adding that "no one knows what has happened to their young children."

Camp network

While Beijing initially denied the existence of re-education camps, the Uyghur 
chairman of Xinjiang's provincial government, Shohrat Zakir, told China's 
official Xinhua news agency last month that the facilities are an effective 
tool to protect the country from terrorism and provide vocational training for 
Uyghurs.

Reporting by RFA's Uyghur Service and other media organizations, however, has 
shown that those in the camps are detained against their will and subjected to 
political indoctrination, routinely face rough treatment at the hands of their 
overseers, and endure poor diets and unhygienic conditions in the often 
overcrowded facilities.

Adrian Zenz, a lecturer in social research methods at the Germany-based 
European School of Culture and Theology, has said that some 1.1 million people 
are or have been detained in the camps - equating to 10 to 11 % of the adult 
Muslim population of the XUAR.

U.S. State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert recently said the U.S. 
government was "deeply troubled" by the crackdown on Uyghurs, while U.S. 
Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley described it last month as "the 
largest internment of civilians in the world today" and "straight out of George 
Orwell," during a speech at the Chiefs of Defense Conference Dinner in 
Washington.

(source: rfa.org)








IRAQ:

Moroccan Women Associated with ISIS Might Face Death Penalty in Iraq



Morocco's North Observatory for Human Rights (ONDH) shared a statement today on 
its Facebook, saying that a source at a refugee camp in northern Syria told 
women living in the camp, including Moroccan women, that they might be handed 
over to Iraqi authorities in a period of no more than 6 months.

The source added that the ISIS-linked women might be subject to the death 
penalty.

The statement added that women and children are suffering from dire conditions, 
including nutrition issues.

ONDH also recalled that it has been calling on the Moroccan government to 
return Moroccan women and their children back to Morocco and try to reintegrate 
them in Morocco based on the requirements of the international humanitarian 
law.

Throughout his recent interviews with national and international news outlets, 
Head of Morocco's Counter-Terrorism Bureau (BCIJ) Abdelhak Khiame expressed 
concern over the threat imposed by ISIS returnees.

According to Khiame, Morocco’s position regarding returning fighters was 
established in 2015, allowing police to apprehend them for investigation and 
place them in custody.

Returnees typically receive sentences ranging from 10 to 15 years in prison.

In July, Moroccan newspaper Akhbar Al Yaoum reported that Iraqi authorities 
wanted to extradite wives and children of Moroccans with ties to ISIS.

In August, ONDH said that a Spanish-Moroccan security unit arrived in Syria to 
interview Moroccan women with alleged ties to ISIS to repatriate them.

"The security intelligence team called the women individually and interrogated 
them beginning from the time they adopted the radical ideology to the moment 
they joined ISIS and fell in the hands of the Democratic Federation of Northern 
Syria"s forces," ONDH stated.

ISIS Moroccan suspects are spread throughout the MENA region, but are mainly in 
Iraq, Syria and Libya.

Khiame added that 1,666 Moroccans joined the conflicts in Iraq and Syria, of 
whom 929 joined ISIS.

Nearly 225 other fighters have criminal records with terrorism-related charges.

BCIJ's chief added that 642 Moroccan fighters died in Syria and Iraq due to 
suicidal terrorist operations.

(source: moroccoworldnews.com)








INDIA:

Supreme Court to review death penalty in 2009 case



A 2013 judgment said the killing of their only son caused "unfathomable grief" 
to the parents.

The Supreme Court has decided to review a 2013 judgment by which a Tamil Nadu 
man was condemned to death for the kidnap and murder of a 7-year-old boy.

The boy was the only brother to 3 sisters.

The February 2013 judgment had reasoned that the boy's death caused 
"unfathomable grief" to the parents. The boy would have carried further the 
family lineage and seen his parents through their old age, the court had 
observed, justifying the death penalty.

Execution stayed

Last week, on November 12, a Bench of Justices Kurian Joseph, A.M. Khanwilkar 
and D.Y. Chandrachud decided to review the 2013 verdict against the convict, 
Sundararajan, represented by advocate Ranjith Marar. The review petition would 
be heard afresh in open court. The 3-judge Bench has called for the records of 
the case. The court said his execution would be stayed till further orders.

The Tamil Nadu government is represented by advocate Yogesh Kanna.

The crime dates back to 2009 when the victim on his way to school was accosted 
by the convict. The prosecution version is that the convict told the boy that 
his mother and grandmother were unwell and he should accompany him to the 
hospital.

Witnesses said the boy was last seen alive getting on to the motorbike of the 
convict.

On the basis of a complaint filed by the boy's mother, an FIR was registered by 
the police. The same day, the mother received a call for a ransom of 5 lakh.

The mother rushed to the police. Its team apprehended the convict and another 
person from his house.

Confession

The convict made confessional statements, leading to the recovery of 3 mobile 
phone sets, 2 of which had SIM cards. He admitted that the boy was strangulated 
when ransom was not paid for his release.

The body was placed in a gunny bag and thrown into a water tank.

In February 2013, a Supreme Court Bench consisting of Justices P. Sathasivam 
and J.S. Khehar confirmed the death penalty, highlighting that the convict 
showed no value for human life and the manner of the murder of an innocent 
child and disposal of the body showed a brutal mindset.

"Purposefully killing the sole male child has grave repercussions for the 
parents. Agony of the parents at the loss of their only male child, who would 
have carried further the family lineage and is expected to see them through 
their old age is unfathomable," Justice Khehar had noted while categorising the 
crime as 'rarest of rare,' deserving the death penalty.

(source: The Hindu)








GREAT BRITAIN:

Remains of Edith Thompson, hanged for murder of her husband, to be reburied in 
family grave



Edith Thompson was hanged with her lover, Frederick Bywaters, in January 1923 
after the pair were found guilty of murdering her husband, Percy Thompson, on 
his way back from the theatre.

Rene Weis, a professor at the University College London, has spent the last 35 
years researching her life, and took it upon himself to carry out Edith's 
mother's final wishes - to have her daughter buried with her in the City of 
London Crematorium.

"What triggered my research was the debate on the death penalty in the 80s," he 
said.

"There was a whole review of the death penalty in Britain. I was so baffled 
that we'd talk about it again. There were a couple of names that kept coming up 
when you researched it - Timothy Evans and Edith Thompson. Professor Wilson's 
favourite photo of Edith, where she's competing in a sack race.

"Edith Thompson came up time and again and there's not a single person who's 
ever looked at this case who's said that brilliant young woman should've hanged 
at Holloway."

Edith lived in Kensington Gardens in Ilford with her husband, a shipping clerk, 
and her lodger, Freddy Bywaters. Edith was an intelligent, articulate woman. 
Despite her lower middle class background, she worked as a buyer in the city, 
even helping her husband with the books when he struggled.

She began her affair with Freddy, 8 years younger than her, 18 months before 
her husband's death. Freddy, 20, stabbed Percy, 32, while he was walking home 
with Edith from the theatre in October, 1922. The case that followed was awash 
with controversy.

"People campaigned, 1 million signed a petition, but it was all for Freddy, not 
for her," prof Weis said.

"People were outraged at the thought of a woman from a very ordinary background 
who had a good husband being innocent, while the poor boy that murdered him was 
going to die.

"The case was so obviously biased with male prejudice. Because she'd committed 
adultery, 1 young man was dead, and now another was going to die."

Despite Freddy insisting he acted alone, Edith was found guilty of accessory to 
murder and hanged in Holloway in January 1923, when she was 29-years-old.

But a theory that’s come to prominence in recent years has made the case even 
more controversial - that Edith was pregnant.

"In her last month in Holloway, she put on a stone even though she was not 
eating very much," prof Weis said.

"A letter from the home secretary came to light a few years ago. It said he had 
a feeling she was pregnant, and he sincerely hoped she was, because it would 
mean he wouldn’t have to sign the death warrant.

"If she was pregnant, she was hanged illegally."

Professor Wilson spent 7 months trying to get Edith reburied. His efforts began 
with a trip to her grave.

"I went to the cemetery for the 1st time in 1982," he said.

"I spoke to the owner, a retired colonial solder, who told me he went to her 
grave every week, because he was born in Ilford just streets from her. He spoke 
about her with compassion, I think of her and remember her, he said. Then he 
gave me a number of the Home Office to ring. It was like something out of a 
detective novel."

Professor Weis lobbied the Home Office until he was allowed to buy Edith’s 
grave. Now, he's holding a funeral service on November 22, where Edith's 
mother's wishes will finally be fulfilled.

"I feel like I'm doing what her mother wanted," he said.

"It broke my heart when I first read about her. It's too upsetting for words 
and that's partly because her life was so full when she was alive."

The funeral will take place from 12pm at City of London Cemetery. It's an open 
ceremony, with people from East Ham and Ilford encouraged to attend.

(source: newhamrecorder.co.uk)