[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

February 13




IRAN:

Iranian environmentalists fear death penalty after a year behind bars



A campaign poster showing environmental activists, Taher Ghadirian, Niloufar 
Bayani, Amirhossein Khaleghi, Houman Jokar, Sam Rajabi, Sepideh Kashani, Morad 
Tahbaz and Abdolreza Kouhpayeh. #anyhopefornature campaign.

A version of this article was originally published by the freedom of expression 
organisation ARTICLE 19, as part of a content-sharing agreement.

Eight environmental activists in Iran have been in detention for over a year 
after they were arrested and charged with “espionage” and “spreading corruption 
on earth”. They were finally brought to trial on January 30, 2019.

The corruption charge they face, under Iran's penal code, carries a possible 
death sentence.

The 8 activists, Niloufar Bayani, Sam Radjabi, Houman Jowkar, Taher Ghadirian, 
Morad Tahbaz, Sepideh Kashani, Amir Hossein Khaleghi and Abdolreza Kouhpayeh, 
all worked for the Tehran-based Persian Wildlife Heritage Foundation (PWHF), 
and were arrested in January 2018, along with Kavous Seyed-Emami, the managing 
director of PWHF. Seyed-Emani died on 8 February 2018 while in custody in Evin 
prison. While the judiciary says Seyede-Emani died by suicide, both the 
domestic and international community have called for an independent 
investigation into his death, which has not yet taken place.

The government’s case against the activists focuses heavily on the group’s work 
to protect the Asiatic cheetah, a wild cat native to eastern Iran that is 
nearing extinction. Most members of the group had studied outside Iran, mainly 
in Canada and the US, and had ties to international environmental expert 
groups, some of whom have visited Iran in an effort to learn more about the 
cats and potentially help in their preservation. Iranian officials have seized 
on the defendants’ connections with foreign universities and used them to 
support accusations that the activists are foreign intelligence agents 
masquerading as environmental experts.

All defendants were initially accused of “espionage” and detained while 
awaiting trial, but Tehran Prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dowlatabadi announced on 24 
October 2018 that charges against 4 of them had been changed to “spreading 
corruption on earth,” which is punishable by death.

Public prosecutors built much of their case against the group from a forced 
confession made by one of the activists, which has since been retracted.

On 30 January and 2 February 2019, the eight conservationists faced trial at 
Branch 15 of the Revolutionary Court, presided by Judge Salavati, who has a 
history of issuing disproportionate and oppressive sentences to human rights 
defenders. According to the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI), half of the 
300-page indictment was read in these sessions, all of which was based on the 
confessions of 1 of the 8 defendants, Niloufar Bayani. Bayani interrupted the 
court multiple times to object, saying that her confessions were made under 
duress, are false and that she had retracted them.

Other serious and concerning allegations have been made about the trials, 
including that the trials are being held behind closed doors, the defendants 
were not given the right to choose their lawyers, and that not all the 
judiciary-appointed defence lawyers were present in court.

The defendants say they have been subjected to months of solitary confinement 
and psychological torture, including being threatened with death, threatened 
with being injected with hallucinogenic drugs, and threatened with arrest and 
the death of family members.

The treatment the defendants have faced has violated their rights to life, 
freedom of expression, fair trial and due process of law. It also marks part of 
a trend of silencing those speaking out on environmental issues in the country 
using espionage charges.

ARTICLE 19 and other human rights organizations have called for their immediate 
and unconditional release, and for a thorough, immediate and impartial 
investigation into allegations of torture and other ill-treatment.

(source: globalvoices.org)








SAUDI ARABIA:

The Farce of Justice in Saudi Arabia----The kingdom wants the death penalty for 
my father, and its judiciary is being pushed far from any semblance of the rule 
of law and due process.



Despite the claims of Prince Mohammed bin Salman and his enablers, Saudi Arabia 
is not rolling back the hard-line religious establishment. Instead, the kingdom 
is curtailing the voices of moderation that have historically combated 
extremism. Numerous Saudi activists, scholars and thinkers who have sought 
reform and opposed the forces of extremism and patriarchy have been arrested. 
Many of them face the death penalty.

Salman Alodah, my father, is a 61-year-old scholar of Islamic law in Saudi 
Arabia, a reformist who argued for greater respect for human rights within 
Shariah, the legal code of Islam based on the Quran. His voice was heard 
widely, partly owing to his popularity as a public figure with 14 million 
followers on Twitter.

On Sept. 10, 2017, my father, who was disturbed by regional tensions after 
Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt imposed a blockade on 
Qatar, spoke obliquely about the conflict and expressed his desire for 
reconciliation. “May Allah mend their hearts for the best of their peoples,” he 
tweeted.

A few hours after his tweet, a team from the Saudi security services came to 
our house in Riyadh, searched the house, confiscated some laptops and took my 
father away.

The Saudi government was apparently angered and considered his tweet a criminal 
violation. His interrogators told my father that his assuming a neutral 
position on the Saudi-Qatar crisis and failing to stand with the Saudi 
government was a crime.

He is being held in solitary confinement in Dhahban prison in Jidda. He was 
chained and handcuffed for months inside his cell, deprived of sleep and 
medical help and repeatedly interrogated throughout the day and night. His 
deteriorating health — high blood pressure and cholesterol that he developed in 
prison — was ignored until he had to be hospitalized. Until the trial, about a 
year after his arrest, he was denied access to lawyers.

On Sept. 4, a specialized criminal court in Riyadh convened off-camera to 
consider the numerous charges against my father: stirring public discord and 
inciting people against the ruler, calling for change in government and 
supporting Arab revolutions by focusing on arbitrary detention and freedom of 
speech, possessing banned books and describing the Saudi government as a 
tyranny. The kingdom’s attorney general sought the death penalty for him.

Saudi Arabia has exploited the general indifference of the West toward its 
internal politics and presented the crackdown against reformist figures like my 
father as a move against the conservative religious establishment. The reality 
is far from their claims.

My father is loved by the Saudi people because his authority and legitimacy as 
an independent Muslim scholar set him apart from the state-appointed scholars. 
Using Islamic principles to support his arguments, he championed civil 
liberties, participatory politics, the separation of powers and judicial 
independence.

For almost 2 decades, he has vocally led the campaign against terrorism in 
Saudi Arabia. He has called for renewing religious discourse and argued for 
moderate Islam. I wonder whether he was arrested because of his popular, 
progressive stances, because since the ascent of Prince Mohammed bin Salman, 
nobody else is allowed to be seen as a “reformer.”

While reformers like my father sit in prisons, Saudi Arabia has embraced 
hard-liners like Saleh al-Fouzan, an influential state-sponsored cleric and a 
member of the Council of Senior Scholars. In 2013, Mr. al-Fouzan denounced a 
future where women would drive and claimed that the Shia and other Muslims who 
do not follow Wahhabi beliefs are infidels and that anyone who disagrees with 
that interpretation is an infidel. He has also pronounced all-you-can-eat 
buffet restaurants forbidden because they strike him as akin to gambling, which 
is banned in Islam.

In August, Mr. al-Fouzan was seated between King Salman bin Abdulaziz and 
Prince Mohammed at the royal court to signal his authority and importance. A 
few months earlier, during a meeting, the crown prince told Mr. al-Fouzan, “You 
are like my father.” In September, Mr. al-Fouzan issued a fatwa urging the 
state to kill political dissidents who promote sedition against the ruler. A 
month later, my friend Jamal Khashoggi was murdered.

In such a culture of fear, there is little hope for justice. The judiciary is 
being pushed far from any semblance of the rule of law and due process.

Even some judges from the specialized criminal court, which is trying my 
father, have themselves been detained after they declined to impose harsh 
penalties recommended by the attorney general in certain cases. A judge told me 
that judges recently appointed to the specialized criminal court live with 
fear.

Yet there are some judges in Saudi Arabia who have not submitted to the total 
control the monarchy seeks. In 2013, around 200 judges signed a public petition 
calling for real legal and judicial reforms, and condemned the “overwhelming 
crackdown and suppression of the real and patriotic voices.” They wanted the 
independence of the judiciary.

Those judges were intimidated, and some were referred for investigation by the 
Saudi Ministry of Justice. Muhammad al-Issa, the minister of justice at the 
time, promised a “corrective campaign” that would rid the judiciary of these 
“corrupted judges.” 2 judges were fired and the rest quietly resumed their 
work.

On Feb. 3, the Saudi government postponed my father’s trial for the third time 
without explanation and continues to keep him in prison. My family has been 
incessantly harassed since his arrest; 17 members of my family are barred from 
travel, including children; our house and my personal library were searched 
without warrant; my uncle was arrested after tweeting about the incident; and 
my assets have been frozen without justification.

The murder of Jamal Khashoggi demolished the myth of a reforming crown prince 
running Saudi Arabia. But the world needs to raise its voice to support the 
Saudis actually fighting for reform — people like Salman Alodah, my father, for 
whom the Saudi attorney general has sought the death penalty.

(source: Opinion; Abdullah Alaoudh is a senior fellow at the Center for 
Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown University----New York Times)








CAMEROON:

Maurice Kamto, Cameroon opposition leader charged with rebellion in military 
court



Cameroon's main opposition leader, Maurice Kamto, has been charged in a 
military court with rebellion and 7 other offences, indictments that could 
carry the death penalty, his lawyer said on Wednesday. Kamto, who has been in 
custody since Jan. 28, lost what he says was a fraudulent presidential election 
in October and has since rallied supporters in rare protest against 
long-serving President Paul Biya. Kamto declared himself victor after the vote 
and has challenged Biya's win in the African Union court. "The investigating 
judges charged Maurice Kamto at the military tribunal," lawyer Christopher 
Ndong told Reuters. "...This is not a judicial matter. This is politics."

(source: devdiscourse.com)








KENYA:

Woman, 5 relatives to hang for killing her husband----Anne Waithera, her son 
Joseph Maina, her sister Ruth Wanjiru and 3 other distant relatives were found 
guilty of killing David Macharia.



The Court of Appeal has turned down an appeal by a woman and her 5 relatives 
who were sentenced to death for killing her husband in 2004.

Anne Waithera, her son Joseph Maina, her sister Ruth Wanjiru and 3 other 
distant relatives were sentenced to die in 2014 for murdering her husband David 
Macharia for marrying a 2nd wife and over greed for property.

Justice Florence Muchemi found the 6 guilty of murder.

'FALL OF HUMANITY'

While upholding the death sentence on Tuesday, 3 appellant judges described the 
killing of Mr Macharia as “cold-hearted and chilling”.

Judges Philip Waki, Roselyn Nambuye and Patrick Kiage said in their ruling that 
unless courts stand firmly against such offences, they will be contributing to 
the fall of humanity.

They added: “When marriage and family become a mortal peril for spouses, and 
children kill their parents without blinking, something of our humanity is lost 
and the law must be deployed and enforced to express our collective horror, 
revulsion and outrage,”

The judges said perpetrators of such cold-blooded murders must not be allowed 
to breathe the air of liberty and must never roam freely among the happy and 
the free who respect the lives of others.

“It is for such cold-hearted killers that the penalty of death was legislated 
and for whom the courts must declare it. The same was properly imposed and we 
have no reason to disturb it. We confirm and uphold it," the judges said.

'MARITAL PROBLEMS'

The convicts found Mr Macharia milking his cow in Lari, Kiambu County, and 
slashed his neck with a panga. They then wrapped his body in blankets, stashed 
it in 2 sacks, tied boulders around it and threw it over a water fall deep in a 
forest.

The 3 judges said the elimination of Mr Macharia, who had taken a 2nd wife 
because of incessant marital problems with his 1st wife, "was a dark mix of 
jealousy, rage, greed, impatience and pure hatred compounded to turn the 
marital space into a deadly trap and to convert filial fealty into a grossly 
cruel patricide".

The judges rejected submissions by defence lawyers Francis Njanja, Robert 
Mutitu and Gicheha Kamau that the case against the appellants had not been 
proven beyond reasonable doubt as there were no eyewitnesses and the trial 
court relied on circumstantial evidence.

The judges disagreed, saying the appellants were correctly convicted on sound 
evidence and their appeal was devoid of merit.

(source: na7ion.co.ke)








LEBANON:

Judge requests death penalty for Gavin Ford murderers



A Mount Lebanon investigative judge has called for the death penalty for 2 men 
accused of murdering Radio One host Gavin Ford at his home in November of last 
year.

Judge Nadim al-Nashef Sunday officially indicted Syrian nationals Issa Jasem 
al-Hneish, 28, and Hussein Ali Bakdash, 24. The pair had confessed to murdering 
the British deejay back in November, a statement from the Internal Security 
Forces said at the time.

According to the indictment, Hneish told investigators that he met Bakdash 
about a week before the murder, when Bakdash asked him for a loan of LL20,000 
($13). Hneish then suggested to Bakdash that they could go to Ford’s house and 
earn $50 by performing sexual services.

But according to Hneish, Bakdash refused to offer sexual services to Ford. 
Instead, the pair decided rob their victim.

Bakdash arrived at the victim’s house on the morning of the incident posing as 
someone sent by a person who allegedly frequently found sexual partners for 
Ford. When Ford tried to undress him, Bakdash struck the deejay with a glass 
bottle.

When Ford fought back, Bakdash repeatedly struck him with the bottle until he 
lost consciousness. Bakdash then tied up the victim’s hands and legs, and let 
Hneish into the apartment.

At some point, Ford regained consciousness, and the pair continued beating him 
and finally strangled him to death with a piece of cloth.

Bakdash and Hneish searched the apartment and found a cellphone, a checkbook, 
some personal papers and the keys to Ford’s car, all of which they stole, along 
with Ford’s car. The November ISF statement said the phone and car keys and 
some ID documents had later been found in the men’s residences.

Patrol units from the ISF’s Information Branch found Ford’s stolen car around 
Souk al-Ahad near Sin el-Fil within hours of discovering his body.

The indictment said investigations had confirmed that Ford had frequently paid 
for sex, mainly with young Syrian men.

It said forensic investigations had also confirmed that Ford’s hands and legs 
had been restrained, while his assailants had beaten his head before strangling 
him with a piece of cloth.

(source: The Daily Star)

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

Prosecutors request death penalty for two men accused of brutally murdering 
British radio host at his home in Lebanon



Lebanese prosecutors have requested a death sentence against two Syrian men 
accused of the November murder of a British radio host.

The pair, both in their 20s, were charged with the premeditated murder of Gavin 
Ford, a British national who had been a popular radio host in Lebanon for 
years.

According to the Lebanese security forces, the 2 men have confessed to killing 
53-year-old Ford.

They were detained in November in the Bekaa Valley area of eastern Lebanon.

Ford was found bludgeoned and choked to death at his luxury home in the town of 
Broummana, east of the capital Beirut on Monday November 26.

He had celebrated his 53rd birthday the previous night, uploading a video of 
himself inside his apartment along with 2 other men to social media.

On Monday morning he then went to record his usual radio broadcast, which is 
Lebanon's most listened to drivetime show, before returning home.

The 2 men who confessed to his murder said they arrived at his home on Monday 
afternoon intending to rob him.

The suspects - identified by their initials as Aa.A. and H.B. and who are aged 
27 and 23 - admitted strangling Ford and hitting him over the head with a sharp 
object.

They then fled Ford's home using his stolen BMW and having taken his iPhone.

2 Syrian men - identified only as Aa.A. and H.B., reportedly confessed to 
killing Mr Ford during a botched robbery

They parked the car close to a busy market on the outskirts of Beirut and hid 
his phone and car keys at one of their homes.

The suspects said: 'We went to the victim's [Gavin Ford] house on Monday 
afternoon on 26 November to commit a robbery.

'We choked him to death and hit him with a sharp object, knocking him 
unconscious. We left the area in his car.'

Police body was discovered next to a four-poster bed after entering the 
apartment around 11.15pm that night.

Colleagues at Beirut's Radio One had raised the alarm when Ford failed to turn 
up for work that morning. The prosecutor's request for the death penalty comes 
after Ford's step-mother said she would like to 'string up' his killers, who 
struck the day after the DJ's 53rd birthday.

Tissy Ford, 77, told MailOnline: 'We don't know if it was random or whether 
these 2 knew who Gavin was.

'If it was up to me, I'd string them up.'

Tissy and retired hairdresser Bob Ford, 79, live in Gloucester. They said they 
only learned of their son's death when they got a text from a friend which said 
'condolences, so sad about Gavin.'

Tissy said: 'At that point we didn't understand the text which came from a 
friend in Australia.

'But minutes later Gavin's sister burst in looking like death and said: 
"Gavin's dead".

The elite Information Divison unit of Lebanon's Internal Security Force, which 
is investigating the murder, issued a lengthy statement following the men's 
confession.

It also released photographs of the suspects, but taken from behind.

The statement said: 'Gavin Ford was found dead and tied up in the town of 
Broummana. Through examination of the body it was found that the cause of death 
was suffocation and him being beaten on the face with a sharp object.

'Within a few hours of the crime the Information Division of the Internal 
Security Force found the victim's car which had been stolen at the time of the 
crime. It was found outside the Sunday Market area, on the outskirts of Beirut.

'As a result of investigations a Syrian man became a suspect. He is identified 
in this statement as Syrian, Aa. A born in 1991.

'On the 28 November following investigations the ID was able to arrest the 
suspect in the Beirut district Nabaa, where the suspect lives.

'During interrogation the suspect confessed to murder Gavin Ford in conjunction 
with a Syrian identified as H.B. born in 1995. Aa.A claimed he did not know 
where H.B. was.

'In less than 5 hours the 2nd suspect was located and arrested in the Jnah area 
of southern Beirut. He also confessed to carrying out the crime.

'They said they went to the victim's house on Monday afternoon on 26 November 
to commit a robbery.

'The perpetrators of the crime are not the 2 people who featured in a video 
published by the victim in the hours before his death.'

Neighbours at the time spoke of their shock that such a grisly murder had taken 
place in the luxury mountain enclave.

'This is just so horrible,' one told MailOnline. 'To live here when such as 
terrible thing has happened is so shocking.'

Another neighbour told how Ford had lived in the apartment, which has a huge 
balcony with a view over the Mediterranean Sea for the past 15 years.

She said: 'Gavin was a lovely guy, quiet and friendly.

'He left early in the morning for work but he was not trouble. There was never 
any noise or problems.'

One middle-aged woman said she saw Ford arrive home at around 10.30am on the 
day he was murdered.

She said it was 'the normal time he came back from the radio station.'

She also claimed that she saw him walk from the car park where he left his 
black BMW and he was alone at the time.

The police report confirms officers arrived at Ford's apartment at 11.15pm that 
night.

One of the neighbours claimed officers hadn't needed to break down the front 
door before entering to find Ford face down in a pool of blood.

A team of more than 20 officers arrived at the scene, including a pathologist 
and a doctor who specialises in crime scenes.

The police report confirmed Ford was strangled and his body was found with his 
hands bound behind his back and his ankles also tied together.

His body – which was covered in bruises, according to the report – was also 
covered with what appeared to be a curtain.

Abdo Kahale, the director of Radio One, described Ford as a 'super guy' and a 
'gentleman.'

'I can't replace Gavin. He was really a legend for 15 years and we'll truly 
miss him,' he said.

A former colleague who knew Ford well for two decades added: 'He was just so 
incredibly gentle and kind and that's how I and many others will remember him, 
and also a little gullible. That was Gavin. Just too kind.

'He often would give up his time unpaid to help university students or chair 
panels for the Lebanese, people he loved, for a country he felt at home in. 
He's going to be really missed.'

British Ambassador to Lebanon Chris Ramply said: 'I am shocked and deeply 
saddened by the death of Gavin Ford, one of Lebanon's most popular morning 
breakfast hosts.

'The thoughts of all at the Embassy are with his family, friends and colleagues 
at this terribly difficult time.'

Beirut's Radio One paid tribute to the British presenter who had become part of 
city's fabric through his 20-year career in Lebanon.

In a statement the radio statement said: 'We are heart-broken to announce the 
passing of our dear friend Gavin Ford, a member of our team for many joyful 
years.

'We extend our deepest sympathies to his family, friends and colleagues all 
over the world.

'Rest In Peace Gavin.'

The producer of his show, Gavin In The Morning, Olga Habre, added in a FaceBook 
post: 'Yes it's true and I'm heart-broken. #ripgavinford.'

Ford was buried in Lebanon.

Gloucester boy who became 'Lebanon's Terry Wogan'

Gavin started his career on hospital radio before spells with Severn Sound in 
Gloucestershire where he was born and brought up.

He worked on an English language station in France before working in Cyprus, 
Israel and Beirut.

His dad said: 'While he was on the Radio Caroline ship he had to work his 
passage back to Lowestoft on a trawler, gutting fish all the way. Gavin 
wouldn't have liked that very much.

'But he loved it in Lebanon, I went out to visit him 20 years ago as now.

'He did have to leave in a hurry when things got quite bad out there, the RAF 
had to fly him out.

'But he went back and was very happy there - he had a big following on the 
radio.'

Gavin had worked for Radio One in the Lebanon for 22 years and the ex-pat 
community regarded him as their version of Terry Wogan.

He presented the breakfast show five-days a week and his huge following of fans 
were left shocked and upset by his murder on Tuesday.

Gavin had spoken to his parents on the phone the day before and was 'fine'.

Tissy said: 'Gavin loved it out there, he had a nice lifestyle and many 
friends.

'He was always partying, he was out most evenings with having a good time with 
friends.

'He lived alone with his labrador - he took care of himself and looked very 
good for 53.'

Gavin's sister Julia, 56, was too upset to talk about the tragedy yesterday - 
their parents said she was 'very close' to her brother.

Julia's husband, pub landlord Nick Beardsley flew out to Beirut immediately 
after hearing that Gavin had been bludgeoned and choked to death.

Distraught Julia and the couple's three sons are flying out for a funeral and 
cremation service on Sunday.

The family in the UK had been looking forward to Gavin visiting for Christmas, 
his 1st trip home for some years.

Tissy said: 'He was looking forward to it and we couldn't wait to see him. 
Gavin wished his dad happy birthday live on air during his popular morning 
programme last year.

Tissy said: 'I picked up the phone and Gavin said he was doing his show and 
wanted to wish his dad happy birthday.

'He introduced me to his listeners as his stepmum and told them I'd be in my 
stilettos.

'He said if I had wellington boots they would have stilettos - that was Gavin, 
he was always light-hearted, good with people and a natural broadcaster.'

Bob is unable to fly out for the funeral because he's not strong enough after 
his operations.

He said: 'It's horrendous, I feel so far away.

'All we've been told is that he was strangled and they took his money and car 
which was found abandoned.

'They have arrested 2 Syrians through the fingerprints or DNA, I don't know.'

Gavin's ashes will be scattered on the grave of his mother Patricia who died 20 
years ago, at the family church in Leckhampton, near Cheltenham.

Tissy was her best friend but became Gavin's stepmother 6 years ago when she 
married Bob.

A memorial service will be held for Gavin at Leckhampton Parish Church at a 
later date.

(source: Daily Mail)








SRI LANKA:

Sri Lanka recruiting 2 hangmen before resuming death penalty



Sri Lankan prison authorities are recruiting 2 hangmen after the president 
pledged to end a 43-year moratorium on capital punishment and execute condemned 
drug traffickers amid alarm over drug-related crime.

Prison department spokesman Thushara Upuldeniya said Wednesday two executioners 
will be hired and advertisements to recruit them appeared in the newspapers on 
Monday.

The interviews will be conducted next month. President Maithripala Sirisena has 
said the executions will resume in the next 2 months.

Sri Lanka last executed a prisoner in 1976.

Sirisena's announcement of ending the moratorium came after he visited the 
Philippines in January and praised President Rodrigo Duterte's drug crackdown 
as "an example to the world."

Sri Lanka has 1,299 prisoners facing death sentences, including 48 convicted of 
drug offenses.

(source: Associaetd Press)