[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Nov. 2


BANGLADESH:

Islamist Media Tycoon Sentenced To Death For Bangladesh War Crimes


A media tycoon and key figure in Bangladesh's largest Islamist party has been 
sentenced to death for war crimes committed during Bangladesh's 1971 war for 
independence from Pakistan.

Mir Qasem Ali, the owner of a television station and newspaper aligned with the 
Jamaat-e-Islami party, was found guilty of 10 charges by the court in Dhaka on 
November 2, including murder and abduction.

The government in Bangladesh shut down Ali's television station in 2013 for 
inflaming religious tensions.

Ali's attorney said the charges are "baseless and false" and said they would 
appeal the verdict in the Supreme Court.

The ruling against Ali comes just days after Jamaat-e-Islami leader Motiur 
Rahman Nizami was sentenced to death by a court in Bangladesh for heading a 
pro-Pakistan militia during the 1971 war.

(source: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)

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

JI chief's death sentence: Bangladesh govt hell bent on opening old wounds, 
says Nisar


Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar on Saturday expressed his concern and 
reservation over Bangladesh awarding death penalty to Jamaat-e-Islami chief 
Motiur Rahman Nizami.

"Though what happens in Bangladesh is that country's internal matter, yet 
Pakistan cannot remain divorced from references to 1971 and its aftermath," 
Nisar said.

"It is highly unfortunate that almost 45 years after those tragic chain of 
events, the Bangladeshi government still seems to be living in the past and 
totally ignoring the time tested virtue of forgive and forget," the interior 
minister lamented.

Nisar said he was perplexed over why Bangladesh remains hell bent upon digging 
up the graves of the past and reopening old wounds.

The interior minister underlined that the recent events in Bangladesh are a 
manifestation of serious political violations, which are being inflicted on JI 
Bangladesh for events before the independence of Bangladesh.

Nisar maintained that he was deeply saddened to receive this shocking news.

"The government of Bangladesh has misused the process of law as a political 
tool against the JI leader," he upheld.

On October 29, Bangladesh's war crimes tribunal sentenced the chief of JI 
Bangladesh to death for crimes against humanity, including genocide, torture 
and rape, during the 1971 war.

(source: The News)





INDIA/SRI LANKA:

Colombo, Delhi must act before it's too late


The charge of smuggling heroin against the Indian fishermen seems 
extraordinary. Indian fisherfolk routinely encounter difficult circumstances in 
the Palk Straits and are regularly rounded up by the Sri Lankan Navy.

The death sentence handed down to 5 Indian fishermen by a Sri Lankan court will 
go through the normal judicial process of that country. India has taken the 
necessary steps to appeal in a bid to save its nationals - whose innocence is a 
natural presumption in the light of the circumstances of the case - from the 
gallows.

While this is the technical aspect of the matter, Colombo and New Delhi should 
take immediate practical steps to ensure that the emotive issue is not 
permitted to gain political traction either in Sri Lanka, where the 
presidential election is due in January 2015, or in Tamil Nadu, which is roiled 
on the issue.

Public sentiment running high in the southern Indian state, frequently on the 
issue of our fishermen's right to seek their livelihood in the Palk Straits as 
well as on the general question of suppression of the rights of Lankan Tamils, 
have tended to have a negative bearing on New Delhi-Colombo ties, which are of 
considerable importance to both countries.

On the face of it, the charge of smuggling heroin against the Indian fishermen, 
who were apprehended in the Palk Straits in November 2011, seems extraordinary. 
No less unusual is the sentence of death. Indian fisherfolk routinely encounter 
difficult circumstances in the Palk Straits and are regularly rounded up by the 
Sri Lankan Navy, whose actions can look high-handed.

These can hardly be deemed to be appropriate conditions for any form of 
smuggling, leave alone heroin. Indeed, it is hard to think of another case in 
which smuggling charges have been slapped on our fishermen. In the event, the 
presumption of innocence will be strong, and not just in Tamil Nadu.

The case has a strong enough echo in India for our ambassador to raise it with 
Sri Lanka's foreign and defence ministers. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is also 
expected to take up the matter with President Mahinda Rajapaksa when the 2 meet 
at the Saarc summit in Kathmandu later this month.

In the Sri Lankan justice system, the President has the right of pardon if the 
appellate court or the Supreme Court does not overturn the trial court verdict. 
However, the effort should be to finesse the issue before that stage is reached 
so that it doesn't bedevil bilateral relations. If high state authorities are 
persuaded of the merits of India's position, it should be possible to explore 
technical grounds to squelch the death penalty, which appears harsh in the 
extreme to any lay observer. At any rate, even commutation of the sentence 
could make it possible for the prisoners to be transferred to an Indian jail. 
That too could lessen the impact of the case on the public mind.

(source: Asian Age)

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

Violence continues in Tamil Nadu after Sri Lankan death sentence ruling


Fishermen in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu have announced an 
indefinite strike to protest the death penalty awarded by a Sri Lankan court to 
5 Indian fishermen for alleged drug trafficking. Sporadic violence continued to 
rock various parts of Tamil Nadu for the 3rd consecutive day on Saturday (Nov 
1).

The protesters want New Delhi to intervene to ensure the release of the 
fishermen. In the days after the verdict, Indian politicians, social activists 
and the fishing community across Tamil Nadu took to the streets to protest the 
capital punishment given to the 5 local fishermen. The protestors shouted 
slogans and burnt posters of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa in 
Coimbatore.

Meanwhile, a mob went on a rampage in Ramanathapuram - the hometown of the 5 
fishermen sentenced to death. Despite a heavy police presence, they torched 
buses, pelted stones and blocked roads and railway tracks.

The protestors want the Central government to appeal against the sentence in a 
higher court. "It is the paramount duty of the NDA (National Democratic 
Alliance) government of Narendra Modi to take effective diplomatic steps to 
protect these people, to save them from the gallows and to get them released 
from the prison," said V Gopalsamy, General Secretary, Marumalarchi Dravida 
Munnetra Kazhagam.

The 5 fishermen are among a group of 8 people sentenced to death by the High 
Court in Colombo. They were arrested by the Sri Lankan Navy back in 2011 on 
charges of smuggling drugs into the country.

The Indian government has vouched for their innocence and promised to take up 
the matter with the Sri Lankan authorities. "We have done our due diligence on 
our side and we find that they are innocent. But that is a separate process 
that we are pursuing," said Syed Akbaruddin, spokesperson for the Indian 
External Affairs Ministry. "We will also pursue through the legal process and 
ensure and try our best to ensure that these fishermen are proved innocent and 
can return to India."

Frequent arrests of Indian fishermen by the Sri Lankan Navy have been a source 
of tensions between the otherwise cordial neighbours. But this time, the death 
sentence for the 5 Indian fishermen has triggered an angry reaction back home. 
For now, the Indian government will have until Nov 14 to file an appeal.

(source: ChannelNews Asia)






IRAN:

Iran hits back at criticism over executions -- Tehran says 93 % of 852 
execution cases reported by UN in less than a year involved drug smuggling.


Iran has hit back at a United Nations report criticising the high number of 
death sentences in the country, saying that 93 % of executions over the last 
year involved drug smuggling.

Mohammad Javad Larijani, secretary of Iran's Human Rights Council, made the 
comments in a report posted on the judiciary's website Saturday.

A recent report by the UN said at least 852 people were reportedly executed 
between July 2013 and June 2014 and called it an alarming increase.

Delegates from many European countries have urged Iran to adopt a moratorium on 
the death penalty at an ongoing human rights meeting in Geneva.

Iran previously has threatened to allow drug smugglers through its territory to 
Europe if the West continues to criticise it for executing convicted drug 
traffickers.

Last week, Iran executed a 26-year-old woman convicted of killing a man whom 
she said tried to sexually abuse her, despite an international uproar.

Reyhaneh Jabbari was arrested in 2007 for the murder of Morteza Abdolali 
Sarbandi, a former employee of Iran's Ministry of Intelligence.

Larijani said he had asked Sarbandi's family to pardon Jabbari, in a move that 
would have saved her life, and that the family had planned to do so.

'Lack of progress'

The massive media attention and rape allegations had changed their minds, he 
said, quoting Sarbandi's son as saying the family could not take the 
"humiliation".

A UN human rights monitor had said the killing of Sarbandi was an act of 
self-defence after he tried to sexually assault Jabbari, and that her trial in 
2009 had been deeply flawed.

Larijani adamantly defended the country's judicial system, insisting: "All 
nationals of Iran are equal before the law."

He said from Geneva that his country had made great strides in the field of 
human rights since its last Universal Periodic Review, which all 193 UN 
countries must undergo every 4 years.

Such claims were brushed aside by a range of NGOs, who blasted a lack of 
progress since Iran's last review in 2010, and condemned discriminatory laws 
and practises infringing on the rights of women, and religious and ethnic 
minorities among others.

(source: Al Jazeera)






SAUDI ARABIA:

Saudi King Suspends Death Sentence for Sheikh Al-Nimr after Rafsanjani's Letter


Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz has stopped the death sentence given to 
prominent Shiite cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr after Chairman of Iran's Expediency 
Council (EC) Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani in a message warned Riyadh against the 
repercussions of the execution, Arab media said.

Iraq's al-Youm al-Samen news website said in a report that the Saudi King has 
intervened and called off the court ruling after Rafsanjani's letter. No 
official report has yet confirmed the revelation.

On October 25, Hashemi Rafsanjani in a message warned the Saudi King against 
the consequences of the death sentence given to Nimr.

"In this period of time that conspiracies have targeted the lands of the 
Islamic Ummah, stopping the sentence for Ayatollah Sheikh Nimr Baqer al-Nimr 
will disappoint those who sow discord, will increase interactions and settle 
the problems of the Muslim world," Hashemi Rafsanjani said in his message.

He underlined the sensitive regional and international conditions of the Muslim 
world, and said stopping Sheikh al-Nimr's death sentence would strengthen unity 
among the Shiites and Sunnis.

"Muslims expect you to take such a decision," Hashemi Rafsanjani said.

On October 15, a Saudi court handed down the death penalty to Sheikh Nimr after 
convicting him of sedition.

The cleric was attacked and arrested in July 2012, accused of delivering 
anti-regime speeches and defending political prisoners.

In reaction to the sentence, people took to streets in the Saudi city of Qatif 
to condemn the move. There have also been demonstrations in other countries.

Human rights activists say the sentence issued for Sheikh Nimr is 
politically-motivated.

Amnesty International has denounced the verdict, calling it "appalling".

Rights groups say Bahrain and Saudi Arabia are committing systematic human 
rights abuses.

(source: Fars News Agency)