[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

IRAN----execution

Another Public Execution in Southern Iran


1 man was hanged in public in the city of Shiraz. He was convicted of Moharebeh 
(war against God) and Corruption on earth.

According to the official Iranian news agency IRNA one prisoner was hanged in 
public in the city of Shiraz (southern Iran) early Wednesday morning November 
12. The prisoner was identified as "Majid Gh." and convicted of Moharebeh and 
"Corruption on earth" for armed robbery, said the report. He was also charged 
with murdering one person under an armed robbery

(source: Iran Human Rights)






GAMBIA:

Gambian Coup Plotters Death Sentence Commuted


Gambia's Supreme Court has commuted the death sentence given to seven men who 
were sentenced to death for conspiring to overthrow the APRC regime of Yahya 
Jammeh.

Lt. General Lang Tombong Tamba, former Chief of Defense Staff of the Gambia 
Armed Forces, Brigadier General Omar Bun Badjie, Lt. Colonel Kawsu Camara alias 
Bombardier, former Deputy Inspector General of Police, Modou Gaye, former 
diplomat Gibril Ngorr Secka and Businessman Abdoulie Joof, were in July 2010 
given the death sentence by the high court in Banjul for procuring arms, 
ammunitions, equipment and mercenaries from Guinea Bissau to stage a coup 
against the government of President Yahya Jammeh.

Their appeals at the Court of Appeal of the Gambia and the Supreme Court of the 
Gambia for the conviction to be squashed on the grounds that the trial judge 
misdirected himself on the evidence and testimonies of the prosecution 
witnesses and that the sentence imposed on them violates section 18 (2) of the 
1997 Constitution of the Gambia were rejected.

But in a final attempt to secure their freedom, the men who are currently held 
at the maximum security wing of Mile Two prisons, appealed for a review of the 
decision of the Supreme Court.

They said exceptional circumstances exist requiring the court to review its 
judgment of the October 2012. The men urged the court to set aside their 
convictions or in the alternative the death sentence be reduced to a lesser 
sentence. They also urged the court to consider the fact that no violence was 
made and nobody was injured or killed in the offence which they are convicted 
for.

In its ruling, a seven man panel headed by Pakistani born Chief Justice, Eli 
Nawaz Chowhan said the conviction of the men was safe, reasonable, and not 
perverse and it would be wrong to set it aside.

The justices added that that while there was no miscarriage of justice, the 
high court judge was wrong to sentence the men to death.

"The law has categorically stated that no one should be sentence to death by 
any court of law if no violence or death has occurred and I have come to the 
conclusion that I impose life sentence on each of the applicants and maintained 
their conviction accordingly," one of the panel member, Justice Samega Janneh 
ruled.

The justices further stated that although the men have argued that exceptional 
circumstances exist which requires the court to review its judgment of October 
2012, they have failed to convince them that there is an exceptional 
circumstances to trigger a review of the case.

The justices added that the international laws and treaties cited by the men in 
their defence and the National Assembly's failure to abolish or rectify the 
death penalty were never an issue before the court and as such they cannot 
speculate on issues that are not before them.

They stated that some international laws and treaties have not abolished the 
death penalty and whether it should be used continued to be used in the Gambia 
or not is up to the public and the National Assembly to decide.

(source: Jollof News)