[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Nov. 29


EGYPT:

Egyptian court dismisses murder charges against Mubarak


An Egyptian court on Saturday dropped its case against ousted President Hosni 
Mubarak, his interior minister and 6 aides on charges of ordering the killing 
of protesters during the 2011 revolt that removed him from power.

The court also cleared Mubarak and a former oil minister of graft charges 
related to gas exports to Israel.

In a separate corruption case, charges were dropped against Mubarak and his 
sons Alaa and Gamal, with Judge Mahmoud Kamel al-Rashidi saying too much time 
had elapsed since the alleged crime took place for the court to rule on the 
matter.

The 86-year-old former leader will not walk free after Saturday's verdicts, 
however. He was found guilty in May in another case related to theft of public 
funds and has been serving that three-year sentence while under house arrest 
for medical reasons in an army hospital in an upscale Cairo suburb.

Saturday's rulings can be appealed.

The packed courtroom erupted in cheers after the judge finished reading the 
verdicts. Mubarak, wearing sunglasses and a sweater, had been grim-faced when 
he was wheeled into the courtroom on a stretcher.

The overthrow of Mubarak, who ruled for about 30 years, led to Egypt's 1st free 
election but the winner, Mohamed Mursi, was ousted last year by the army. The 
release of some Mubarak-era figures this year had already raised fears among 
activists that the old leadership was regaining influence.

On Friday, Egyptian demonstrators took to the streets of the capital to demand 
the death penalty for former ruler Mubarak as the court prepared to deliver the 
verdict for his murder retrial.

(source: Reuters)






INDONESIA:

British grandmother on death row in Bali faces execution as new president 
pledges 'no mercy' for drug traffickers----Lindsay Sandiford is on death row 
for smuggling 1.6million pounds worth of cocaine into Bali and all appeals have 
been denied; Received grim news that Indonesia's new President will show no 
mercy

British grandmother Lindsay Sandiford, lingering on death row in a Bali jail, 
has received the grim news that Indonesia's new President will show no mercy 
and grant no pardons to drug traffickers.

The 57-year-old former legal secretary from Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, was 
sentenced to death in January last year for trafficking cocaine worth 1.6 
million pounds into Bali and all her appeals have been denied.

Her final hopes of avoiding death by firing squad rest with the Indonesian 
President - but the newly-elected leader of the world's largest Muslim nation, 
Joko Widodo, has made it clear he will be taking a tough stance against drug 
smugglers.

A spokesman for the Attorney General's Department told the Jakarta Globe that 
Mr Joko was not planning abolish capital punishment any time soon and the 
President would provide no clemency for people trafficking drugs into the 
country.

'The President says he will be firm,' said the spokesman. 'We want to send a 
warning to international drug syndicates that Indonesia doesn't want to be a 
stopping place, market place or even a place for producers of narcotics.'

It is not known whether the President's 'no mercy' stance will include 
prisoners who have been on death row for several years - but already the House 
of Representatives in Jakarta has said it wants the jails emptied of condemned 
prisoners.

'Show them mercy, or execute them quickly,' said a spokesman for a special 
committee of the House of Representatives. 'Our jails are bursting and 
condemned prisoners are not making it any easier.'

Mrs Sandiford will have heard the bad news of the new President's 'no mercy' 
decision through the prison grapevine. Inmates would have been told of the bad 
news by visitors and it would have spread immediately to the cells.

As a sign of the President's determination to execute condemned prisoners 
quickly, the Attorney General's office said today that five inmates currently 
on death row will be shot within the next four weeks.

Mr Basuni Masyarif, deputy attorney general for general crimes, said the 
condemned prisoners had all exhausted their chances for appeal as well as 
failing to secure a pardon from President Joko.

Mrs Sandiford's plea for a pardon is still with the President's office, having 
been lodged with the former leader, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. Of the 5 
prisoners who will now be shot before the end of the year, Mr Busuni declined 
to give details except to say that 2 are Nigerians and all are in prisons away 
from Bali - so Mrs Sandiford is not among those scheduled for immediate 
execution.

Indonesia resumed the execution for death row prisoners in 2013, ending a 
4-year moratorium. Capital punishment is an option for Indonesian judges as a 
sentencing option for a number of convictions including drug trafficking, 
murder, sedition and terrorism.

By law, condemned prisoners must be informed of their execution 72 hours before 
they are led away to a deserted place and ordered to stand, or sit, in front of 
the firing squad.

Campaigners against the death penalty said that up to 2013 there were were 113 
prisoners awaiting execution, but since then a further 16 have been sentenced 
to death.

Mrs Sandiford pleaded guilty to attempting to smuggle the cocaine through 
Bali's international airport in 2012 following a flight from Bangkok, claiming 
that she had been under pressure to carry the narcotics because her adult sons 
had received death threats.

(source: Daily Mail)





IRAN----executions

5 prisoners hanged at Rajai Shahr Prison


5 prisoners, accused of murder, in Rajai Shahr prison, in Karaj, were executed 
by hanging.

According to the report of Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), On 
Wednesday 26th November, 5 prisoners on charges of premeditated murder in Rajai 
Shahr prison were executed by hanging.

One of those executed was Ruhollah Abbasi, who had been charged with 1st-degree 
murder during a street fight and was sentenced to death.

It is to say, on Tuesday 25th November, 9 accused of murder prisoners were 
transferred to solitary confinements for execution and by getting a reprieve, 4 
of them were returned to their cells.

(source: Human Rights Activists News Agency)

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

4 condemned Sunnis 'abused and tortured' as they await execution in 
Iran----Iranian regime has stepped up its persecution of the Sunni minority 
with death sentences imposed on 4 political prisoners.


The 4 - named as Hamed Ahmadi, Kamal Molai, Jamshid Dehghani and Djahanguir 
Dehghani - have written an open letter protesting at the abuses, torture and 
lies by regime officials since their arrest.

They wrote on November 27: "We were arrested in 2009 and accused of preaching 
in favor of Sunni Islam. We were placed in isolation and suffered unbearable 
torture. The trial court sentenced us to death.

"After the confirmation of our death sentence, the wardens took us to the the 
gallows on several occasions, and after making us suffer intense psychological 
torture, they took us back to our cells. At present, we are in limbo and still 
held in Rajai-Shahr Prison."

The prisoners also denounced lies broadcast on sate-run television giving the 
reasons for their imprisonment.

11 Sunnis have been sentenced to death in the past 2 weeks and are also 
awaiting execution in Gohardasht prison, 40km from Tehran.

Several Sunni clerics, including Nasser Piri and Molavi Hafez are also 
currently imprisoned without trial.

Mr Ahmed Shaheed, UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights situation in Iran 
recently expressed his concern over the persecution of religious minorities in 
Iran and in a news conference in Oslo, on 22 November 2012 said:

"I am troubled by the treatment of various minority groups in the country who 
all too often bear the brunt of repressive policies. These include unrecognized 
religious minorities like the Baha'i and Yarsan as well as recognized but 
increasingly suppressed religious communities like Christians and certain Sunni 
Muslim communities. I am also deeply concerned about ethnic minorities, 
including the Baluch, Kurdish, Ahwazi Arab, Turkmen and Azerbaijani peoples 
whose plights are often compounded by linguistic and cultural subjugation, in 
additional to political repression."

The majority of Iranians are Shiite Muslims, but Sunnis are Iran's 2nd 
religious community numbering around 10 million people.

(source: NCR-Iran)