[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide----IRAN, PAKIS., INDIA

[Rick Halperin]

Oct. 26



IRAN----execution

A prisoner hanged in Amol


A 35-year-old man, from Amol city, who had been charged with murder, was hanged 
on Friday October 24th.

According to HRANA report quoted Roozeno, (H. S.), 35 years old from Amol city, 
accused with murder was hanged in A'mol prison's yard on Friday morning.

H. S. was charged in 2008 of killing his friend (D. R.) due to some moral 
issues.

Ali Talebi General and Islamic Revolution persecutor of A'mol city confirmed 
the news and said the warrant was executed on Friday morning.

(source: Human Rights Activists News Agency)

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

Iran Capital Punishment Still A Major Controversy


In a world where many types of capital punishment are considered wrong, Iran's 
capital punishment continues to hit an all time high with people everywhere as 
it causes major controversy, and is still something people continue to fight 
against. The most recent hanging of a woman who claimed self defense has 
aggravated Iranian residents, human rights groups, and many citizens of other 
countries. As the capital punishment of hanging has been around in Iran for a 
long time, the way that the country goes about it seems to be a bit lenient.

On Saturday in Tehran a woman named Reyhaneh Jabbari was executed after trial 
for killing a man in self defense. She claimed that the man, a doctor and 
former intelligence agent, was trying to rape her when she attacked and killed 
him. Though the court stated that the evidence proved that Jabbari had planned 
to kill the man, as she stabbed him in the back after buying a knife two days 
earlier. She was sentenced to be hanged but the issue raised much concern, 
pulling in governments of other countries such as Germany, the United States, 
Britain and other European countries, who ordered the Iranian government to 
stop the execution as they worked to prove that the trial against the woman was 
fair. However, despite negations from these countries, as well as human rights 
groups, the Iranian government executed Jabbari by hanging.

As hanging is the form of capital punishment in the country, it has always 
received disapproval from other countries and human rights groups. Though 
hanging has previously been a form of punishment for crimes in the countries 
who object, such as the United States and Britain, the trials were almost 
always considered fair and the executions considered quick and painless. 
However, in Iran many executions seem to come after unfair trials, with bias, 
and public condemnation. The most recent sentencing of Jabbari for hanging, 
disgruntled human rights groups because they called it injustice to women, 
which Iranians have been accused of many times before. The most recent 
sentencing also caused quite an uproar of international complaint, as well as 
nationally among residents. Though the country's executions have always had a 
tendency to do that.

The capital punishment there still causes a major controversy because most 
others, who are not involved in the Iranian government, see the executions as 
unjust. The country has a reputation for hanging those who are innocent, have 
killed in self defense, or have simply angered the government though no actual 
crime was committed. While these rumors are speculation, as some who have been 
executed may have actually committed the crimes they were accused of, it always 
seems that when someone in Iran in sentenced to execution, residents, rights 
groups, and other countries start crying injustice.

Perhaps it is because they are the second leading country in the number of 
executions (though they may have moved up to first now with the number of 
executions they have been performing just in the year 2014). At any given time 
someone could be roaming around Iranian cities and see dead bodies hanging off 
the backs of cranes. These bodies, many of them, are simply executed for crimes 
against the government. In addition, it has been said that Iran does not often 
hang just 1 body at a time. Human rights groups have also had a field day with 
the rumors that Iran hangs men just for being gay, something that came about 
when 2 men were hung together, as residents claimed that they had been 
convicted of sodomy. A riot in the country has also broke out many times as 
victims scream of their innocence before their executions, leaving many 
residents to protest.

These images just do not paint a "just" picture and with all of the rumors that 
go around about the reasons why Iranians are hung, it is no wonder why people 
question the capital punishment there. Many say the form of punishment just 
seems to be a grim way for Iran to unfairly accuse and execute whoever they 
want. The hangings may be justified, but if they continue adding to the numbers 
of execution that seem to be just putting themselves in the spotlight, over 
their form of capital punishment, the major controversy may just continue.

(source: guardianlv.com)

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

US Condemns Iranian Woman's Execution


The United States has condemned Iran for executing a woman convicted of killing 
a man to defend herself from an alleged sexual assault.

The 26-year-old woman, Reyhaneh Jabbari, was hanged Saturday morning. The death 
penalty went ahead after the family of her alleged assailant, a former Iranian 
intelligence agent, refused to pardon her or accept financial compensation.

At the U.S. State Department, spokeswoman Jen Psaki said there were "serious 
concerns with the fairness" of the case, including reports that confessions 
were "made under severe duress."

Psaki said the United States condemns Iran for killing Jabbari "despite pleas 
from Iranian human-rights activists and an international outcry."

Jabbari said Morteza Abdolali Sarbandi was trying to rape her. She said she 
acted in self-defense when she stabbed him, but prosecutors said the attack was 
premeditated, and noted the dead man had been stabbed in the back.

The stabbing occurred in 2007. Jabbari was sentenced to death in 2009 under the 
Islamic principle of "an eye for an eye."

During the trial, Iran's official IRNA news agency said, there was testimony 
that Jabbari told a friend in a text message that she intended to kill 
Sarbandi, as well as alleged evidence that she purchased the knife involved 
only 2 days before putting it to use.

In a statement before the woman was hanged, Amnesty International said the 
"deeply flawed" prosecution did not appear "to have ever properly investigated" 
Jabbari's statement that another man present at the time of the stabbing was 
Sarbandi's killer.

The U.S. State Department spokeswoman said the United States joins "with those 
who call on Iran to respect the fair-trial guarantees afforded to its people 
under Iran's own laws and its international obligations."

(source: Voice of America News)

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

Social Media Couldn't Save Reyhaneh Jabbari----A campaign to halt an Iranian 
woman's execution was ultimately unsuccessful.


On Saturday, Iran hanged a woman convicted of murdering a former intelligence 
officer she claimed had attempted to rape her - a defense the court and the 
man's family ultimately rejected.

IRNA, Iran's official news agency, says 27-year-old Reyhaneh Jabbari was hanged 
at dawn Saturday for the 2007 murder. The court ruling dismissed Jabbari's 
claim of attempted rape, saying all evidence proved she had planned to kill 
Morteza Abdolali Sarbandi, a former intelligence agent, after having purchased 
a knife 2 days earlier. However, the United Nations called on Iran for a 
retrial, saying the incident never received a full investigation and that she 
was denied a fair trial.

A robust campaign led by human-rights groups and prominent Iranians, which was 
amplified through social media, appeared to be gaining traction and it seemed 
for a short time that the sentence would be commuted. However, the execution 
was carried out after Sarbandi's family refused to pardon Jabbari or accept 
blood money - a possible provision under Sharia law.

"The shocking news that Reyhaneh Jabbari has been executed is deeply 
disappointing in the extreme," said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Amnesty 
International's Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa Program, 
in a statement. "This is another bloody stain on Iran???s human rights record."

"Once again Iran has insisted on applying the death penalty despite serious 
concerns over the fairness of the trial," said Sahraoui.

In the U.S., the State Department took to Twitter to condemn the execution.

(source: The Atlantic)






PAKISTAN:

Man sentenced to death


A local court on Saturday awarded death penalty and imposed a fine of Rs50,000 
on a murder convict.

Additional district and sessions judge Ms Anbreen Naveed found Mustaqeem Khan 
guilty of killing his neighbour, Jawad, over a monetary dispute.

The convict has also remained in prison for 7 years with a fine of Rs50,000 in 
another case.

Court officials said that the convict remained absconder for about 10 years 
after committing the murder on October 25, 2003, and was arrested on March 4, 
2013.

The court order stated that the man had the right to appeal in high court 
against the judgment of the sessions court.

(source: Dawn)






INDIA:

The death penalty in India


The fate of 2 criminals is in the news. One is the convicted Gujarat minister, 
Mayaben Kodnani, who was sentenced to 28 years for her part in the 2002 
massacres. She was given bail on health grounds and is out of jail. This month, 
the Gujarat government said it would side with her and against the special 
prosecuting body, which wanted her in jail.

The other is Surinder Koli, convicted of one of the most horrific crimes we 
have heard of in India in recent years. Describing his acts, Harsh Mander wrote 
in The Hindu that Koli, who was then 33, was "convicted of killing at least 16 
children, raping them dead or alive, chopping them into pieces and eating their 
flesh".

The Indian Supreme Court has stayed Koli's execution till October 29, but the 
fact is that India's state has been executing people at a high rate under the 
current president, Pranab Mukherjee. The president is the final arbiter in 
death penalty cases and his rejection of appeals means that the convict is 
killed. He rejected Koli's plea in July and next week's hearing is probably the 
last chance Koli's lawyers have to stop the state from executing their client.

The Times of India reported on February 11, 2013, that Mukherjee had sent more 
people to the hangman in his 1st 7 months in office than in the previous 15 
years.

Koli's lawyers say that his confession was taken through torture and that even 
if true, it shows a man who is disturbed.

Mander wrote: "does even such a man merit any kindness? Is this not one case in 
which the world is better off without him? But his case - gruesome as it is - 
only reinforces my resolute opposition to the death penalty ... If a crime 
results from a psychological disorder then, however gruesome and abhorrent the 
transgression, surely the humane, civilised, socially decent and 
constitutionally valid recourse would be to treat the problem, not eradicate 
the victim. What Koli needs desperately is clearly a doctor, not a hangman."

I agree with Mander and don???t think hanging people solves anything. I would 
also say that Kodnani, who is in her sixties, being given bail is not a bad 
thing. I've written about this before and in India, the demand for death to 
convicts ensues from a desire for vengeance, not justice. This is a sign of a 
primitive society and we must accept that even educated Indians are not exempt 
from the feeling. It would not be incorrect to say that some of the more savage 
solutions for curbing crime originate from them.

In our parts, public lynching is not uncommon and, like the awful incidents 
with blacks in the US a century ago, it is acceptable by the public to wound or 
kill those who offend by stealing or by misbehaviour. This is also a product of 
that same desire for vengeance, and the emotion is felt strongly and 
collectively.

The crowd takes offence even when it is not the victim, and feels entitled to 
join in handing out punishment. Mobs form dangerously quickly on the 
subcontinent and carry with them a primitive like-mindedness, which makes them 
lethal.

In 2012, Frontline magazine reported that 14 judges sent an appeal to the 
president seeking his intervention to commute the death sentences of 13 
convicts in various jails. The report said that the judges "have appealed to 
the president because these 13 convicts were erroneously sentenced to death 
according to the Supreme Court's own admission".

The president was also told that two men had, in fact, been wrongly killed. 
Ravji Rao and Surja Ram, both from Rajasthan, had been executed on May 4, 1996 
and April 7, 1997 after flawed judgments. Given this, it is remarkable that 
Indian politicians and media should be clamouring, as is obvious to any 
observer, not for clemency, but for execution.

After the conviction of those accused in the infamous case of rape and murder 
of a young woman on a bus in Delhi, CNN reported: "The same crowd outside the 
courthouse that cheered Friday's death sentence for the 4 adults turned their 
ire on the juvenile. The crowd chanted, 'Hang the juvenile'."

It is incumbent on the state and the media to calm passions in a nation where 
this sort of thing happens. I would like to end by quoting from Shakespeare. We 
were taught to memorise these lines from Portia in "Merchant of Venice" without 
thinking in school. They make more sense to me as an adult.

"The quality of mercy is not strained/It droppeth as the gentle rain from 
heaven/Upon the place beneath/It is twice blessed/It blesseth him that gives 
and him that takes."

(source: Express Tribune)