[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Sept. 18



IRAN----executions

5 Public Executions in Iran


The execution wave continues in Iran. According to the official and unofficial 
reports, in the last 30 days at least 95 people have been executed in different 
Iranian cities. This is an average of more than 3 executions everyday. Iran 
Human Rights urges the international community to condemn the execution wave in 
Iran.

5 people were hanged publicly in the cities of Shiraz and Sardasht (Province of 
Fars, Southern Iran) early Thursday morning September 18., reported the Iranian 
state media.

According to the Young Journalists Club (YJC), a news website close to the 
Iranian security forces, 4 of the men were hanged in the "Azadi (Liberty) 
Square" of Shiraz. These men were identified as: "Bahram", "Edalat" and 
"Mohammad" charged with kidnapping and rape, and "Jahanbakhsh B." charged with 
"corruption on the earth" and armed robbery.

One man identified as "Hossein Sh." was hanged publicly in Sardasht. He was 
charged with "Corruption on earth" and armed robbery, said the report.

(source: Iran Human Rights)






BANGLADESH:

Bangladesh court reduces sentence of Islamist


Bangladesh's Supreme Court commuted on Wednesday the death sentence of an 
Islamist political leader whose conviction last year for war crimes during the 
nation's 1971 war for independence sparked deadly protests.

Delwar Hossain Sayedee, 1 of the top leaders of Jamaat-e-Islami, must remain in 
prison "for the rest of his natural life," Chief Justice Muzammel Hossain said.

The judge did not explain his reason for reducing the sentence.

Jamaat-e-Islami called for a daylong general strike for Thursday to denounce 
the verdict, saying Sayedee was innocent.

A war crimes tribunal convicted Sayedee in February 2013 on 8 counts involving 
mass killings, rape and atrocities committed during the 9-month war against 
Pakistan in 1971. His death sentence touched off days of clashes that killed at 
least 70 people across the country.

Jamaat-e-Islami, the largest Islamist party in Muslim-majority Bangladesh, 
campaigned against the independence war but denies committing any atrocities. 
Bangladesh says the war killed 3 million people and forced millions more to 
flee to neighboring India.

(source: Associated Press)






INDIA:

Indian sisters facing death sentence for kidnapping, murdering children in 
last-ditch bid to stop execution----Sisters Renuka Shinde and Seema Gavit are 
the first women to face the death penalty in India since 1947.


2 Indian sisters described as "evil monsters" are launching a last-ditch effort 
to stop them becoming the 1st women to be executed in the country since it 
became independent in 1947.

Renuka Shinde and Seema Gavit kidnapped 13 children under the age of 5 in the 
early 1990s and brutally murdered at least seven of them in the state of 
Maharashtra.

Earlier this year the country's president rejected their application for mercy 
but on Friday a court will hear a request to have their sentences reduced to 
life in prison, on the basis they have suffered extreme mental trauma waiting 
for the death penalty to be carried out.

The women would steal the children from busy places like playgrounds or temples 
and use them in their pickpocketing racket.

If they were caught in the act of trying steal someone's purse or jewellery 
they would drop the child onto the ground to shift attention away from the 
attempted theft.

Investigating police officer Rahul Kale said the women would then kill the 
children if they became sick or cried too often.

"Sometimes they would put the child beneath their legs and crush them, some 
times they strangle them," Mr Kale said.

He said in one instance the women killed a young girl and put her body in a 
sack before going to the movies and keeping the bag under the theatre seat 
while they watched the film.

The child's body was later found in the theatre's toilets.

"They are doing all those crimes calmly, coldly, without fear of law," Mr Kale 
said.

"They are not having (a) human mind they are just monsters, or evil."

Sisters waited in solitary confinement on death row

Many of those who knew the women say the sisters saw the crimes as an easy way 
to make money.

"It had become their habit," said Rajan Mannu Bomche, the lawyer who convinced 
Gavit's husband to testify against her in court.

"Just like an alcoholic cannot do without his daily alcohol, similarly they 
couldn't sit in peace if they didn't commit these crimes," he said.

The women were sentenced to death by hanging by a judge in 2001.

The crimes left deep emotional scars on many of those whose lives the case 
touched.

Human rights lawyer Asim Sarode helped the women draft their mercy plea to the 
president, but as he got to know the women his view of capital punishment 
changed.

"Those persons who are not having any sense of guilt in their mind for the 
deeds they committed - what reformation techniques can be used with them?" he 
said.

"It has shaken my belief and put my understanding into dilemma whether the 
death penalty is good or bad."

The women's current lawyer, Sudeep Jaiswal, has told the ABC previously that it 
has taken 6 years for the office of the president to decide on his clients 
mercy plea which he said is an "inordinately long amount of time."

He said the women have suffered mental agony waiting to be put to the gallows 
and should have their sentences reduced to life in prison.

Earlier this year India's supreme court said "inordinate and inexplicable" 
delays in carrying out executions were grounds for commuting death sentences.

(source: Yahoo News)






KIRIBATI:

More church opposition to Kiribati death penalty plan


The new head of the Kiribati Uniting Church has voiced his concern at the 
passing of the 1st reading of the death penalty bill.M

The Reverend Reirei Kouraabi says many of the MPs belong to his church and to 
the Catholics and couldn't understand why they have supported the bill.

The Reverend Kouraabi says he expected them to kill the bill.

He says the church cannot support it because it's against the faith.

The Office of the President has invited the Catholic Bishop and Kiribati 
Uniting Church Moderator to be part of the committee tasked with carrying out 
community consultation.

Earlier Bishop Paul Mea from the Catholic Church also voiced similar concern at 
the bill.

(source: Radio NZ)