[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

April 20



IRAN----executions

13 Unreported Executions in Different Cities During Last 2 Weeks



During the last 2 weeks, 13 prisoners who had been sentenced to death, were 
hanged in different cities in Iran, which has not been mentioned in any report, 
so far.

According to the report of Human Rights Activists News Agency in Iran (HRANA), 
these executions have not been announced by the authorities or the media, and 
its report just recently has been given to HRANA.

According to HRANA, 3 prisoners of drug related crimes were hanged on 26th 
March, in Vakil Abad Prison in Mashhad and on 29th March, one prisoner alleged 
with drug crimes, named Hashem Firouzi was executed in Shiraz.

On 30th March, 2 prisoners in Bushehr prison, who were sentenced to death, in 
retaliation of murder, were executed. On 31st March, a prisoner who had been 
charged with homicide was executed in prison of Dizelabad, in Kermanshah. Also, 
4 prisoners who had been charged with drug related crimes, in Shiraz, were 
executed on 5th April, and on 9th April, 2 prisoners with homicide charges, 
named Eisa Ali Zehi and Manochehr Ghafori were executed in prison of Bandar 
Abbas.

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

6 Prisoners Hanged in Esfahan and Shiraz



6 prisoners were hanged in Shiraz and Isfahan.

According to the report of Human Rights Activists News Agency in Iran (HRANA), 
on Monday 13th April, 4 prisoners with drug-related charges were executed in 
Esfahan prison. One of them has been identified as Siamak Ranjbari. Also, on 
Tuesday, retaliation sentences for 2 brothers, Ali and Reza Sardari, were 
executed in Adel Abad prison in Shiraz.

No official information in this regard has been announced by the judiciary and 
other official institutions, whereas, according to Human Rights Activists in 
Iran, the process of executions in the last several weeks has intensified in 
most of cities in Iran.

(source for both: Human Rights Activists News Agency)

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

65 executions in one week



In face of extensive domestic and external crises, especially pursuant to 
one-step retreat in the nuclear negotiations, and concurrent with the expansion 
of protests by teachers and workers, as well as other strata of the society, 
the anti-human clerical regime has unprecedentedly ramped up executions in fear 
of growing popular uprisings. Over 70% of the executions have been carried out 
in secret and the clerical regime has not published any information on these 
atrocities.

In the past week (from April 12 to 18), henchmen hanged at least 65 prisoners. 
Forty-five of these have been executed just in Karaj City prisons. On April 13, 
8 prisoners were hanged in Karaj???s Central Prison while 13 other prisoners 
were executed in Ghezel Hessar Prison. On the next day, 19 prisoners were 
hanged in Gohardasht Prison. And on April 15, henchmen hanged five prisoners in 
Gohardasht. Among those executed was Javad Saberi, a juvenile at the time of 
his arrest.

During this period, 1 prisoner was hanged on April 12 in Mehriz (Yazd 
Province), 8 prisoners were hanged on April 12 and 15 in Arak, 3 were hanged on 
April 14 and 15 in Shiraz, 4 prisoners were hanged on April 13 in Esfahan, and 
4 were hanged in Zahedan on April 18. 2 of those executions, in Mehriz and in 
Shiraz, were public hangings.

A considerable number of prisoners executed were young under 30 and were among 
the prisoners who had protested the wave of collective executions in Ghezel 
Hessar Prison back in August. A number of the prisoners executed on pretext of 
drug smuggling had no drug related cases according to their families.

Prisoners in Karaj prisons staged protests on April 12 following the transfer 
of their cellmates to solitary confinement in preparation to carry out the 
criminal execution sentences. Protesting prisoner chanted: "We shall not let 
you kill us". Similarly, families of the prisoners on the verge of execution 
also gathered in front of the prisons and shouted: "We shall not let you 
execute them".

It is said that in the weeks ahead, the clerical regime is planning to hang 200 
prisoners on the death row in Gohardasht and Ghezel Hessar prisons. Many of the 
families of prisoners have been asked to refer to prisons to meet with their 
loved ones for the last time. In fear of prisoners' revolt, mullahs' regime has 
transferred those to be executed to prisons in nearby cities, including the 
Larger Tehran Prison in Hassanabad Varamin Road and the Central Prison of 
Qazvin.

The Iranian Resistance urges the people, especially the youth, to protest these 
criminal executions and to express their sympathy and solidarity with the 
victims' families. It further stresses that the silence and inaction of the 
international community for the sake of nuclear talks in the wake of the spike 
in collective and arbitrary executions only encourages these murderers to kill 
more of the Iranian people while continuing their march to obtain the nuclear 
bomb.

(source: Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran)








MALAYSIA:

Unemployed man charged with murder of former fiancee



An unemployed man was today charged at the Magistrate's court here for the 
murder of a woman at a parking lot of a supermarket earlier this month.

Muhammad Irshaduddin Khalis Nasurudin, 23, was accused of murdering Nursyafikah 
Ahmad Ismail, 20, by stabbing her on April 10 at about 5.45pm at the parking 
lot of Econsave supermarket in Jalan Mersing here.

The victim was the accused former fiancee.

The accused was charged under Section 302 of the Penal Code which carries the 
death penalty upon conviction.

(soure: New Straits Times)








PAKISTAN:

Court allows challenge to execution of Pakistani convicted as juvenile



The Islamabad High Court has said it will hear the first significant legal 
challenge to the execution of a Pakistani who was convicted as a juvenile.

In an order handed down on 17 April, the Court told the Pakistani government to 
appear in court in two weeks to respond to concerns about the planned execution 
of Shafqat Hussain. Mr Hussain was arrested in 2004 as a minor and sentenced to 
death, on the basis of a 'confession' extracted from him after nine days of 
torture. (http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/21530)

Following the widespread resumption of executions in the country in late 2014, 
Mr Hussain was told he would be hanged last month; however, the execution was 
stayed pending a government investigation, after lawyers at Justice Project 
Pakistan (JPP) produced evidence of his juvenility and forced confession.

The order allows Mr Hussain's lawyers at JPP to mount a legal challenge to the 
government's inquiry into his case, which was discredited recently after it 
emerged government officials had confiscated important evidence. 
(http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/21600) Mr Hussain's stay of execution was due 
to expire on 17 April, and there were fears that the government would quickly 
seek a so-called 'Black Warrant' for his hanging.

Pakistan's death row is the largest in the world, holding some 8,500 prisoners. 
Recent research by the Justice Project Pakistan and Reprieve suggests that over 
800 of these prisoners may have been arrested and sentenced to death while 
still juveniles.

Commenting on the decision, JPP's director and Mr Hussain's lawyer Sarah Belal 
said: "Shafqat Hussain's death sentence was handed down after torture and 
wrongful arrest - it should never have been allowed to happen. Yet despite 
having promised to conduct a full and transparent inquiry into the case, the 
Government's inquiry so far has been riddled with problems and shrouded in 
secrecy. It's extremely welcome, therefore, that the Court has demanded that 
the Government explain itself - and opened the door for Shafqat to finally 
defend himself. We look forward to hearing the Government's justification for 
trying to hang a man whom it wrongfully arrested, tortured and sentenced to 
death as a child."

Maya Foa, director of the death penalty team at the human rights organisation 
Reprieve, said: "In the Pakistani government's rush to execute the thousands it 
holds on death row, it is clear that it has all but abandoned due process. 
Today's decision by the Court is a victory for those who want to see real 
justice prevail in Pakistan - not just the hasty hangings of scapegoats and 
vulnerable victims like Shafqat, who was arrested as a child, tortured and 
sentenced to death on the basis of a forced 'confession'.

"Thousands of lives hang in the balance - the international community must 
speak out against this wave of injustice, and urge Pakistan to change course 
before it is too late."

(source: Ekklesia.co.uk)








INDIA:

The many wrong messages that hanging Yakub Memon would send----The Supreme 
Court's upholding the death sentence for the man who surrendered, hoping to 
clear his name in the Mumbai bomb blasts case, also draws our attention to the 
miscarriage of justice in the preceding riots.



What must Yakub Memon have felt on hearing that the Supreme Court had rejected 
his review petition against his conviction and death sentence in the 1993 
serial Mumbai bomb blasts case. The mocking words of his brother, Ibrahim 
'Tiger' Memon, advising him not to give himself up to the Indian authorities 
might have echoed in his ears. "You are returning as a Gandhiwadi, but the 
Indian government will see you only as a terrorist," Tiger had told him, 
according to what Yakub told the special court in Mumbai set up under the 
Terrorist and Disruptive Activities Act.

On April 16, the Supreme Court rejected Yakub's review petition against his 
conviction and sentence. The same court had earlier rejected his appeal against 
his conviction by a special court in Mumbai in 2006, and the president had 
rejected his mercy petition in May 2014. On the charges for which Yakub has 
been convicted, none of his co-accused has been given the death penalty.

Tiger Memon's words proved prophetic. Yakub gave up life in a gilded cage in 
Karachi under the ISI's watch, to come back in July 1994 and clear his name in 
the case of the 1993 blasts, which had been masterminded by his brother and 
Dawood Ibrahim. He was followed by seven members of his family. Only Tiger, 
another brother Ayub, and their families stayed back.

With him, Yakub brought proof of Pakistan's involvement in the blasts, which 
India could not have otherwise obtained. He thought this act would earn him a 
reprieve. Instead, unable to get Dawood Ibrahim or Tiger Memon, the Indian 
authorities wrecked vengeance on the rest of the Memon family, who had chosen 
to surrender because of "faith in our government and judiciary", as Yakub wrote 
in a letter to the chief justice of India from Arthur Road jail 5 years after 
he had set foot on Indian soil.

The government did not even have the grace to acknowledge that the Memons had 
chosen to surrender. Instead, the then home minister, SB Chavan, said in 
Parliament amidst much thumping of desks that the authorities had arrested 
Yakub from New Delhi railway station. "I've never seen it in my life," wrote 
Yakub in his letter.

His family's incarceration and their deteriorating physical and mental health 
drove Yakub to depression. In his letter, he wrote that he could not remember 
the events of 1 full year in jail when he was confined to bed. In the letter, 
Yakub also described his life before the March 12, 1993, blasts. It was an 
ordinary life: SSC with 70%, then college in the morning and work during the 
day, graduation, post-graduation, 4 years of studying to be a chartered 
accountant, and then establishing his own CA firm with a Hindu partner. "We 
were doing very well...I was very busy. The purpose of giving this brief about 
myself is to bring home just one single point: "WHERE WAS THE TIME TO HATE...." 
(upper case in the original).

In his letter, Yakub pointed out that nine of his 15-member family were NRIs 
settled in Dubai, and the rest would often visit them. On the day of the 
blasts, they were in Dubai, and got to know only later that 1 among them had 
masterminded them. After the blasts, the entire family left for Pakistan. "But 
we did not lost (sic) hopes of coming back to India and wipe out the stigma 
attached to our name," wrote Yakub.

But the stigma would not be wiped out. "The prosecution is harping upon 'Memon 
Family' during their arguments as if there is a section in CrPC (as in Income 
Tax laws, while dealing with the HUF- the Hindu Undivided Family), wherein a 
family can be treated as a single unit. ... The main reason for implicating us 
in the case is that we were in relation (to) and association of the prime 
accused. Now to be in relation to anyone is not a crime ... We do not deny our 
relation and association with Ibrahim Memon ...as a relative and nothing more."

In 2007, having spent almost 13 years in jail, Yakub was sentenced to death by 
the TADA court. His brothers Essa and Yusuf, both seriously ill, and 
sister-in-law Rubeena were sentenced to life imprisonment. When his sentence 
was read out by the TADA court judge, Yakub cried out: "Forgive him lord, for 
he knows not what he does.'' 7 years later, the Supreme Court upheld the 
judgement.

But, as both Yakub's appeal and his review petition, argued by lawyer Jaspal 
Singh, asserted, Yakub was convicted on the basis of the statement of one 
approver and the retracted confessions of co-accused. The prosecution did not 
produce any independent evidence to refute Yakub's assertion that he knew 
nothing about the blasts.

With the mercy and review petitions rejected, Yakub is left with little hope: 
only perhaps a curative petition and another mercy petition. If Yakub is 
hanged, the message will be clear: if you have committed a crime and have been 
lucky enough to escape, good for you. If you are suspected of having committed 
a crime but want to return to India to try and clear your name, be prepared for 
the worst. Far better to spend your life in luxury, even if it is in a country 
that is hostile to yours. Not for you the choice of bringing up your children 
as Indians.

The 2nd message that Yakub's hanging will send is that there is no place for 
reformation in our justice system. Among the arguments made by advocate Jaspal 
Singh in his review petition were his client's record of good conduct in jail 
and no evidence by the prosecution that there existed no possibility of 
reformation. During his 21 years in jail, 8 of them on death row, Yakub has 
obtained an MA in English from the Indira Gandhi National Open University. The 
authorities of the course denied him permission to attend the convocation, 
although it was held in Nagpur itself, where he has been lodged since 2007. The 
day the Supreme Court dismissed his review petition in April, Yakub got an MA 
from IGNOU in political science.

The 3rd message will perhaps be the most ominous - that our criminal justice 
system recognises guilt by association. Dawood Ibrahim and Tiger Memon are 
beyond our reach. Should we rejoice that we have at least one Memon we can hang 
and lock the others up for life? Was Yakub right in writing: "According to the 
prosecution if one member does any wrong, entire family ...can be punished and 
society can be shown that the justice is being done?"

Finally, Yakub Memon's hanging will inevitably draw our attention to the 
original sin in the chain of events that led to the March 12, 1993 blasts: the 
Mumbai riots that followed the demolition of the Babri Masjid. Neither those 
who demolished the Masjid nor those found guilty of the ensuing riots, in which 
900 persons were killed, among them 575 Muslims and 275 Hindus, were punished, 
even though criminal offences were registered against the perpetrators. Two 
judicial commissions also indicted specific individuals for both crimes.

Among these individuals were 31 policemen, charged with extreme communal 
conduct against Muslims, including murder. None of them was punished. Nearly 
all the offenders in both events not only went free, some of them ruled the 
country as central ministers.

But those who took revenge for the riots, killing 257 people, were not let off. 
Their punishment ranged from two years to death. All death sentences, except 
Yakub's, were 6 years later commuted to life.

When the TADA court held him guilty, Yakub cried out: "Woh sahi bolta tha, koi 
insaaf nahin milega, tum log hume terrorist banake chodoge." What he said was 
right; you won't get justice; you will make us into terrorists. He was 
referring to Tiger Memon's words. In his letter, Yakub wrote: "Section 20(8) 
and other draconian provision of this Act does not allow the Designated TADA 
court judge to look upon us with living and merciful eyes. On the contrary we 
are presumed to be guilty of TERRORISM."

(source: Opinion, Jyoti Punwani, scroll.in)



INDONESIA:

Widodo: Countries must respect Indonesia's death penalty stance



Other countries should respect Indonesia's law imposing the death penalty on 
convicted drug traffickers.

That's how Indonesian president Joko Widodo responded to calls for him to grant 
clemency to convicted drug traffickers on death row, including Filipino Mary 
Jane Veloso.

"We will practice our Constitution. The law does allow for execution and I 
think other countries should respect the Indonesian law," Widodo said in an 
exclusive interview.

The Philippine embassy in Jakarta is working on a 2nd appeal for Veloso, after 
Widodo rejected the 1st one.

"Yes, if they want to undergo a judicial review, they can go ahead. We respect 
the legal process. Indonesia has the rule of law," Widodo said.

Veloso is facing execution in Indonesia for drug trafficking. She was caught in 
Yogjakarta airport in 2010, carrying nearly 3 kilos of heroin.

Meanwhile, Vice President Jejomar Binay is heading to Indonesia to personally 
appeal Veloso's case.

Binay is attending the Asian African Summit in Bandung on April 22. He says he 
will use that visit to ask Widodo to spare Veloso.

"I am hoping that we will be given the opportunity to personally appeal to His 
Excellency's kind heart for the commutation of the sentence of Mary Jane," he 
said.

(source: ABS-CBN News)








SINGAPORE:

2010 Kallang murder: 1 sentenced to death, another faces life in prison



2 Sarawakians convicted of murder in a violent crime spree in Kallang in May 
2010 were sentenced on Monday (Apr 20).

Micheal Garing, 26, faces the death penalty while Tony Imba, 36, will be jailed 
for life and caned 24 times.

Both were part of a gang of four that robbed and caused the death of 
41-year-old Indian national construction worker Shanmuganathan Dillidurai. Two 
other Indian nationals and one Singaporean were also badly injured from the 
attacks.

High Court judge Choo Han Teck found that Micheal was the one who wielded the 
parang that caused Mr Dillidurai's death, while Tony, who held the deceased 
victim while Micheal began his assault, had "significantly less" culpability.

While the prosecution had argued during trial in 2013 that it is not 
unprecedented for co-accused persons convicted of a common intention to receive 
similar sentences, Justice Choo noted that this is unnecessary since Parliament 
removed the mandatory death penalty for individuals convicted of murder in 
2012.

Tony's lawyer Amarick Singh said his client was very relieved, adding that the 
sentence was "fair in comparison with what he did". Micheal's lawyer Mr Ramesh 
Tiwary said his client will be appealing against the sentence.

Both were accompanied by their family members in court on Monday. Hairee Anak 
Landak, 1 of the 4 involved in the case, was sentenced to 33 years in jail and 
24 strokes of the cane in 2013 after he pleaded guilty to armed robbery with 
grievous hurt. An alleged accomplice, Donny Meluda, is still at large.

(source: Channel News Asia)








EGYPT:

Court sentences 22 to death in Kerdasa police killings



A Cairo criminal court gave 22 defendants, charged with attacking the Kerdasa 
police station in 2013, the death penalty Sunday.

The accused include 14 held in custody, with the remaining eight convicts 
currently fugitives. They were collectively charged with destruction of public 
property, vandalism and the killing of police officer Mahmoud Ibrahim Abdul 
Latif.

Also involved in the trial were 14 minors, who received 10 years in prison.

They are also charged with attempted murder, illegal possession of weapons, and 
the use of violence against police officers.

Judge Nagy Shehata referred the defendants' files to Egypt's Grand Mufti Shawqy 
Allam, a routine procedure before ratifying a death sentence.

Violence in Kerdasa increased on 14 August 2013, during security forces' 
dispersal of the Rabaa Al-Adaweya and Al-Nahda Square sit-ins. Both sit-ins 
were organised to show support for former president Mohamed Morsi, with 
violence not restricted to the Kerdasa village, but also occurring in the 
nearby village of Nahia.

(source: Daily News Egypt)