[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Dec. 3



INDONESIA:

Police seize 219 kilograms of marijuana, arrest 1 suspect


Jakarta Police have seized 219 kilograms of marijuana from Aceh that were 
intended to be distributed in the capital city for consumption during New 
Year's Eve parties.

"We seized the 219 kilograms of marijuana in the Cendana housing complex in 
Tangerang," said the deputy chief of the South Jakarta Police, Adj. Sr. Comr. 
Surawan in Jakarta on Thursday as reported by kompas.com, adding that he also 
arrested a man identified only as MR.

According to the head of the South Jakarta Police's narcotics division, Adj. 
Sr. Comr. Juang, the marijuana was split into 51 packages.

MR was accused of violating Article 114, paragraph 2 and Article 111, paragraph 
2 of Law No. 35/2009 on narcotics, which carries a maximum penalty of death.

When arrested on Tuesday, MR told the police that the marijuana had been 
supplied by a man in Aceh, who was now being hunted by the police.

MR claimed that he was tasked to keep the narcotics and distribute it to the 
courriers.

Surawan said that the marijuana had been transported by a pickup truck for 4 
days through the Merak seaport, disguised as vegetable.

(source: thejakartapost.com)






SAUDI ARABIA:

Saudi execution of poet would be unlawful: U.N. experts


Saudi Arabia must not put Palestinian poet Ashraf Fayadh to death for apostasy 
this month as it would be "an arbitrary and thus unlawful execution" based on 
unreliable evidence, U.N. human rights experts said on Thursday.

Fayadh was detained by the country's religious police in 2013 then rearrested 
in 2014 and sentenced to four years in prison and 800 lashes. That was changed 
to a death sentence on appeal last month.

Saudi Arabia's justice system is based on Sharia Islamic law. Its judges are 
clerics from the kingdom's ultra conservative Wahhabi school of Sunni Islam. In 
the Wahhabi interpretation of Sharia, religious crimes including blasphemy and 
apostasy, abandoning the Muslim faith, incur the death penalty.

"The promotion of such a violent response against a legitimate form of opinion 
and expression has a widespread chilling effect across all of Saudi society," 
said David Kaye, U.N. Special Rapporteur on freedom of expression.

The U.N. statement from Kaye, Christof Heyns - the Special Rapporteur on 
extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions - and 4 other independent U.N. 
investigators said the death sentence was based on a collection of poems and 
testimony from a single witness, who claims he heard Fayadh make blasphemous 
comments at a cafe.

The original court ruling threw out the case because it said the witness was 
motivated by animosity for Fayadh.

It appeared that he "is about to be executed on the basis of seemingly 
unreliable evidence to the effect that he exercised his freedom of expression 
after an unfair trial," Heyns said in the statement.

The UN human rights experts also expressed concern at reports that Fayadh did 
not have legal counsel during the judicial proceedings, in violation of 
international law.

Saudi judges have extensive scope to impose sentences according to their own 
interpretation of Sharia law without reference to any previous cases. After a 
case has been heard by lower courts, appeals courts and the supreme court, a 
convicted defendant can be pardoned by King Salman.

In January, liberal writer Raif Badawi was flogged 50 times after his 
sentencing to 10 years in prison and 1,000 lashes for blasphemy last year, 
prompting an international outcry. Badawi remains in prison, but diplomats say 
he is unlikely to be flogged again.

(source: Reuters)






SYRIA/IRAQ:

8 Things That Could Get You Executed In ISIS-Controlled Territory----According 
to the Islamic State's penal code, highway robbers could be crucified

In ISIS-controlled territory, which spans across Syria and Iraq, at least 8 
crimes can result in the death penalty for offenders, according to what appears 
to be the terror group's penal code.

Those crimes include cursing God, sodomy, adultery and apostasy from Islam, 
according to a document that circulated widely among ISIS supporters online and 
also allegedly in the Syrian province of Aleppo last December, Vocativ 
discovered. Theft could lead to the loss of a limb while drinking alcohol could 
get you 80 lashes. Highway robbery - if a victim is killed - could result in 
crucifixion.

ISIS has executed more than 10,000 men, women and children in Syria and Iraq 
since June last year, when the terror group seized the Iraqi city of Mosul, the 
International Business Times reported, citing figures from the Syrian 
Observatory for Human Rights. Civilians accounted for 1,858 of those executed 
by ISIS, and 76 of the civilians were younger than 18, the IBTimes reported.

The Islamic State has recorded a slew of its executions. It has burned, 
drowned, shot, hanged and beheaded victims - barbarity revealed in a string of 
brutal videos.

Earlier this year, ISIS threw 2 men accused of being gay off a tower, crucified 
17 young men in 48 hours in retaliation for the deaths of 12 jihadists and 
stoned a woman to death for "committing adultery," the Syrian Observatory for 
Human Rights said.

(source: vocativ.com)