[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Feb. 9



INDONESIA:

Bali 9 death penalty 'barbaric': Alan Jones



Radio host Alan Jones has labelled as "barbaric" Indonesia's use of the death 
penalty, as two Australians convicted of smuggling heroin launch a last-ditch 
legal action begging for clemency.

The 2GB radio host, speaking as a panellist on ABC's Q&A, made his remarks 
after a question from a friend of Bali Nine member Myuran Sukumaran.

"I find it incomprehensible that these people can't yield to pleas for 
clemency," Jones said.

"Someone has to get on the phone to this bloke, (Indonesian President Joko 
Widodo) and simply say, 'Well, you do what you like, but we gave you a billion 
dollars (in disaster relief aid) when you were hit by the (2004 Boxing Day) 
tsunami.'"

Jones added that the Australian Federal Police acted with "shame" in alerting 
Indonesian authorities to the Bali 9's plan to import heroin.

Sukumaran and fellow Bali 9 member Andrew Chan have made a final appeal to Mr 
Joko but he has stated he is unlikely to grant clemency to any convicted drug 
smugglers.

(source: 9news.com.au)








IRAN----executions

2 Prisoners Hanged in Urmia Prison



2 prisoners with drug-related crimes were executed in the yard of Central 
prison of Urmia.

According to the report of Human Rights Activists News Agency in Iran (HRANA), 
during Wednesday 3rd of February, 3 prisoners with drug-related crimes were 
executed in the yard of Central Prison of Urmia by hanging.

These 2 prisoners were about 30 to 37 year old and they were from Urmia 
environs.

By the time of this report, these executions have not been announced by the 
Iranian official media.

(source: Human Rights Activists News Agency)

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

Halt Execution of Child Offender ---- Kurdish Youth Arrested at 17 for Armed 
Activities



Iran's judiciary immediately should halt plans to execute a man convicted at 
age 17 of terrorism-related crimes for an armed opposition group and vacate his 
death sentence.

Iran's Supreme Court affirmed the death sentence for the man, Saman Nasim, in 
December 2013. His lawyer and family fear that authorities may carry out the 
sentence in less than 2 weeks despite an absolute ban on the execution of child 
offenders in international law. Iranian media reports indicate that Iran has 
executed at least 8 child offenders since 2010. Reports by Amnesty 
International and other rights groups, however, suggest as many as 31 child 
offenders may have been executed during that period, making it one of the 
countries with the world???s highest number of reported child offender 
executions.

"This is an open-and-shut case since there is no dispute that Saman Nasim was 
under 18 when security forces arrested him," said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle 
East and North Africa director. "Nasim and his family should have never 
suffered mental anguish associated with being on death row for months on end, 
let alone facing imminent hanging."

Nasim's lawyer and a source close to the family told Human Rights Watch that 
they have received information suggesting that the judiciary's implementation 
division has cleared the path for Orumiyeh prison, where he is being held, to 
execute him on or about February 19, 2015. A revolutionary court in Mahabad, in 
West Azerbaijan province, convicted Nasim of moharebeh, or "enmity against 
God," in April 2013 for of his alleged membership in the Kurdish armed 
opposition group Party For Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK), and for carrying out 
armed activities against Iran's Revolutionary Guards.

According to documents reviewed by Human Rights Watch and Nasim's lawyer, he 
was 17 at the time of his arrest in 2011. The Supreme Court initially 
overturned a lower court death sentence in August 2012, noting that he was 
under 18 at the time of his arrest, but ultimately affirmed the death sentence.

Aziz Mojdei, Nasim's lawyer, told Human Rights Watch that the execution on or 
around February 19 is "very likely." He said he has seen an official letter 
clearing the legal path to his client's execution on or around February 19 
although judiciary officials have repeatedly denied plans to execute his 
client. Mojdei said officials in the judiciary's implementation division have 
unlawfully prevented him from thoroughly reviewing the case file for 
information about the impending execution even though he is the attorney of 
record. Human Rights Watch has previously documented cases, particularly for 
national security crimes such as moharebeh, in which prison officials executed 
detainees without warning their lawyers or families and refused to deliver the 
body to the family.

Security forces arrested Nasim on July 17, 2011, after he and several other 
PJAK members allegedly were involved in a gun battle with Revolutionary Guards 
in the mountains surrounding Sardasht, a city in West Azerbaijan province. 
Court documents, which Human Rights Watch reviewed, allege that one 
Revolutionary Guard member was killed and 3 injured. Mojdei told Human Rights 
Watch that forensic experts established that Nasim had not been responsible for 
the killing, but that he was nonetheless convicted and sentenced to death 
because he had engaged in armed activities on behalf of PJAK, considered a 
terrorist group by Iran and several other nations, including the United States.

The source close to Nasim's family told Human Rights Watch that Nasim spent the 
first few months after his arrest in incommunicado detention in a facility 
believed to have been operated by the Intelligence Ministry in Orumiyeh. The 
source said agents tortured Nasim, including beating and lashing him and 
pulling out his fingernails. In September 2011, Nasim made a "confession," 
filmed and aired on state television, in which he said he shot at Revolutionary 
Guard members. Court documents reviewed by Human Rights Watch indicate that at 
his trial Nasim denied that he had shot at anyone during the July 17 clashes.

On November 20, 2014, Nasim and 23 other prisoners in Orumiyeh prison began a 
hunger strike to protest prison conditions. In response, prison officials 
threatened to expedite the execution of Nasim and several of the others on 
death row, Amnesty International said.

The irregularities reported in the trials would violate the fair trial 
provisions of Article 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political 
Rights, which include the presumption of innocence, adequate time and 
facilities to prepare one's defense and to communicate with a lawyer of one's 
choosing, and not to be compelled to testify against oneself or to confess 
guilt. The UN Human Rights Committee has stated that: "In cases of trials 
leading to the imposition of the death penalty scrupulous respect of the 
guarantees of fair trial is particularly important."

"The reported irregularities in Nasim's trial are only more reason for the 
judiciary to halt the execution of this child offender and grant him a new and 
fair trial," Whitson said. "Inflicting an irreversible punishment is bad 
enough, but to inflict it on a child offender after an unfair trial is an even 
greater miscarriage of justice."

In Iran, 2013 penal code amendments prohibit the execution of child offenders 
for certain categories of crimes, including drug-related offenses. No 
prohibition exists, however, for child offenders convicted of murder or hadd 
crimes - for which punishments are fixed under Iran's interpretation of Sharia 
law, including moharebeh. Under article 91 of the amended code, a judge may 
sentence a boy who is 15 or older or a girl who is 9 or older to death for 
these crimes if he determines that the child understood the nature and 
consequences of the crime. The article allows the court to rely on "the opinion 
of a forensic doctor or other means it deems appropriate" to establish whether 
a defendant understood the consequences of their actions.

In January 2015, Iran's judiciary issued a ruling requiring all courts to 
review death sentences issued for child offenders prior to the 2013 penal code, 
if defendants and their lawyers petitioned for review. The ruling applied to 
retribution crimes, including murder. Mojdei, Nasim's lawyer, told Human Rights 
Watch that he has petitioned the judiciary and government authorities several 
times to suspend his client's execution because he was under 18 at the time of 
his arrest, but that the petitions were either rejected or not answered.

According to official sources, Iranian authorities executed at least 200 
prisoners in 2014, though the real number is thought to be over 700. In 2014 at 
least 8 may have been under 18 at the time of the killings or rapes that led to 
their death sentences. Human Rights Watch is investigating these cases to 
determine whether those executed were, in fact, child offenders.

Iran is 1 of only 4 countries known to have executed juvenile offenders in the 
past 5 years; the others are Yemen, Saudi Arabia, and Sudan, as well as Hamas 
authorities in Gaza. Iran is a state party to the Convention on the Rights of 
the Child, which bans execution of child offenders. Since 2010, numerous UN 
rights experts and bodies, including UN experts, the Human Rights Council, and 
the Human Rights Committee have strongly condemned Iran's execution of child 
offenders.

In 2012 Human Rights Watch called on the Iranian government to amend its penal 
code to impose an absolute prohibition on the death penalty for child 
offenders. Human Rights Watch has also called on Iran's judiciary to impose a 
moratorium on executions due to serious concerns regarding substantive and due 
process violations leading to the implementation of the death penalty. Human 
Rights Watch opposes the death penalty in all circumstances because it is an 
inherently irreversible, inhumane punishment.

The leadership of PJAK and other armed groups operating in Iran should 
immediately stop recruiting children, whether for military or non-military 
purposes, Human Rights Watch said. On June 5, 2014, a Syrian Kurdish military 
leader announced that the group would stop recruiting children, saying that the 
armed group would demobilize all fighters under 18 within a month. The internal 
regulations for the Kurdish police and military forces forbid the use of 
children under 18.

"Leaders of PJAK and other armed groups operating in Iran should know that they 
are as responsible for putting the lives of children like Nasim's in harm's 
way," Whitson said. "There is simply no excuse for allowing children to take 
part in armed activities on behalf of an opposition group."

(source: Human Rights Watch)