[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

July 1



SAUDI ARABIA:

Saudi sentenced to death over multiple murder----Man who strangled, stabbed 
wife, four children suffered from mental health problems


A court in Saudi Arabia has condemned a Saudi national to death for killing his 
wife and 4 children in 2013.

The multiple murders in Sharurah, a small town in the southern part of the 
kingdom, occurred at around 11.30pm.

The murderer himself reported the murders to the police, telling the officers 
that he had strangled them before stabbing them in the neck.

Reports said that the murderer decapitated his wife, 26, and then killed his 3 
sons, aged between 5 and 11, and his 2-year-old daughter.

Medical reports confirmed that the killer suffered from mental health problems.

Witnesses said he often mumbled incomprehensibly and that he was abusive and 
strict with his children.

They said his behaviour worsened a few days before he committed the crime.

On the day of the tragedy, he brought one of his children from the home of his 
former wife and killed him, according to Saudi reports.

(source: Gulf News)






IRAN:

First Half of 2015: 570 Prisoners Hanged to Death in Iran----Iranian 
authorities have executed at least 570 prisoners in the 1st half of 2015, an 
increase of about 40% compared to the 1st half of 2014. According to reports by 
Iran Human Rights (IHR), at least 1,900 people have been executed since the 
election of President Hassan Rouhani in June 2013. Despite the highest 
execution rate in more than 2 decades, Iranian authorities haven't met any 
major criticism from the international community.


Since the election of President Hassan Rouhani and a significant improvement in 
relations between Iranian and western officials, the rate of executions in Iran 
has been its highest in more than 2 decades. At least 570 people have been 
hanged to death in the first 6 months of 2015, representing an average of more 
than 3 executions per day. IHR once again calls on the international community 
to take Iran's use of the death penalty seriously and show adequate reaction to 
it.

"The dialogue between the West and Iran has apparently failed to improve the 
situation of the human rights in Iran. If any, the impact has been negative 
with regards to Iran's use of the death penalty," says Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, 
the spokesperson for IHR.

According to IHR's latest report, at least 394 people have been executed for 
drug related charges in the 1st half of 2015, counting for 69% of all 
executions. 190 of these executions were carried out in Ghezel Hesar and Rajai 
Shahr prisons located in the city of Karaj (west of Tehran).

Facts about the executions in Iran for the first half of 2015:

--223 (39%) of the executions were announced by official Iranian media

--After drug offenses (69%), murder charges (19%) counted for the most amount 
of executions

--34 of the executions were carried out in public spaces

--10 women and 1 juvenile offender were among those executed

--Ghezel Hesar was the prison with the highest number of executions

--At least 7 prisoners were executed for their political or ideological 
affiliations

(source: Iran Human Rights)



MALAYSIA:

Appeals Court upholds Thai woman's drug trafficking conviction


The Court of Appeal here upheld the conviction of a tudung seller who had been 
caught at the Thailand border importing drugs instead of headscarves.

Thai national Rattana Phinthong, 35, was accused of trafficking about 2.8kg of 
methamphetamine at the Bukit Kayu Hitam immigration checkpoint in Kubang Pasu, 
Kedah on Aug 3, 2012.

She was appealing against the Alor Setar High Court's decision on May 14, 2014 
to convict her.

The Court of Appeal panel made up of Justices Aziah Ali, Zakaria Sam and Ahmadi 
Asnawi, unanimously ruled that there was no merit in the appeal.

In the hearing on Tuesday, Rattana was represented by lawyer G. Ravishankar, 
while DPP Mazelan Jamaludin acted for the prosecution.

During the trial, Rattana claimed to be travelling to Kuala Lumpur only for her 
headscarf business.

Her husband Prayut Phinthong, 31, had also testified that the bag containing 
the drugs was not his wife's.

However, the prosecution argued that Rattana had carried the bag through 
Customs and even acknowledged ownership of the bag.

Mazelan said the fact the drugs were well-hidden showed a premeditated intent 
to sneak the drugs in.

According to court documents sighted, Rattana was flagged at the checkpoint 
when the Custom's scanning machine revealed a hidden compartment in her bag.

When asked if it was her bag, Rattana affirmed.

Narcotic officers then brought her to the Alor Setar narcotics branch for 
further questioning.

The officers found four plastic satchets containing white powder tucked inside 
the bag's hidden compartment, which chemical tests later showed it was 
methamphetamine.

Drug trafficking, an offence under Section 39B(2) of the Dangerous Drugs Act 
1952 carries the mandatory death penalty.

(source: The Star)






ETHIOPIA:

Ethiopia mulls tough trafficking law, including death penalty


Human traffickers in Ethiopia could face life in jail or the death penalty 
under a bill presented to parliament on Tuesday aimed at curbing the illegal 
flow of people in and out of the Horn of Africa country.

The move comes 2 months after at least 30 Ethiopian migrants were shot and 
killed by Islamic State militants in Libya and after others have died while 
heading to Europe on rickety boats across the Mediterranean.

The legislation, proposed by the Ministry of Justice, contains a range of 
penalties for trafficking and smuggling including fines of up to 500,000 birr 
($7,500) and the death penalty in cases where victims suffer severe injury or 
death.

The bill must be approved by the House of Representatives, which could take 
several months, officials said.

Although Ethiopia's economy is growing at one of Africa's fastest rates, 
unemployment still remains high and thousands of people opt to take treacherous 
treks across the Sahara to reach Europe via the Mediterranean or brave the Gulf 
of Aden to reach wealthy Gulf states in search of jobs.

For a period of several months beginning in late 2013, Saudi Arabia deported 
more than 163,000 Ethiopians it said lived in the Kingdom illegally.

The U.S. State Department urged Addis Ababa last year to amend and strengthen 
its laws to tackle people smuggling, toughen penalties, boost judicial 
understanding and police capacity, as well as improve oversight of recruitment 
agencies.

The draft legislation provides immunity to victims and proposes the formation 
of a national committee led by Ethiopia's deputy prime minister to coordinate 
anti-trafficking activity.

(source: Reuters)






EGYPT:

Egyptian president 'to change law to allow faster executions' ---- Abdel Fatah 
al-Sisi - speaking at funeral of assassinated lead prosecutor - indicates he 
will cut the lengthy appeals process for those on death row


The Egyptian president, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, appears poised to further crack 
down on dissent after announcing he would fast-track the judicial process in 
the aftermath of the assassination of the country's lead prosecutor.

On Tuesday, Sisi promised new laws that will allow Egyptian courts to speed up 
hearings, and appeared to suggest that the appeals process would be 
circumvented to guarantee the execution of those on death row.

Speaking at the funeral of Hisham Barakat, the state prosecutor killed in a car 
bomb on Monday, Sisi said: "The arm of justice is chained by the law. We're not 
going to wait for this. We're going to amend the law to allow us to implement 
justice as soon as possible."

Repeating the words "the law, the law", Sisi added: "If there is a death 
sentence, a death sentence shall be enforced." According to the current 
process, a death sentence can only be enforced after lengthy appeals. But as 
Egypt has been without a sitting parliament for 2 years, Sisi - as the 
country's sole elected official - can issue laws by decree. As a result, he may 
technically be able to change the speed at which executions can be completed. 
Legal experts believe he is already enacting authoritarian laws at a rate not 
seen in Egypt for 60 years.

The investigation into Barakat's death has yet to be completed. But by 
referring to the subject of executions, Sisi appeared to imply that the 
assassination was carried out by the Muslim Brotherhood, whose leaders - 
including ex-president Mohamed Morsi - are on death row pending appeal. Egypt's 
public relations arm has already blamed the Brotherhood by name.

But while Barakat was one of the main architects of the crackdown on the 
Brotherhood - pursuing controversial cases in which thousands of alleged 
members were arrested, and hundreds sentenced to death in mass trials that 
lasted just minutes - the group itself has denied responsibility for his death. 
Analysts believe the murder instead bears the hallmarks of an Isis affiliate in 
Egypt, which carried out a similar assassination attempt on Egypt's then 
interior minister in 2013.

Amnesty International has called on the Egyptian government not to use 
Barakat's death "as a pretext for trampling upon human rights". But Sisi's 
speech, as well as wider local reaction, suggest the call may fall on deaf 
ears. Following Barakat's death, one of the most popular slogans on Egyptian 
social media was: "Execute the Brotherhood."

In a separate development on Tuesday, the Cairo correspondent for the leading 
Spanish newspaper, El Pais, revealed he had fled from Egypt after being warned 
by his embassy that he risked arrest. At least 18 journalists are currently 
behind bars in Egypt, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

(soure: The Guardian)


NORTH KOREA:

NK executes nearly 1400 from 2008 to 2014


Nearly 1,400 North Koreans were executed under the Kim Jong-un regime from 2008 
to 2014, according to a report released by the Korea Institute for National 
Unification (KINU), Wednesday.

The 455-page report, "White Paper on Human Rights in North Korea 2015," showed 
that 1,382 were killed during the period.

KINU said its findings were based on the testimony of 221 people who defected 
from North Korea to South Korea in 2014. It added the witnesses were chosen 
based on their social backgrounds and demographic characteristics.

"We believe there were a number of executions that were not witnessed by those 
whom we interviewed," an official at KINU's strategy and public relations team 
said on condition of anonymity.

The white paper showed that North Korea's state-perpetrated violations of human 
rights are still prevalent despite the United Nations' pressure to end its 
crimes against humanity.

In particular, the reclusive state increasingly has executed people in recent 
years for watching and circulating films, TV dramas and other media content 
produced by South Korea, the report said.

It pointed out that such a wide use of the death penalty contradicts 
Pyongyang's claim in a report submitted to the U.N. Human Rights Council in 
January 2014.

Back then, the Stalinist country said it carried out the death penalty only 
under "extremely limited circumstances."

The KINU report showed people detained at a range of facilities such as prisons 
are tortured, while enduring a lack of nutrition, medical attention and 
hygiene.

It said people are exiled from their hometowns because of their family 
backgrounds, criminal record and the country's economic development plan.

Since late 2013, the natives of Samjiyon County, a northeastern part of the 
country, have been subject to internal exile if they and their family members 
served in prisons, were caught attempting to flee the country, or have parents 
who were peasants.

Samjiyon County, which is in Ryanggang Province, is purportedly the hometown of 
late North Korean leader Kim Jong-il.

The report said members of some 600 households in Musan, North Hamgyeong 
Province and surrounding regions were forcibly moved out of their hometowns in 
2013 under Kim Jong-un's order to develop the area as "a model city."

The white paper is published in Korean. Its English version will be available 
in August. The KINU report has been published in both Korean and English every 
year since 1996.

The U.N. launched its human rights office in Seoul on June 23 to better monitor 
and record North Korea's human rights abuses. The office was set up in 
accordance with a U.N. Commission of Inquiry's (COI) report in February last 
year. It accused the tyrannical regime of running political prison camps where 
up to 120,000 people are thought to be detained.

Based on the COI report, the U.N. General Assembly in December 2014 passed a 
resolution that calls for the referral of Kim Jong-un to the International 
Criminal Court in the Hague, The Netherlands.

(source: Korea Times)






PAKISTAN:

3 Taliban Militants Get Death Penalty for NATO Trucks Attack


3 Taliban militants have been given an 8-time death sentence by a Pakistani 
court for attacking trucks carrying critical supplies for NATO troops in 
Afghanistan in 2010, officials said today.

Afraz-ur-Rehman, Ali Imran and Wajih-ur-Rehman, belonging to the 
Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militant group, were found guilty by a 
Rawalpindi Anti-Terrorist Court yesterday.

A lawyer confirmed that the 3 were given 8-time death sentence by the court.

The 3 were found guilty of carrying out the brazen late night attack in 
Islamabad on NATO supply convoy in 2010 in which 11 oil tankers were gutted and 
4 persons died.

More than 25 oil tankers had stopped for refuelling on the outskirts of 
Islamabad when they were attacked by at least 8 gunmen.

The gunmen first opened fire and then set the oil tankers on fire. Soon after 
the attack, TTP accepted responsibility.

TTP has often targeted NATO supplies to disrupt the US-led military operation 
in Afghanistan.

About 70 % of NATO supplies and 40 % of its fuel needs are shipped to 
Afghanistan via Pakistan.

(source: Outlook India)

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

3 TTP terrorists sentenced to death in Pakistan


An anti-terrorism court in Pakistan on Tuesday awarded the death sentence to 3 
Taliban militants for killing 4 policemen during an attack on oil tankers 
carrying fuel for NATO troops in neighbouring Afghanistan.

The outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) attacked the NATO containers in 
Attock district, some 95 km northwest of the capital city in 2010.

The court also imposed a penalty of 300,000 rupees on each convict.

The lawyer for the convicts said he would challenge the verdict in the high 
court.

A group of armed Taliban attacked the NATO tankers when their drivers were 
having dinner at a roadside hotel.

The militants fired at the police as they arrived at the scene.

The attackers had been arrested from the tribal region. Investigators said the 
TTP men had confessed to their crime.

(source: Business-Standard)