[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

July 31



BANGLADESH:

Bangladesh upholds opposition leader's death sentence


The Daily Star has talked to people from separate quarters of life after the 
Supreme Court upheld the war criminal's death penalty yesterday and found 
similar opinion.

He is the 2nd former Minister of Bangladesh to have the death sentence upheld 
by the top court, the other being Jamaat-e-islami leader Ali Hasan Mujahid.

Justice ATM Fazle Kabir, head judge of ICT-1, had then announced that 9 out of 
23 charges, which include mass killings, murder, genocide and conspiracy to 
kill intellectuals during the country's Liberation War in 1971, against the 
64-year-old leader were proved beyond reasonable doubt.

The worldwide Crimes Tribunal, a special domestic court to investigate war 
crimes, found Chowdhury guilty of the charges that included torture, murder and 
looting.

The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court has upheld a war tribunal's death 
sentence to BNP leader Salauddin Quader Chowdhury for committing crimes against 
humanity during the Liberation War in 1971.

"The verdict has fulfilled our expectations", said Attorney general Mahbubey 
Alam.

Chowdhury is the first leader of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), led by 
former prime minister Khaleda Zia, to be walking to the gallows for atrocities 
during the country???s war of independence from Pakistan.

"Maintained", Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha said, upholding a 2013 verdict 
by the global Crimes Tribunal sentencing 66-year-old Salahuddin Quader 
Chowdhury to death.

On 29 October of the same year, Salauddin Quader Chowdhury filed an appeal with 
the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court against the ICT verdict.

Many government opponents claim that the authorities use the war crimes 
tribunal as a tool to silence dissent.

The ruling clears the way for the man???s execution unless he gets presidential 
clemency.

"Chowdhury became a victim of political vengeance", party spokesman Asaduzzaman 
Ripon told reporters.

Son of the then Convention Muslim League party leader Fazlul Qader Chowdhury, 
Salauddin Quader Chowdhury was elected MP from different constituencies in 
Chittagong since 1979.

Salauddin Quader Chowdhury (C) is a key figure in the main opposition 
Bangladesh Nationalist Party.

(source: tvnewsroom.com)






GLOBAL:

5 Countries Where Homosexuality Is Punishable by Death


While LGBT citizens of the United States continue to face legal and cultural 
discrimination, it???s important to remember that many parts of the world still 
operate with barbaric attitudes toward queer individuals.

President Barack Obama bravely spoke about equal rights on his recent trip to 
Kenya, despite ugly protest from some within the country.

Over 75 countries continue to criminalize homosexuality. But even worse, at 
least six parts of the world still prescribe death for non-heterosexual 
citizens.

These are some of the places where being gay or bisexual can result in state 
death.

Iran

In Iran, male homosexuality is punishable by death, while women are flogged for 
their "offense."

Making the situation even more abominable, minors found "guilty" of homosexual 
acts can be lashed.

According to human rights advocates, thousands of gay people have been murdered 
by the state since 1979, although the death penalty seems to be losing favor 
contemporarily.

Saudi Arabia

Individuals found "guilty" of homosexuality more than once are put to death, 
but some are murdered by the state on the 1st "offense."

According to International Business Times, "Saudi politicians have been pushing 
for a tougher crackdown on homosexuality, including immigration measures 
against LGBT expatriates living in the kingdom that would allow for prompt 
deportation."

Just last month, religious police raided parties thought to contain LGBT 
individuals. Numerous people were arrested on "suspicion of homosexuality."

Yemen

Yemeni law describes homosexuality as a crime punishable by death. But some 
LGBT citizens don't make it to sentencing.

Members of the al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) have taken it upon 
themselves to personally murder gay individuals.

There are numerous reports of youth being slaughtered. Families say they've 
reported the deaths and Yemen's government has done nothing about it.

Islamic Republic of Mauritania

This small African country is among the most explicitly anti-LGBT in the world. 
Here's an English translation of current law:

"Article 308: Any adult Muslim who has committed an indecent act or an act 
against nature with an individual of the same sex will be punished to death by 
public stoning. If the act is between 2 women, they will be punished by the 
punishment established in paragraph 1 of Article 306."

The country's already anti-LGBT laws were amended in 1983 to include Sharia 
law, which resulted in the current death penalty.

Sudan

The North African country currently employs the death penalty against both men 
and women found "guilty" of homosexuality.

Usually, men are executed on the 3rd "offense," while woman are often executed 
on the 1st.

The current law has been on the books since 1991.

There are others...


Keep in mind that, due to shifting legal and cultural landscapes, there are 
almost certainly even more countries where LGBT citizens face the death 
penalty. Some put the number of countries where gays can be murdered at 10.

Even if not officially, LGBT citizens face death in many parts of the world 
extrajudicially.

While countries like the U.S. are seeing a surge in support for LGBT citizens, 
let's remember to keep fighting for LGBT rights around the world for the 
millions of people who still face violence and oppression because of who they 
are.

(source: care2.com)






PAKISTAN----executions

3 murder convicts executed in Pakistan


3 murder convicts were hanged on Friday in Pakistan's Lahore city.

The executions took place in Lahore Central Jail, Geo News reported.

Samar Jan and Nadeem Shehzad were convicted in 1998 of kidnapping and killing a 
child.

Riaz Yousuf was convicted for killing 2 people.

(source: Zee News)

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

Islamist "Justice": Slow Painful Death for Christian Mother in Pakistan----A 
case study on the plight of Christians in the 'Land of the Pure.'


Pakistan's authorities appear to have found a solution to at least one of their 
problems in the international arena: Aasiya Noreen, or "Asia Bibi," a 
50-year-old Christian woman and mother of 5 who has been on death row for 6 
years for allegedly insulting Muhammad.

Instead of executing Asia Bibi and further advertising to the international 
community that theirs is a savage and backwards nation - and instead of 
releasing her and provoking millions of angry Muslims to turn on the government 
and accuse it of supporting "apostasy" - Pakistan's authorities appear to be 
letting time, wretched conditions, severe maltreatment, and beatings slowly 
kill her.

Recent reports state that she is deathly ill and "so weak she could hardly 
walk." Mission Network News says that Asia Bibi has "internal bleeding, 
abdominal pain, and is vomiting blood. If she does not receive immediate 
medical care, she could die."

According to Bruce Allen of Forgotten Missionaries International, "She suffers 
terrible pain, and she can hardly eat. ... Here's this woman, languishing in a 
prison under this death sentence for a crime that she vehemently denies."

In June 2009, while working as a farm laborer on a hot day, Asia Bibi was told 
to fetch water. Because she had drunk some of the water, the Muslim workers 
refused it: both the cup and the water were, they said, unclean because a 
Christian had touched them.

Before the "cup" incident, it seems, a feud between Asia and one of her Muslim 
neighbors concerning property damage had existed.

After the "cup" incident, her enemies and some of the Muslim workers complained 
to a Muslim cleric. They accused Asia Bibi of making insulting statements about 
the Muslim prophet, Muhammad. Her official "crime," therefore, which she 
vehemently denies, is "insulting" the Muslim prophet Muhammad.

Shortly after the complaint was registered, a mob stormed her home and severely 
beat her and her family, including her children. They put a noose around her 
neck and dragged her through the streets. She was then arrested; and in 
November 2010, a Punjabi court fined her and sentenced her to death by hanging, 
in accordance to Section 295-C, which prohibits on pain of death any insult 
against the Muslim prophet Muhammad.

Because her case attracted attention and condemnation from the international 
community, 6 years later, she has not been executed. Instead, however, sick, 
isolated and regularly beaten by prison guards and Muslim inmates, she has 
evidently been left to rot to death.

In late 2011, a female prison-officer - assigned to provide security for Asia - 
was discovered beating her, "allegedly because of the Muslim officer's 
anti-Christian bias, while other staff members deployed for her security looked 
on in silence."

In late December 2013, Asia Bibi, a Catholic, sent a message to Pope Francis, 
saying,

Only God will be able to free me. ... I also hope that every Christian has been 
able to celebrate the Christmas just past with joy. Like many other prisoners, 
I also celebrated the birth of the Lord in prison in Multan, here in Pakistan 
... I would have liked to be in St. Peter's for Christmas to pray with you, but 
I trust in God's plan for me and hopefully it will be achieved next year.

It was not. In 2014, a Pakistani court upheld her death penalty. Recently, Pope 
Francis called for clemency for Asia Bibi while the U.S. Commission on 
International Religious Freedom pressed the Obama administration to designate 
Pakistan a "country of particular concern."

Last year, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, citing Asia Bibi in particular, as well 
others, called for the use of the $900 million in U.S. aid to Pakistan as 
leverage to help persecuted religious minorities. If these funds are not used 
as leverage, nearly $1 billion in U.S. aid can be seen as "rewarding" Pakistan 
for being openly unjust to its minorities.

Christian minorities are still arrested for "defaming Muhammad" - that is, if a 
Muslim mob does not get to them first and burn them alive, as happened to a 
Christian couple last year, and as was recently attempted against a mentally 
disabled Christian man.

According to Wilson Chowdhry of the British Pakistani Christian Association:

Asia Bibi is by no means the only Christian on death row for blasphemy in 
Pakistan. There are a number of others, and there are also other Christians who 
are in there for crimes they did not commit, and are in effect in there because 
they are Christians.

People have to contact leaders of their nations and ask them to engage on 
dialogue with the Pakistani government for humanitarian rights alone renew the 
primary place of human rights when they engage in dialogue with foreign 
governments which habitually violate them. We see what happens when someone 
tries to challenge the blasphemy laws in Pakistan, it got two key politicians 
killed.

In a country with such animosity against Christians, I don'y believe a Supreme 
Court judge will be brave enough to exonerate her.

A report from 2012 found that "Since 1990 alone, 52 people have been 
extra-judicially murdered on charges of blasphemy" in Pakistan.

Yet every time any Western entity calls for her release, Pakistani Muslims 
threaten to take Sharia law into their own hands and murder her. 5 years ago, a 
mosque prayer leader announced that anyone who manages to kill her would be 
rewarded with $6,000. It is a strong incentive, considering that many in 
Pakistan would probably kill her for free.

As Asia Bibi's husband, Ashiq Masih, puts it:

The Maulvis [clerics] want her dead. They have announced a prize of Rs 10,000 
to Rs 500,000 (???60 to ???3,200) for anyone who kills Asia. They have even 
declared that if the court acquits her they will ensure the death sentence 
stands.

I am planning our protection. If she is set free I hope we are moved to a safer 
country, as Pakistan cannot protect her.

She has not made any mistake. We all know she has not committed any crime. We 
all know how Pakistan treats Christians. She was framed, she never committed 
any crime.

Even some of those who have stood up for Asia Bibi have been murdered: 2 of her 
most prominent advocates, Governor Salmaan Taseer and Minority Affairs Minister 
Shabaz Bhatti, were both slaughtered.

Taseer was shot 27 times by Mumtaz Qadri - his own bodyguard - as he left his 
mother's home. The bodyguard cited as his motive that the governor was 
supportive of a Christian woman accused of blasphemy.

After the murder, more than 500 Muslim clerics voiced support for the crime, 
and further pushed for a general boycott of Taseer's funeral. Supporters of 
Mumtaz Qadri blocked police who were attempting to arrest him, and some 
supporters showered him with rose petals.

As for Bhatti, a Christian, Taliban-linked Muslims murdered him for his 
outspoken position against Pakistan's blasphemy law and his support for Asia 
Bibi. His car was ambushed and sprayed with bullets. A letter left at the scene 
said that anyone who tried to tamper with Pakistan's blasphemy law would suffer 
the same fate.

Bhatti, who received innumerable death threats, predicted his own murder. In a 
prerecorded video released after his death, he said, "I believe in Jesus Christ 
who has given his own life for us ... and I am ready to die for a cause ... I 
am living for my community ... and I will die to defend their rights."

The investigation into his murder was so lax (a series of suspects were freed) 
that it has been suggested that the Pakistani government may have been involved 
in - or at least sympathetic to - his assassination, for being a Christian and 
opposed to the blasphemy law.

Pakistan does not require proof of a crime, only allegations - often made for 
extraneous reasons, and totally unfounded.

Pakistanis' extreme sensitivity to any potential insult to Muhammad is 
reflected in several laws in the nation's penal code. Section 295-C reads:

Whoever by words, either spoken or written or by visible representation, or by 
any imputation, innuendo, or insinuation, directly or indirectly, defiles the 
sacred name of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) shall be punished with death, 
or imprisonment for life, and shall also be liable to fine.

Because non-Muslims - particularly Christians, who by definition are known to 
reject Muhammad's prophecy - are more likely to be suspected of blasphemy, and 
because, according to Islamic law, the word of a Christian is not valid against 
the word of a Muslim, blasphemy accusations by Muslims against Christians 
routinely result in the Christians being imprisoned, beaten and killed. 
Sometimes the accused is killed even when there is no evidence.

In Pakistan, this scenario plays itself out over and over again. Christians, 
who reportedly make up less than 1 % of the population in Pakistan, are 
especially vulnerable to charges of blasphemy.

Years before Asia Bibi was falsely accused, in 1994, Amnesty International 
reported:

Several dozen people have been charged with blasphemy in Pakistan over the last 
few years; in all the cases known to Amnesty International, the charges of 
blasphemy appear to have been arbitrarily brought, founded solely on the 
individuals' minority religious beliefs. ... The available evidence in all 
these cases suggests that charges were brought as a measure to intimidate and 
punish members of minority religious communities ... hostility towards 
religious minority groups appeared in many cases to be compounded by personal 
enmity, professional or economic rivalry or a desire to gain political 
advantage. As a consequence, Amnesty International has concluded that most of 
the individuals now facing charges of blasphemy, or convicted on such charges, 
are prisoners of conscience, detained solely for their real or imputed 
religious beliefs in violation of their right to freedom of thought, conscience 
and religion.

In a recent interview, Asia Bibi's husband, Ashiq, said:

I really love her and miss her presence. I cannot sleep at night as I miss her. 
I miss her smile; I miss everything about her. She is my soulmate. I cannot see 
her in prison. It breaks my heart. Life has been non-existent without her. ... 
My children cry for their mother, they are broken. But I try to give them hope 
where I can.

The British Pakistani Christian Association has started a petition calling for 
Bibi's release, and offers more ways to help Asia's case and help her husband 
with legal fees.

(source: frontpagemag.com)

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

UN and UK experts call on Pakistan to halt all executions


A group of UN experts and a leading UK legal body have called on Pakistan's 
government to halt all planned executions, including the hanging next Tuesday 
(4th) of Shafqat Hussain, who was tortured by police and convicted as a 
juvenile. (http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/21939)

In a statement released last night, the UN Special Rapporteurs - including 
experts on torture, summary executions, and children's rights - called on 
Pakistan to stop all further executions, and to commute the sentences of those 
on the country's 8,500-strong death row - the largest in the world.

The statement raises concerns about the cases of several prisoners next in line 
for hanging, including Shafqat, Abdul Basit - who is paralysed and uses a 
wheelchair (http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/21943) - and Khizar Hayat, who is 
severely mentally ill. (http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/21796)

The experts said that "most" of the hangings scheduled for the coming days 
"fall short of international norms", and called on Pakistan "to continue the 
moratorium on actual executions and to put in place a legal moratorium on the 
death penalty, with a view to its abolition."

The UN call follows the release of a report issued on 29 July raising similar 
concerns from a leading group of British human rights lawyers, the Bar Human 
Rights Committee of England and Wales (BHRC). In a statement, BHRC chair Kirsty 
Brimelow QC said: "The Government of Pakistan should halt all executions 
pending a full and impartial evaluation of the cases of all condemned persons."

She added: "According to international law, countries that continue to use the 
death penalty may only impose the sentence for the most serious of crimes and 
only after all guarantees of fair trial rights have been respected."

Pakistan has hanged some 192 people since lifting its moratorium on the death 
penalty in December, and has overtaken Saudi and the US in rate of executions. 
The Pakistani government's claims that it is executing 'terrorists' was called 
into question this week by a Reuters report finding that the vast majority of 
those executed - an estimated 70 % - had no links to militancy.

Concerns over Shafqat's scheduled execution were raised in Pakistan recently by 
a statutory human rights watchdog. In an opinion, the Sindh Human Rights 
Commission - headed by a retired judge - called for a halt to plans to execute 
Shafqat, and for a full examination of his allegations of police torture and 
his young age at the time of sentencing. The Commission criticised the inquiry 
into his age carried out by the Government's Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) 
as "not admissible", and said: "We fail to understand why [there was] such a 
careless handling of a serious case where [the] life of a human being is at 
stake." It also questioned whether Shafqat can "be executed when there is so 
much confusion and the evidence is lacking."

Commenting, Kate Higham, Pakistan caseworker at human rights organisation 
Reprieve, said: "This is a clear call to the Pakistani government, from both 
outside and within Pakistan, to stop its senseless wave of executions. With 
nearly 200 killed, the UN is right to condemn Pakistan for its appalling plans 
to hang yet more, including Shafqat Hussain next week, as well as mentally ill 
and disabled prisoners. Pakistan must urgently listen and halt all executions, 
before more lives are needlessly lost."

* Reprieve http://www.reprieve.org.uk/

(source: ekklesia.co.uk)






IRAN----executions

Iran hangs 6 more prisoners, including 2nd woman in 2 days


Iran's regime on Thursday hanged 5 prisoners, including a woman, in the 
south-eastern city of Kerman, and it executed another prisoner in the city of 
Ardebil, north-west Iran.

3 of the men executed in Kerman were identified as Ezzat Sabeki, Meysam 
Shahraki and Ali Zehi. The victims were executed in Kerman's Shahab Prison.

Another man was hanged Thursday morning in the central prison of Ardebil, 
according to the state-run Tasnim news agency.

3 other death-row prisoners in the southern city of Bandar Abbas were on 
Thursday transferred to solitary confinement in preparation for their imminent 
execution.

They were identified as Yousef Shahnavazi Shahdadi, 25; Kamran Zarei, 47; and 
Jamal Kasebkar Darandeh, 45.

The mullahs' regime on Wednesday hanged a 43-year-old mother in a prison in the 
city of Karaj, in Alborz Province, north-west of Tehran.

The woman, identified as Ms. Pari-Dokht Molai-Far, was hanged in the notorious 
Qezelhesar Prison. The mother of 1 had been imprisoned in the notorious Qarchak 
Prison for Women in the city of Varamin for the past 3 years and was 
transferred to Qezelhesar to face execution.

Qarchak Prison, also referred to as 'Qarchak Death Camp', was used by the 
Iranian regime as a place to brutally torture and rape those arrested during 
the 2009 anti-regime popular protests. The death of at least four young 
protesters under torture in Qarchak turned into a scandal for the Iranian 
regime.

Also on Wednesday, the mullahs' regime hanged 3 men in a public square in 
Karaj. The 3 men, who were not named, were hanged at dawn.

At least 37 prisoners have been executed in Iran in the past 9 days, the 
equivalent of more than 4 executions per day.

Faced with escalating popular discontent and unable to respond to the rightful 
demands of the majority of the Iranian people who are living under the poverty 
line, the religious fascism ruling Iran - dubbed the 'godfather of ISIS' by the 
Iranian people - is ramping up suppression.

(source: NCR-Iran)

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

Iran's 'Execution Spree' Continues; 31 Slaughtered in 9 Days----43-year-old 
mother among those executed as Iran ups its killing-rate. Amnesty condemns 
'premeditated, judicially-sanctioned' mass killings.


Iran's "execution spree" is continuing full force, according to opposition 
activists - and at an alarming rate.

A recent Amnesty International report revealed the Islamic Republic was 
executing an average of 3 people per day, with nearly 700 people executed in 
the 1st half of 2015 alone, many for political crimes or on trumped-up charges.

At that rate, the theocratic regime is expected to surpass 2014's execution 
rate of 734 by mid-August.

However, it looks like that grim record may be set far sooner, as at least 31 
people were reportedly executed over the past 9 days.

According to the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), one of the most 
recent execution was of a 43-year-old mother, who was hanged in a prison in the 
city of Karaj, north-west of the capital Tehran.

"The woman, identified as Ms. Pari-Dokht Molai-Far, was hanged on Wednesday in 
the notorious Qezelhesar Prison," the NCRI said.

It said 3 unidentified men were also executed "at dawn" in Karaj on the same 
day, and that simultaneously 5 other condemned men on death row were 
transferred to solitary confinement in preparation for their own imminent 
execution.

The group named 3 of them as Ezzat Sabeki, Meysam Shahraki and Ali Zehi.

It did not say what charges the executed and condemned men were sentenced.

In its report last week, Amnesty said the alarming rate of execution was 
particularly disturbing given the fact that the courts imposing the death 
penalty are "completely lacking in independence and impartiality."

"Iran's staggering execution toll for the 1st half of this year paints a 
sinister picture of the machinery of the state carrying out premeditated, 
judicially-sanctioned killings on a mass scale," said Said Boumedouha, Deputy 
Director of Amnesty International's Middle East and North AfricaProgramme.


"If Iran's authorities maintain this horrifying execution rate we are likely to 
see more than 1,000 state-sanctioned deaths by the year's end."

The majority of those executed so far in 2015 have been for drug offenses - 
with trafficking even relatively small amounts of narcotics a crime punishable 
by death.

But Iran has a long record of using trumped-up narcotics charges to execute 
political dissidents or rights campaigners from the country's persecuted ethnic 
and religious minority groups such as Kurds, Baloch, Bahai and Sunni Muslims. 
Alternatively, political opponents or minority rights activists are regularly 
convicted of vague "crimes" such as "enmity against God" or "spreading 
corruption on earth."

"They are imposed either for vaguely worded or overly broad offences, or acts 
that should not be criminalised at all, let alone attract the death penalty," 
Amnesty said of many of the executions reported.

"Trials in Iran are deeply flawed, detainees are often denied access to 
lawyers, and there are inadequate procedures for appeal, pardon and 
commutation," it added.

Apart from those whose death sentences have been carried out, Amnesty claims 
several thousand more are currently languishing on death row.

(source: Israel National News)



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

Norway Expresses Serious Concern Over Imminent Execution of Juvenile Prisoner 
Salar Shadizadi


The Norwegian government has issued a press release on its website expressing 
serious concern regarding the imminent execution of Salar Shadizadi.

Iran Human Rights, July 30 2015: In a press release issued today, the Norwegian 
government has expressed serious concern over reports that the execution of 
juvenile prisoner Salar Shadizadi is imminent. "International laws clearly 
state that people who commit crimes under the age of 18 shall not be sentenced 
to death," says Norway's Foreign Minister, B???rge Brende.

According to the press release, the Norwegian government, United Nations 
officials and other governments have expressed serious concerns regarding the 
human rights situation in Iran.

Salar Shadizadi's family was reportedly able to meet with him "for the last 
time" on Wednesday. According to reports by Amnesty International, Salar is 
currently being held in solitary confinement in Lakan Prison (in the province 
of Rasht) until his execution date.

Salar was reportedly 15 years old when Iranian authorities arrested him in 
February 2006 for the alleged murder of his friend, he has been imprisoned 
since. Iranian authorities are reportedly planning to carry out his execution 
this Saturday.

Iran Human Rights (IHR) calls on the international community to react to 
Salar's imminent execution and help stop it. "Executing Salar Shadizadi will be 
a clear violation of Iran's international obligations. The execution is 
scheduled to take place at the same time that the High Representative of the 
European Union (EU), Federica Mogherini, and the French Foreign, Minister 
Laurent Fabius, are in Iran. We call on the international community, especially 
the EU to use all their channels to stop Salar's execution," says Mahmood 
Amiry-Moghaddam, executive director of IHR.

(source: Iran Human Rights)