[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

Tue Mar 24 17:41:12 CDT 2015

March 24

BELARUS:

YEAR’S FIRST DEATH SENTENCE IN BELARUS

A 21-year-old man, Siarhei Ivanou, has been sentenced to death in Belarus. He 
is the first person
sentenced to death in the country this year.

View the full Urgent Action, including case information, addresses and sample 
messages, here.

Siarhei Ivanou, a 21-year-old man, was sentenced to death on 18 March by the 
Homel Regional Court
for the murder of a 19-year-old woman in August 2013. The court had found him 
guilty of “committing
murder with particular cruelty”, “hooliganism with the use of violence”, 
robbery and theft.
According to the Investigative Committee, Siarhei Ivanou had been under the 
influence of alcohol and
psychotropic drugs when he brutally beat and raped the woman, who died from her 
injuries. Siarhei
Ivanou was also found guilty of stealing her belongings.

In a closed trial, Siarhei Ivanou was represented by a state-appointed lawyer. 
He can appeal the
decision.

Belarus is the last country in Europe and Central Asia still applying the death 
penalty.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Death sentences are often imposed in Belarus after unfair trials which include 
forced confessions;
they are implemented in strict secrecy and without giving adequate notice to 
the condemned prisoners
themselves, their families or legal representatives. The authorities refuse to 
return the bodies of
those executed to their relatives or even tell them where they are buried. 
Executions are carried
out despite requests from the UN Human Rights Committee to the government not 
to do so until the
Committee has considered the cases. The Human Rights Committee and others have 
found that the
application of the death penalty in Belarus violates the human rights of those 
condemned and their
families.

View the full Urgent Action here.

Name: Siarhei Ivanou (m)
Issues: Death penalty, Legal concern
UA: 66/15
Issue Date: 23 March 2015
Country: Belarus

Please let us know if you took action so that we can track our impact!

EITHER send a short email to uan at aiusa.org with "UA 66/15" in the subject line, 
and include in the
body of the email the number of letters and/or emails you sent.

OR fill out this short online form to let us know how you took action.

Thank you for taking action! Please check with the AIUSA Urgent Action Office 
if sending appeals
after the below date. If you receive a response from a government official, 
please forward it to us
at uan at aiusa.org or to the Urgent Action Office address below.

HOW YOU CAN HELP

Please write immediately in Belarussian, Russian or your own language:
  *  Urging President Lukashenka to halt any planned executions and immediately 
commute the death
     sentence handed down to Siarhei Ivanou and all others sentenced to death in 
Belarus;
  *  Calling on him to establish an immediate moratorium on the use of the death 
penalty with a view
     to abolishing it;
  *  Urging him to ensure that up-to-date information about the use of the death 
penalty in Belarus
     is publicly available and that prisoners’ families and lawyers are given 
full access to them and
     information about their cases.

PLEASE SEND APPEALS BEFORE 4 MAY 2015 TO:

President
Alyaksandr Lukashenka
Vul. Karla Marksa 38
220016 Minsk, Belarus
Fax: 011 375 17 226 06 10
011 375 17 222 38 72
Email: contact at president.gov.by Salutation: Dear President Lukashenka

Also send copies to:
Charge d'Affaires Mr. Pavel Shidlovsky, Embassy of Belarus
1619 New Hampshire Ave NW, Washington DC 20009
Fax: 1 202 986 1805  I  Phone: 1 202 986 1606  I  Email: usa at mfa.gov.by

And copies to:
Prosecutor General
Alyaksandr Kaniuk
Vul. Internatsianalnaya 22
220050 Minsk, Belarus
Fax: 011 375 17 226 42 52 (Say "fax" clearly if voice answers)
Email: info at prokuratura.gov.by
Salutation: Dear Prosecutor General

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you share with your
networks, instead of forwarding the original email, please use the "Forward 
this email to a friend"
link found at the very bottom of this email. Thank you for your activism!

UA Network Office AIUSA │600 Pennsylvania Ave SE, Washington DC 20003
T. 202.509.8193 │ F. 202.509.8193 │E. uan at aiusa.org │amnestyusa.org/urgent

CHINA----executions

China executes 3 for Kunming railway station attack which killed 31 ---- 
China's Supreme People's Court announces the deaths on microblog saying the 3 
were part of a terrorist organisation

China has executed 3 people for a mass stabbing that killed 31 people last 
year, the country's top court said Tuesday, with authorities blaming the attack 
on separatists from mainly Muslim Xinjiang.

Iskandar Ehet, Turgun Tohtunyaz and Hasayn Muhammad were put to death for 
"leading a terrorist organisation and intentional homicide", the Supreme 
People's Court said in a microblog post.

China uses both lethal injection and shooting for executions, but the method 
used this time was not specified.

The bloodshed in Kunming, in the southwestern province of Yunnan, also saw more 
than 140 people wounded and was dubbed "China's 9/11" by state-run media.

Beijing blamed it on "separatists" from the resource-rich far western Xinjiang, 
where at least 200 have died in attacks and clashes between locals and security 
forces over the last year.

Incidents have grown in scale and sophistication and spread beyond the restive 
region, with the Kunming mass knifing the biggest such attack against civilians 
outside Xinjiang.

A female attacker, Patigul Tohti, was pregnant at the time of her arrest and 
was sentenced to life in prison.

Rights groups accuse China's government of cultural and religious repression 
they say fuels unrest in Xinjiang, which borders Central Asia.

Beijing defends its policies, arguing it has boosted economic development in 
the area and that it upholds minority and religious rights in a country with 56 
recognised ethnic groups.

China executes more people than the rest of the world combined, according to 
rights organisations. The country put an estimated 2,400 people to death last 
year.

(source: The Guardian)

SOMALIA----executions

Somalia's military court executes soldiers over killings

2 Somali government soldier have been executed on Tuesday after they were found 
guilty of murdering 3 civilians in Mogadishu.

Somalia's military court Chief Colonel Liban Yarow told journalists in the 
scene that the court found evidences that both soldiers had committed the crime 
that they had been accused for.

Dozens of people watched about several soldiers open fire at the 2 soldiers, 
identified as Abdirahman Issa Ahmed and Abdullahi Ali Abdi Igal, who had been 
blindfolded and tied to 2 poles.

Somalia uses its military court to punish members of al-Shabaab militant group 
which wants to overthrow the government and its soldiers who commit heavy 
crimes. But the court has also prosecuted civilians who have been accused of 
minor cases and later on went to face harsh punishments.

Death penalty is legal in Somalia, a mostly lawless state in East Africa.

Last year, the European Union urged Somali authorities to place a moratorium on 
the death penalty.

(source: horseedmedia.com)

PAKISTAN----execution

1 more execution in Multan

Another convict was executed today at the Multan Central Jail taking the total 
number of executions up to 49 across the country since Pakistan lifted 
self-imposed moratorium on death penalty.

Nasrullah, convicted of murdering a man in 1994, was executed at Multan Central 
Jail early morning today, said prison authorities stressing not to be named.

(source: The Nation)

**********

IHC stays death sentence of murder convict

The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Tuesday stayed the implementation on death 
sentence of a convict in the double murder case till March, 30.

The counsel for the convict Zulifkar Ali Khan pleaded that as per the court 
verdict his client was given the death penalty through firing squad, but it was 
being planned to execute him by hanging.

After hearing the arguments, the court ordered to stop implementation on the 
death sentence and adjourned the hearing till March, 30. The convict was to be 
executed on March, 25. The Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) had announced death 
penalty to Zulifkar Ali Khan in a double murder case in 1999.

(source: Daily Times)