[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Nov. 8



GLOBAL:

Women Around the World Are Being Stoned to Death; Under Islamic Penal Code


Stoning [Rajm in Arabic] to death is a barbaric act from a primitive societies 
in the world,women have become victims of honor killing in the world.

Recently, an Afghan woman, identified as Rokhsana, has been stoned to death in 
central Afghanistan after being accused of adultery, news agencies stated. 
Rokhsana had been allegedly forced to marry against her will and fled with 
another man, Afghan officials said. She, 19-year-old, was allegedly accused of 
trying to elope with another man but detained, tried and executed in a 
Taliban-controlled area, confirmed Ghor's governor, Seema Jowenda, to the 
reporters.

A 30-second online video was appearing to show the punishment has been released 
online. "It shows a woman in a hole in the ground surrounded by turbaned men 
who hurl stones at her," BBC said. The man she was accused of eloping with was 
flogged.

The sickening event had been happened about a week ago in "Taliban control" 
area just outside Firozkoh, the capital of central Ghor Province.

Officials in Ghor told the medias that "this is the 1st incident in the area 
[this year] by local religious leaders and armed warlords, but will not be the 
last.

"There is no any legal penalty for Mulla's sodomy, buggers, multiple marriages 
for men, forced marriage against juvenile girls, selling of unmarried girls to 
become wives, domestic violence against women, disobeying of the rules, drug 
smuggling, artefacts trafficking, robbery and embezzlement in my country. 
However, love is a crime for women which is punishable by stoning; she had not 
committed to crime as murder or illegal attitudes. Her only crime was love 
shack and live freely; killing an innocent girl is an honor for men in my 
country", Sahar Samet an Afghan journalist stated in her Facebook account.

In March, another Afghan woman named Farkhunda was savagely beaten and set 
ablaze in Kabul after being falsely accused of burning a copy of Quran.

On July 11, 2013, a young mother of 2 called Arifa Bibi was stoned to death in 
a village in Dera Ghazi Khan, Pakistan. She was sentenced to death by stoning 
by a Pakistani tribal court, and was executed at the hands of her family. Her 
family included uncles, cousins and other relatives threw stones at Arifa until 
she died, all because she had a cell phone.

The Asian Human Rights Commission received news regarding the murder of Ms. 
Shamim Akhtar, 50, who worked for the social welfare organization in Tando Jam, 
Sindh Province. She was brutally chopped to death by her husband Mr. Sajid 
Mahmood and Usman Lodhi, a police constable, on June 4, 2013. Her younger 
sister Ms. Tasleem Akhtar, 40, also was gunned down by three armed men at 11:30 
a.m on 29 June. Shamim was punished by the police because she had raised 
awareness of the murder of a Hindu young man in the Gulashan Hali police 
station by brutal tortures. She was always fighting against the police 
brutality.

Aisha Ibrahim Duhulow, 23-year-old girl, was killed on Monday, 27 October 2008, 
by a group of 50 men who stoned her to death in a stadium in the southern port 
of Kismayu, in front of around 1,000 spectators, Amnesty International 
declared. She was accused of adultery in breach of the Islamic Laws; Aisha had 
in fact been raped by three men, and it was this act that eventuated in her 
being accused of adultery and arrested, her relatives said AI.

On 19 October 2015, a woman, who allegedly gave birth out of wedlock, was 
convicted to death by stoning in the Maldives' top court. However, the verdict 
was quashed by the Supreme Court, but the island nation had previously carried 
flogging sentences to those convicted of extramarital sex. In 2013, a 
15-year-old girl sentenced to 100 lashes after being guilty of premarital sex; 
the High Court later overturned the verdict because she had been wrongly 
convicted.

An Iranian woman Sakineh Ashtiani, who was convicted to the capital punishment 
of conducting an illicit relationship outside marriage in 2006, freed after 
having about ten years in Tabriz prison. The alleged adultery convicted woman 
was arrested in 2005 on charges of adultery and conspiracy to commit murder in 
the death of her husband. She was sentenced to death by stoning [the sentence 
was to be implemented in July 2010] but the Iranian authorities indicated in 
December 2011 that they intend to go ahead with her execution by hanging.

The picture belongs to the "Stoning of Soraya's" movie.

Accordingly, the true story of Soraya, who was stoned to death in Iran nearly 
35 years ago, got made as a movie by Iranian stars. "She is drenched in blood 
and crumpled on the ground, mutilated face partially obscured by a mass of dark 
hair" Daily Mail described a part of movie [the moment of execution by 
stoning].

A married Saudi Arabian princess has been given asylum because she had an 
illegitimate child by a British man, Daily Mail said in 2009. The news agency 
added that if she returned home she would face being stoned to death for 
adultery, as she claimed.

Women in general have problems all over the countries control by Sharia laws, 
but in areas control by Taliban and ISIS even more conservative trend overcome. 
The illegal judicial systems often victimize women in the Islamic countries. 
Adultery is a capital offense in the countries under the Sharia Laws and 
punishable by stoning, hanging and flogging which is gaining attention of Human 
Rights groups and people throughout the world.

In Nigeria (in 1/3 of the country's states), Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, 
Somalia, Sudan, the United Arab Emirates, Yemen and Iran, stoning is a legal 
penalty [Hudud punishment].

If we want to compare women rights in the countries govern by Islamic rules 
with that of western women, we can see huge disparities as the Muslim women are 
still denied their basic fundamental rights. The women are treated as 2nd-class 
citizens, but authorities chose to ignore it as well. The basic civil rights 
chosen to reject women accessing rights as entering stadiums, gender barriers 
in the market, no control on their bodies and leaving the country without their 
husband permission.

Background of the adultery punishment*

The Code of Hammurabi (18th-century bc) in Babylonia provided a punishment of 
death by drowning for adultery. In ancient Greece and in Roman law, an 
offending female spouse could be killed, but men were not severely punished. 
The Jewish, Islamic, and Christian traditions are all unequivocal in their 
condemnation of adultery [Zina].

*Britannica

(source: iranian.com)

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

Moving Away from the Death Penalty


Statement delivered on November 5, 2015 by the Permanent Representative of 
Italy to the United Nations, Ambassador Sebastiano Cardi, at the Book Launch 
"Moving away from death penalty - II edition"

Mr. Secretary-General, excellencies, ladies and gentleman,

There are at least t2 main reasons why during the last years Italy has been at 
the side of OHCHR in supporting its work on the death penalty. And why we are 
today extremely glad to mark the achievement of one of the results of our 
cooperation.

First, because we strongly value the engagement of OHCHR, under the SG's 
resolute guidance as we all just heard, to move away from capital punishment. 
The work of OHCHR on the death penalty, articulated in a series of 
awareness-raising and discussion events on the most crucial aspects of the 
issue, fully reflects the principles of our "engagement": inclusiveness, 
respect and motivation.

Since the outset of a Campaign (that has seen Italy at the forefront for many 
years) we have been deeply convinced that, as all global endeavours, this one 
can be attained only through cooperation, dialogue, mutual respect and 
understanding among all Members States, in accordance with the Charter of the 
United Nations.

We will continue to champion this approach.

The 2nd reason lies in the fact that we believe in this book; in its power to 
promote discussion, national debates and exchange of experiences. Our Prime 
Minister Matteo Renzi accepted to be one of the leaders to contribute to this 
collection of articles. He was happy to share his experience and convey our 
approach on this very important issue. Deeply convinced that a frank exchange 
can benefit from all views, we express sincere appreciation for all and every 
progress toward moving away from capital punishment, including "narrowing 
policies" of retentionist Countries.

Mr. Secretary-General, excellencies, ladies and gentleman,

We must continue our campaign, a campaign for human dignity. If any of the 
articles of the book provokes national public debates in any Country and 
contributes to our goal, we will feel rewarded.

Thank you

(source: EuropaNewswire, Permanent Mission of Italy to the United Nations)






SCOTLAND:

The demise of the death penalty


50 years after the abolition of the death penalty in Britain, Dani Garavelli 
asks what brought about its demise and why fewer people now mourn its passing

"Of all the House of Commons' personalities, the most irritating is perhaps Mr 
Sydney Silverman," wrote fellow Labour MP Joseph Mallalieu in the New Statesman 
in 1956. He went on to catalogue Silverman's many perceived faults: his 
cockiness, his preoccupation with his own shortness, his outre manner and his 
habit of arguing the toss over some technical point long after everyone else 
had got bored, before adding: "But the most irritating thing about him is that, 
far more often than not, he is proved right."

Silverman - the son of a Jewish draper, who was later suspended from the Labour 
whip for his stance on nuclear weapons - was a paid-up member of "the awkward 
squad". According to another colleague, Richard Crossman, he was "vain, 
difficult and uncooperative. All his life he remained an individualist 
back-bencher." But when Silverman believed in a cause, he wouldn't let go. And 
he believed in the campaign to end capital punishment.

It took him almost 2 decades, but Silverman achieved his goal. On 8 November, 
1965, his bill to abolish the death penalty for everything but treason or 
piracy received Royal Assent, albeit with a sunset clause that said the act 
would expire in 1970, unless parliament took action in the interim). Parliament 
did take action, and the decision was cemented by a large majority in 1969.

By the time Silverman's Bill became law - 50 years ago today - public opinion 
had shifted slightly on the death penalty. Several high-profile hangings - 
Timothy Evans, Derek Bentley and Ruth Ellis - had prompted disquiet over the 
potential injustice of the system and several high-profile figures, including 
Arthur Koestler, publisher and humanitarian Victor Gollancz and Anglican canon 
John Collins, had lent their considerable moral authority to the campaign.

Even so, the decision was contentious and remained so for several decades. Most 
ordinary people continued to see hanging as the most effective deterrent to 
serious crime. They had no interest in the ethical qualms of intellectuals and 
the arrest of Myra Hindley and Ian Brady, just 4 weeks after the act came into 
force, simply hardened their position.

Now, however, the clamour for the death penalty to be reinstated in the UK has 
weakened. A poll earlier this year put support at less than 50 per cent for the 
1st time, and, in 2011, when right-wing blogger Paul Staines - aka Guido Fawkes 
- started an e-petition calling for the restoration of hanging for those who 
kill children or police officers, he fell far short of garnering the 100,000 
signatures needed to spark a parliamentary debate. While high-profile cases, 
such as the murder of the Soham schoolgirls, Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, 
cause a short-term spike in support for capital punishment, there is no 
sustained appetite for its return.

The campaign to abolish the death penalty in the UK didn't really start gaining 
momentum until after the Second World War, but there were pockets of resistance 
as far back as the early 19th century. In those days, there were more than 200 
separately defined capital crimes and 1,000 people were being sentenced to 
death every year. Though only a small proportion of the executions were carried 
out, liberal MPs were concerned people could still hang for offences such as 
shoplifting and forgery. One of the key campaigners was Sir James Mackintosh, a 
Scottish polymath and Whig MP. In 1819, he persuaded the government to set up a 
committee to look at capital punishment and campaigned, with some success, to 
decrease the number of crimes for which hanging was judged a fitting penalty.

Other reformers were more preoccupied with ending the barbaric practice of 
public executions which were still regarded as great family days out by rich 
and poor alike. In a letter to the Times in 1849, Charles Dickens issued a 
literary telling off to the gleeful crowds who poured in to witness the 
hangings of Frederick and Marie Manning - a married couple convicted of the 
murder of Marie's lover in a case that became known as the Bermondsey Horror. 
"I believe that a sight so inconceivably awful as the wickedness and levity of 
the immense crowd collected at that execution this morning could be imagined by 
no man, and could be presented in no heathen land under the sun," he wrote, the 
sparks flying angrily from his pen.

The last public execution in the UK took place 19 years later. Michael Barrett, 
a Fenian, who killed 12 bystanders in a bomb attack, was hanged outside the 
walls of Newgate Prison in May 1868, as a 2,000-strong crowd booed, jeered and 
sang Rule Britannia and Champagne Charlie.

By then, there was only one crime for which people were put to death in 
peacetime - murder - and the issue of capital punishment faded from the public 
eye. In 1925, however, the newly-formed National Council for the Abolition of 
the Death Penalty put it back on the agenda and, in the mid-1930s, the 
flamboyant Violet Van der Elst decided to use her wealth and status to keep it 
there. For years, the rags-to-riches entrepreneur - who made her money from 
developing a range of cosmetics - would pitch up outside a prison in her 
Rolls-Royce on the day of an execution, and whip up a great protest. When 
Leonard Brigstock was hanged at Wandsworth Prison in 1935, vans drove up and 
down the street playing Abide With Me through a loudhailer, while dozens of men 
wore sandwich boards and, in the sky above, 3 aeroplanes trailed banners which 
read: "Stop the Death Sentence." Van der Elst's dedication to the cause, and 
her unsuccessful attempts to get elected to parliament, ate into her fortune 
and she died in a nursing home in 1966, 5 months after capital punishment was 
abolished.

After the Second World War, society became less structured and hierarchical; 
class boundaries began to dissolve, and human rights were being enshrined in 
national and international constitutions. Enter Sydney Silverman. Silverman - 
with his distinctive quiff - was a maverick who would go on to form the 
Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament with several other mavericks, including 
Michael Foot. In 1948, he persuaded the House of Commons to agree to a 5-year 
suspension of the death penalty; there were 28 reprieves and no executions 
between March and October, when the Lords overturned it.

Silverman's efforts were not entirely wasted though. The government set up a 
Royal Commission to look at all aspects of capital punishment and, over the 
next few years, leading cultural figures began to campaign vigorously, with 
Arthur Koestler's Reflections On Hanging serialised over 5 weeks in the 
Observer.

While their rhetoric influenced the great and the good, court cases had more 
impact on grassroots views. First, in early 1963, 19-year-old Derek Bentley 
went to the gallows for the killing of PC Sidney Miles during a thwarted 
robbery in Croydon. Bentley was unarmed and already under arrest at the time 
his young accomplice, Christopher Craig, fired the fatal shot. But, at 16, 
Craig was too young to hang. They were both convicted of murder and Bentley was 
executed because, according to campaigners, someone had to be seen to pay for 
the death of a police officer.

Months later came the revelation that serial killer John Christie had almost 
certainly carried out the crime for which Timothy Evans had been hanged in 
1950. The execution of this man - falsely accused of murdering his wife and 
daughter - was one of the gravest miscarriages of the justice the country ever 
experienced. But it was perhaps the execution of Ruth Ellis - the last woman to 
be hanged in the UK - that created the greatest backlash. Ellis had shot her 
abusive lover, David Blakely, several times at close range and the crime was 
premeditated, so the jury had no choice but to find her guilty of murder. But 
other murderers convicted around the same time - including a woman who killed 
her 86-year-old neighbour with a shovel - were granted reprieves and she was 
not. Ellis was attractive, was the mother of 2 small children and had suffered 
a miscarriage after Blakely punched her, so the case elicited much sympathy and 
highlighted the arbitrariness of the system.

In 1956, Silverman introduced another private member's bill, which was also 
passed by the Commons and overturned by the Lords. The Homicide Act 1957 put 
further restrictions on the death penalty, so the number of executions had 
already decreased before the Murder (Abolition of Death Penalty) Act of 1965 
abolished the death penalty for good.

The last person to be hanged in Scotland was Henry Burnett, who shot his 
partner's estranged husband after she threatened to return to him. 300 people 
gathered outside Craiginches Prison in Aberdeen on the day of the execution, 15 
August, 1963. The last people to be hanged in the UK were Gwynne Evans and 
Peter Allen, who murdered John West while robbing him at his home in Cumberland 
in 1964. They were executed on 13 August of that year.

The arguments put forward by opponents of the death penalty were 2-fold: they 
believed it ran counter to human rights but also that it was an ineffective 
means of preventing further killings. After he retired, the famous hangman, 
Albert Pierrepoint, who executed both Bentley and Ellis, seemed to agree. "I do 
not now believe that any one of the hundreds of executions I carried out has in 
any way acted as a deterrent against future murder," he said.

After the abolition of the death penalty, the murder rate rose (those who 
backed the 2011 e-petition said it had doubled) but it is difficult to draw any 
definitive conclusions from the available figures. After the death penalty was 
abolished, the statistics for murder, manslaughter and infanticide were all 
lumped together as homicide, and, in any case, correlation does not imply 
causation.

Though some countries still cleave to it, capital punishment is now on the wane 
internationally. Of the 193 states recognised by the United Nations, only 37 
still execute criminals. The US is 1 of only 2 developed democracies to use the 
death penalty (the other is Japan). Though 32 states still have it on their 
statute books - and there are 3,000 prisoners on death row - only 6 states have 
actually carried out executions this year. Of a total of 25, all by lethal 
injection, 11 were in Texas.

The drop in the number of executions has more to do with the shortage of sodium 
thiopental - 1 of the 3 drugs required for the lethal injections - than any 
great cultural change. The shortage has been caused by a Europe-led embargo and 
has seen the system fall into disarray, with abolitionists striking while the 
iron is hot.

Earlier this year, Justice Stephen Breyer suggested the Supreme Court should be 
asked to rule on whether the death penalty breached the 8th amendment, but 
campaigners are split on whether heading to the Supreme Court is the best 
course of action, given that a ruling in favour of the death penalty could see 
it entrenched for years. Some would prefer to keep chipping away at public 
opinion and campaign on a state-by-state basis.

6 states have got rid of the death penalty since 2007. Add to that the fact 
that 2 of the 3 candidates for the Democrat nomination vocally oppose capital 
punishment (Hillary Clinton wants to keep it, but only for the most egregious 
cases) and it seems possible the mood is beginning to soften.

Half a century after the UK made its landmark decision on capital punishment, 
could the US finally be ready to at least consider following suit and scrapping 
what Pierrepoint referred to as "an antiquated relic of a primitive desire for 
revenge"?

(source: scotsman.com)






BANGLADESH:

6 sentenced to death over 2 gruesome child murders in Bangladesh


6 people have been sentenced to death over 2 gruesome child murders in 
Bangladesh.

A court in Bangladesh's northeastern Sylhet city, some 241 km away of capital 
Dhaka, Sunday sentenced four men to death by hanging over brutal murder of 
Samiul Alam Rajon, 13, with metal bars in July this year.

Of the suspects sentenced on Sunday, four were sentenced to death, 7 were 
sentenced to 7 years in jail and 2 were set free.

The court of Sylhet's Session Judge Akbar Hossain Mridha delivered the verdict.

The brutal murder of Rajon beaten with metal bars, which was filmed in a video, 
had shook the whole Bangladesh.

The 28-minute video showed that the attackers were telling the boy to drink his 
own sweat as he asked for water.

In the video Rajon's attackers were seen trying to force him to confess his 
involvement in a theft.

The boy was accused of stealing a bicycle although his family claimed his 
innocence.

The attackers continued to beat the boy though he cried saying repeatedly "I 
will die if you beat this way."

The attackers were found laughing and jeering in the video as the boy sought 
mercy.

There had been a popular demand for death penalty right from the day the court 
began trial of the attackers including prime suspect Kamrul Islam, who fled to 
Saudi Arabia after the incident, but later was taken into the custody of the 
Bangladesh embassy with the help of local police.

He was brought back to Dhaka on Oct. 15 and was sent to jail by the court the 
next day.

Weeks after the 13-year-old boy Rajon was murdered, another child Rakib 
Hawlader was found tortured and murdered in Khulan, some 180 km southwest of 
Dhaka.

The brutality also irked protests from various quarters across the country.

The 12-year-old Hawlader's succumbed to his injuries on Aug.3.

Also on Sunday, a court in Khulna awarded death sentence to 2 people for the 
murder of Hawlader.

Accused Omar Sharif and Mintu Mia, who were handed death sentences, tortured 
the Hawlader as he quit his job at their garage to work for another employer.

(source: Shanghai Daily)

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

2 get death penalty in Rakib murder


A Khulna court has sentenced 2 people to death for brutally killing teenage boy 
Rakibul Islam Rakib 3 months ago.

The convicts are Sharif Motors owner Sharif and his uncle Mintu. However, the 
court acquitted Sharif's mother Beauty Begum from the murder charge brought 
against her in the lawsuit along with the duo.

On August 3, 12-year-old boy Md Rakibul Islam was viciously killed by the trio 
in the city's Tutpara area because he had left employment at their garage and 
taken up a job elsewhere. Rakib's former employers pumped air through his 
rectum to kill him.

Following the death, outraged locals broke into the garage and beat up the 3 
before handing them over to police.

On the next day, Rakib's father lodged a murder case with Sadar police station 
against the 3.

(source: Dhaka Tribune)






PAKISTAN:

Conviction: Murder convicts sentenced to death


An additional district and sessions judge on Monday sentenced a man convicted 
of murder to death and fined him Rs300,000. He acquitted another accused on 
over lack of substantial evidence.

Prosecution said Khanpur Saddar police had arrested Ajmal Lar for killing 3 men 
over personal enmity with help from Fayaz Ahmed.

After hearing witnesses and examining evidence, Sessions Judge Muhammad Zubair 
Lar to death and fined him Rs300,000. Ahmad was acquitted.

Faisalabad conviction

Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) Judge Raja Parvaiz Akhtar on Saturday awarded death 
penalty on 4 counts to a man he convicted of rape and murder.

Prosecution said Muhammad Saeed, a labourer, had been working at Muhammad 
Mukhtar's house in Sir Syed Town. They said he had abducted the latter's 
4-year-old daughter and raped her.

They said later, he had strangled the child and hid her dead body under cement 
bags.

They said he later called the father of the deceased and demanded a Rs15 
million ransom for her release.

The girl's father reported the incident to police who had arrested the suspect 
in a raid.

The man confessed to raping and killer the child during interrogation.

After hearing witnesses and examining the evidence, Judge Akhtar sentenced 
Muhammad Saeed to death on 4 counts. The court also fined him Rs1.5 million.

(source: The Express Tribune)






SINGAPORE:

Court sets Nov 23 date to hear appeal by man sentenced to hang


The Singapore Court of Appeal has set November 23 to hear an appeal by 
Sarawakian death row inmate Kho Jabing to have his sentence commuted, according 
to an anti-death penalty activist.

Ms Kirsten Han, the co-founder of Singapore-based We Believe in Second Chances, 
told Malay Mail Online that the date was set Nov 6.

"If we are lucky it will get pushed back a bit, but this is the time we have to 
work with for now," she said in a brief text message.

Jabing who is currently incarcerated in Singapore, was scheduled to hang 
yesterday but was awarded a temporary reprieve less than 24 hours to his 
execution after his lawyer filed a criminal motion at the Singaporean Court of 
Appeal on Wednesday for remittance.

The 31-year-old left for Singapore in 2007 searching for better economic 
opportunities and was hired as a labourer there.

He was first convicted and sentenced to death in 2010 for the murder of China 
national Cao Ruyin, 40.

When amendments to the mandatory death penalty came into force in 2013, 
however, Jabing was deemed eligible to apply for resentencing; his sentenced 
was later commuted to life imprisonment and 24 strokes of the cane by the 
Singapore High Court.

However, a 3-2 decision at the Singapore Court of Appeal last January after the 
prosecution appealed sent Jabing back on death row.

(source: todayonline.com)