[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Sept. 10



IRAN----executions

7 Prisoners Executed in Birjand and Tabriz Prisons


According to Khorassan News, an Iranian official source, a 32-year-old prisoner 
charged with murder and 17 counts of robbery was hanged to death at Birjand 
Central Prison on the morning of Wdnesday September 9.

According to Kurdistan Human Rights Network, an unofficial source, 6 prisoners 
have been hanged to death in the past week at Tabriz Central Prison. 5 
prisoners were reportedly hanged to death on the morning of September 9: 4 for 
drug related offenses and 1 for murder. The names of the prisoners with drug 
related charges have been idenitified as Hojatoleslami, Sajjad Maghsoodi, Vali 
Narimani and Nasser Hosseinzadeh. The name of the prisoner charged with murder 
has been identified as Mohammad Ali Yousefi. On Saturday September 5, 1 
prisoner, identified as Davoud Pourahmadian, was reportedly hanged to death for 
murder. Iranian official media or judicial sources have not commented on the 
recent executions at Tabriz Central Prison.

(source: Iran Human Rights)






PAKISTAN:

4 more death row convicts hanged


4 death row convicts were sent to the gallows in different jails of Punjab on 
early Wednesday. 2 real brothers, Muhabat Ali and Muhammad Bashir, were 
executed in the District Jail Vehari for killing of 2 brothers over property 
dispute in 2001.

Another death row prisoner was hanged in Adiyala Central Jail in Rawalpindi. 
The convicted prisoner Mubashir Hassan had killed a man named Qadir over 
personal dispute in 1999.

1 more death row prisoner, Aslam Sial, was hanged in the New Central Jail 
Bahawalpur. Sial had murdered a man and his wife during a robbery attempt in 
1992.

(source: Pakistan Today)

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

LHC stays execution of 2 death row prisoners


A Lahore High Court division bench on Thursday stayed execution of 2 death row 
prisoners who were scheduled to be hanged on September 11 at Faisalabad Central 
Jail.

The court staying the execution of Akhlaq Ahmad and Shaukat Ali till September 
16 sought a reply from respondents including anti-terrorism court (ATC) 
Faisalabad.

The bench comprising Justice Abdul Sami Khan and Justice James Joseph passed 
the orders on a petition filed by said convicts against issuance of their black 
warrants.

During the hearing, the appellants's counsel Aftab Ahmad Bajwa arguing before 
the court submitted that the convicts were awarded death penalty by ATC 
Faisalabal for killing Zafar Iqbal and Tariq Javed in 2001. He said that the 
sentence was upheld by the Apex court and the president had also dismissed 
mercy appeal of the convicts.

However, the victim party agreed to pardon the convicts after intervention by 
the locals and an application was filed on August 29 , 2015 before ATC 
Faisalabad for setting aside the death sentence on basis of pardon, he said.

But, on September 8, 2015, the court issued black warrants for executing the 
convicts despite the fact that their application was pending with it.

He pleaded the court to set aside the black warrants for being illegal and stay 
the execution of the convicts.

The court after hearing the initial arguments stayed the execution till 
September 16 and sought reply from ATC Faislabad and other respondents.

(source: Associated Press of Pakistan)



ETHIOPIA:

British Political Prisoner Moved to Ethiopian 'Gulag'


British citizen Andargachew Tsege, facing a death sentence in Ethiopia for 
spurious terrorism charges, has been moved from a secret detention centre in 
Ethiopia to a notorious federal prison in the African nation's capital, VICE 
News can exclusively reveal.

Longtime democracy campaigner Tsege has now been captive for more than a year 
without access to lawyers, family or consular assistance, after being kidnapped 
at a Yemen airport by Ethiopian officials.

The 60-year-old father of three fled Ethiopia's military regime as a student 
activist in 1979 and became a political refugee in the UK. He later founded 
opposition group Ginbot 7 in 2005, which was classified by the Ethiopian 
government as a terrorist organization.

In 2009 the government accused Ginbot 7 of organizing a failed coup and 
sentenced Tsege to death in absentia, in a trial "lacking in basic elements of 
due process," according to American diplomatic observers.

Last year, Ethiopian agents seized Tsege at Sanaa Airport in Yemen. He has 
remained in solitary confinement since then, in an unknown location until the 
recent move. The legal charity Reprieve, based in London, has taken up his 
case.

The democracy activist's family believe that the UK's close strategic alliance 
with Ethiopia means that an innocent man could end up being sacrificed on the 
geo-political altar.

Despite criticizing Ethiopia for its human rights violations and its lack of 
civil liberties and democratic processes - the ruling EPRDF party won all 546 
parliamentary seats in a May national elections criticized for alleged fraud - 
Western governments enjoy close security cooperation with Ethiopia, 
particularly regarding the "War on Terror," where its troops are fighting al 
Shabaab Islamist militants in Somalia.

Maya Foa, the director of Reprieve's death penalty team, picked up on this 
political alliance when she told VICE News that, although Tsege is a British 
citizen who was kidnapped unlawfully and who has been subjected to probable 
torture, the British government has "not made a single request to the Ethiopian 
authorities to have Andy returned home to his family in the United Kingdom" - 
though it has lobbied for him to be afforded his basic rights.

"The British government is definitely not championing him and that is 
heart-breaking for us," Tsege's partner Yemi Hailemariam told VICE News.

This disappointment in the British government was heightened recently when Yemi 
discovered that Tobias Ellwood, an FCO minister, had been in Ethiopia on 16 and 
17 August for talks on South Sudan but had failed to raise Tsege's case with 
any of his Ethiopian counterparts.

In a letter to Yemi, Ellwood said that he was "not able to meet Ethiopian 
Government representatives and so did not have an opportunity to raise 
Andargachew's continued detention." In a separate letter to Reprieve, Ellwood 
did not even mention that he has just got back from Ethiopia.

Officials at the UK's Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) know they are 
treading a fine line. On the one hand, they must lobby for better treatment for 
a British citizen. On the other hand, they do not want to jeopardize an 
alliance deemed strategically important.

"The UK and Ethiopia have a deep and long-standing bilateral relationship 
covering many areas of shared concern, so it's important that further progress 
is made on this issue so those ties aren't affected," an FCO spokesman told 
VICE News.

There are signs, though, that Tsege's continued illegal detention is causing a 
fraying of the Anglo-Ethiopian relationship. "The Foreign Secretary has raised 
this case on 17 separate occasions, most recently on August 8. We will continue 
to lobby at all levels for regular access to Mr Tsege, and for his family in 
the UK to be able to visit him", the FCO spokesman said.

In June, a frustration with the progress that was being made on the case and 
the intransigence of Ethiopian government officials prompted the foreign 
secretary, Philip Hammond, to issue the British government's strongest 
statement on Andy Tsege's case.

"I spoke to Foreign Minister Tedros this afternoon and made clear that 
Ethiopia's failure to grant our repeated and basic requests is not acceptable. 
I informed Dr. Tedros that the lack of progress risks undermining the UK's much 
valued bilateral relationship with Ethiopia", Hammond said.

Yemi said she welcomed the statement but that Tobias Ellwood's recent failure 
to lobby on her partner's behalf had left her feeling "really, really 
disappointed - particularly as he had met us personally."

When asked about her partner's situation, Yemi says, "nothing has changed." She 
is terrified that, even if he is ever released, "Andy will have been too 
traumatized by his time in prison."

Following a recent meeting, the UK ambassador to Ethiopia noted that Yemi's 
partner had "no spare weight on him."

Tsege told the ambassador that he still has no idea what charges he's facing, 
if any.

The FCO told VICE News that Tsege's move to the Kality federal prison in Addis 
Adaba was a "welcome development", but whether it really represents an 
improvement is debatable.

Amnesty International has referred to Kality as a "gulag," while the Swedish 
journalists Martin Schibbye and Johan Persson, who were imprisoned there for 
trying to report on the conflict in the Ethiopian region of Ogaden, said that 
conditions reminded a number of their fellow prisoners of paintings of the 
cramped bowels of 18th century slave ships.

Kality is also, as Schibbye and Persson reported in their book 438 Days, a 
hotbed of government spying in which inmates feel unable to say anything for 
fear they will be taken away.

For Maya Foa of Reprieve, the situation Andy Tsege is facing and the British 
government's refusal to demand for his release is a "stain on Britain's 
reputation and a travesty of justice. The British government must change its 
position and take immediate steps to bring Andy back before it's too late."

Sitting in Kality prison, Tsege is a reminder that the fate of individuals 
falls victim to the strategies of nation states. Yemi, who feels as though she 
has been banging her head against a brick wall trying to secure the release of 
her partner, has begun to feel "more and more like a conspiracy theorist, more 
and more like an anarchist", as she tries to navigate the world of 
international politics.

Her daughter, Helawit Hailemariam, just won a Liberty award for co-developing a 
play about her father's incarceration. "I wish I didn't have to receive this," 
she told her mother.

(source: vice.com)






LEBANON:

Judge seeks death penalty for Beirut road rage killer


A Lebanon magistrate Thursday recommended the death penalty for Tarek Yateem, 
who was arrested in July after stabbing to death George al-Reef in a Beirut 
road rage incident.

Beirut Investigative Judge George Rizk charged Yateem with 1st-degree murder 
after the July 15 knife assault that left Reef lying unconscious in a pool of 
his own blood in a street in Achrafieh. He died 2 days later.

The deadly stabbing in broad daylight, witnessed by dozens of passive 
bystanders, had shocked the public. The killing was sparked following a feud 
over a car collision.

Rizk also sought a 2-year prison term for Lina Haidar who was charged with 
hiding Yateem to prevent his arrest.

Haidar was traveling with Yateem during the incident.

(source: The Daily Star)

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

Judge Demands Death Penalty for Tareq Yatim


Beirut Examining Magistrate George Rizk demanded on Thursday a death penalty 
against Tareq Yatim for stabbing and killing a man, and a jail sentence against 
Lina Haidar for helping the fugitive.

An arrest warrant was issued in July against Yatim for stabbing to death George 
al-Rif over a traffic dispute, in a case that shocked the country after a 
graphic video of the incident went viral on social media.

Haidar was detained then and interrogated.

Yatim had dealt al-Rif several stabs in Beirut's neighborhood of Ashrafieh 
after a long car chase that started on the airport road after the two got into 
a right of way dispute.

Some media reports said Yatim was under the influence of drugs when he 
committed the crime.

According to reports, the man has a long criminal record.

(source: naharnet.com)






EGYPT:

680 death sentences handed down since 3 July 2013


9 anti-government defendants were sentenced to death in Egypt on Monday, 
bringing the number of those handed the death penalty to 680 since 3 July 2013, 
the Arab Organisation for Human Rights in the UK (AOHR UK) said in a report on 
Tuesday.

The organisation said the Egyptian security services torture opponents of the 
Egyptian regime and commit crimes against them so as to force them to confess 
to "fabricated" charges so they can be given severe sentences that may amount 
to the death penalty.

Seven of those who have received the death penalty have already been executed. 
The total number of defendants whose papers were referred to the Grand Mufti 
has reached 1,734. The report pointed out that senior officials at Mansoura's 
security directorate systematically exercise illegal detention, kidnapping, 
torture and the forgery of official documents and fabrications.

The AOHR UK noted that photographing the defendants in a degrading manner, 
humiliating and torturing them and forcing them to give false confessions that 
were dictated to them constitute "unacceptable behaviour both legally and 
morally; and are also serious human rights violations which, if added to other 
human rights violations in Egypt, underline the collapse of the moral and legal 
system among individuals in the Egyptian police."

The organisation warned that the adoption of the anti-terror law poses a threat 
to defendants who had already been sentenced to death as the new law decreased 
their chances of avoiding the death penalty and having fair trials.

It invited UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to form a fact-finding committee 
with full powers to investigate crimes committed after 3 July 2013 and bring 
those responsible for these crimes to justice.

On Monday, the Terrorism Circuit at the Mansoura Criminal Court, headed by 
Judge Osama Abdul Zahir, sentenced to death nine young men, including four 
students, in case number 16,850 of the year 2014, in which 24 people from the 
province of Dakahlia are accused. The remaining defendants were sentenced to 
life in prison.

Yesterday the court referred the cases of 10 defendants to the Grand Mufti for 
his approval. They were sentenced on charges of killing a police sergeant, 
committing acts of violence against the army and police forces, forming a cell 
that seeks regime change, and possessing explosives and weapons.

AOHR UK said it had that defendants were subjected to torture to force them to 
make fabricated confessions. Such confessions would help the regime demonise 
its opponents and incite public hatred ahead of the judicial procedures.

(source: middleeastmonitor.com)


INDIA:

Capital punishment to man for murder of minor


A 28-year-old man was sentenced to capital imprisonment on the charge of 
brutally killing a minor boy after sodomizing him; final verdict was delivered 
by Special Session Court Judge, Sagar, Anil Verma on Wednesday.

The accused Sacchu alias Sachin Kushwaha was found guilty under sections 302, 
363, 364, 377 and 201 of the IPC and sections 3 and 4 of the Protection of 
Children from Sexual Offences Act-2012.

According to prosecution, the accused had abducted a minor boy had unnatural 
sex with him and later killed him and disposed his body which was later 
recovered in the investigation by the police and it was found that the accused 
was behind the crime.

In November 2013, the minor boy had gone missing from Khimlasa Sagar and was 
later found dead after 3 days.

The minor went missing on November 17, 2013 and was later his body was found on 
November 20, 2013.

The accused was convicted by the judge for offence under section 363 and 201 of 
the IPC and was sentenced of seven years of rigorous imprisonment and imposed a 
penalty of Rs 5000.

The accused was convicted by the judge for offence under section 364 of the IPC 
for life imprisonment and imposed a penalty of Rs 10000.

The accused was convicted by the judge for offence under section 364 of the IPC 
for life imprisonment and imposed a penalty of Rs 10000 and under section 302 
of the IPC accused was convicted for death sentence and penalty of Rs 10000.

Failing to pay the penalty would attract 6 months of additional imprisonment 
for every unpaid penalty amount.

Life imprisonment was sentenced for section 3 and 4 of Protection of Children 
from Sexual Offences Act-2012 and a penalty of Rs 10000 was imposed.

(source: Daily Pioneer)