[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Sept. 16



IRAN----execution

Prisoner hanged in western Iran


Iran's fundamentalist regime on Wednesday hanged a prisoner in the Kurdish city 
of Sanandaj, western Iran.

The prisoner, identified as Raouf Hosseini, was hanged at dawn in Sanadaj's 
central prison.

He had been on death row for the past 13 years.

The mullahs' regime on Saturday hanged 2 other prisoners, aged 34 and 45, in 
the northern city of Rasht. Their names were withheld by the authorities. Last 
week a 32-year-old prisoner was hanged in the eastern town of Birjand. Also 
last Wednesday 5 prisoners were hanged collectively in the central prison of 
Tabriz, north-west Iran.

A statement by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human 
Rights Zeid Ra???ad Al Hussein on August 5 said: "Iran has reportedly executed 
more than 600 individuals so far this year. Last year, at least 753 people were 
executed in the country."

(source: NCR-Iran)






SRI LANKA:

Ranjan wants death penalty for child rapists


Social Empowerment and Welfare Deputy Minister Ranjan Ramanayake said yesterday 
he was taking measures to move a motion in Parliament on September 22 to urge 
the members to take action to implement the death penalty especially for child 
rapists. He said he intends to obtain instructions from President Maithripala 
Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe before moving the motion in 
Parliament.

Ramanayake said he also intends to urge to formulate laws to implement the 
death penalty, a matter within the judiciary.

He said he has to get instructions to decide as to how this motion be moved in 
Parliament. The deputy minister said however he will take steps to develop a 
dialogue on the matter of the increasing sexual assaults on under aged 
children.

He said the public are outraged at the incidents that took place in the recent 
past and it was time to bring about such laws to put a full stop to such grave 
crimes.

Ramanayake said he was planning to compel parliamentarians to take action to 
implement the death penalty for the convicts of heroin traffickers as well.

He added that the death penalty had been implemented even after independence.

(source: dailynews.lk)

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

SL reaffirms in Geneva its commitment to abolishing capital 
punishment----President under pressure to have killers of children hanged


Amidst calls for the re-implementation of the death penalty in the wake of a 
5-year-old girl being sexually abused and strangled to death at Kotadeniyawa, 
the government of Sri Lanka has assured the international community of its 
intention to abolish death penalty.

Last judicial execution took place in 1976.

On behalf of the Maithripala Sirisena-Wickremesinghe administration, Foreign 
Minister Mangala Samaraweera told Geneva-based United Nations Human Rights 
Council (UNHRC) that Sri Lanka would maintain the moratorium on the death 
penalty leading to its eventual abolition. Minister Samaraweera was 
participating in the general debate of the 30th Geneva session on Monday 
(Sept.14).

The assurance was in accordance with an understanding between Sri Lanka, 
beginning with Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga's presidency and the European 
Union.

Villagers launched protests demanding death penalty for the perpetrators of 
Kotadeniyawa child killing. Some protestors demanded the guilty being hanged 
outside Negombo hospital where the post-mortem conducted by the Negombo 
Judicial Medical Officer (JMO) on Seya Sadewmi Bakmeedeniya of Akkarangaha, 
Kotadeniyawa revealed that she had been sexually abused and throttled.

Well informed sources told The Island that the EU had told successive 
governments that judicial executions shouldn't be resumed under any 
circumstance. Since the change of government in January, President Maithripala 
Sirisena and Justice Minister Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe publicly declared their 
readiness to resume judicial executions.

Senior university lecturer Ven. Dambara Amila urged President Maithripala 
Sirisena to execute at least child murderers at a state function held under the 
President's patronage. The appeal was made at the 151 Anagarika Dharmapala 
commemorations at Dharmapala College, Pannipitiya, on Monday. Ven. Amila 
affiliated to the JVP said that the government couldn't turn a blind eye to 
Kotadeniyawa killing.

The 5-year-old victim's father is also a prime suspect in the killing.

Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, too, refrained from resuming judicial 
executions though some clamoured for immediate implementation of death penalty.

Former President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga on three separate occasions 
before the Parliamentary Elections in April 2004 announced that she would 
resume judicial executions though her threat was never carried out.

The pledge to implement the death penalty in the aftermath of High Court Judge 
Ambepitiya's assassination was the 4th instance since Parliament, in1995, 
adopted a private member's motion by the then PA MP Bharatha Lakshman 
Premachandra calling for the immediate implementation of capital punishment.

Pakistan lifted moratorium on death penalty in the wake of a terrorist suicide 
attack on a school in spite of strong objections from the EU last year. 
Pakistan ignored EU's demand to halt judicial executions. Pakistan suspended 
judicial executions in 2008.

(source: island.lk)






EGYPT:

8 muslim brotherhood supporters get death penalty


An Egyptian court on Tuesday sentenced 8 supporters of the banned Muslim 
Brotherhood to death, while 80 others were sentenced in absentia to life in 
prison for indulging in violence and attacking a police station in Upper Egypt 
in 2013, resulting in the death of 2 poilcemen.

The supporters were convicted of attacking a police station in Samalout, a city 
in Menya governorate. 14 defendants were jailed for 15 years, while 8 
defendants received a 10 year sentence besides 6 others who were sentenced to 5 
years in prison.

5 other defendants were acquitted in the same case.The defendants were also 
accused of killing 2 policemen and injuring a number of people including the 
police and civilians.

Since Islamist ex-President Mohamed Morsi's ouster in 2013, the Egyptian 
government has been cracking down on the Muslim Brotherhood and its supporters.

Mr Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood supreme guide Mohamed Badie, and 100 other 
leaders, were sentenced to death in June for escaping from prison in 2011.

(source: Asian Age)



BANGLADESH:

2 get death penalty for killing mother, son


A Narayanganj court yesterday sentenced 2 people to death while another person 
to 7 years' imprisonment for killing a woman and her son 4 years back.

Narayanganj Additional Session's Judge Miaji Shahidul Alam Chowdhury handed 
down the verdict after examining the records and witnesses.

The convicts are Abul Kashem, 58, and Dulal Hossain, 55, while the other 
convict is Babul Hossain of Darigaon village in Araihazar upazila. Of the 
convicts, Babul was tried in absentia. The court also fined the convicts 
Tk50,000 each.

According to the prosecution, an unidentified woman along with her 7-year-old 
son had sought help from Abul and Dulal on March 5, 2011 after losing their way 
at Darigaon village.

However, the duo in connivance with Babul took the woman to a local graveyard 
and raped her. Later, the killed the women and her son and cemented their 
bodies in a graveyard.

Locals sensed the incident when the killers tried to dump the bodies. Later, 
police filed a case in this connection.

(source: Dhaka Tribune)