[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Sept. 22



SAUDI ARABIA----impending execution

Saudi must halt execution of Arab Spring protester: UN experts


Saudi Arabia must not execute a man who was convicted of joining a criminal 
group after participating in Arab Spring protests when he was 17, UN rights 
experts said Tuesday.

Ali Mohammed al-Nimr was in high school in 2012 when he joined reform protests 
in Qatif in the eastern part of the kingdom.

In a statement, the UN experts said he was reportedly tortured, coerced into a 
confession and denied adequate access to a lawyer before and during a trial 
that did not meet international standards.

His appeal was also handled "with a complete disregard for international 
standards," according to the statement.

"Any judgement imposing the death penalty upon persons who were children at the 
time of the offence, and their execution, are incompatible with Saudi Arabia's 
international obligations," the experts said.

Al-Nimr "may be executed at any time," the statement added.

Aside from joining a criminal group, the teenager was also convicted of 
attacking the police.

The panel said it had received reports that 2 other people, both minors during 
the time of their alleged offences, are facing imminent execution after joining 
the protests in Qatif.

Amnesty international said in August that at least 2,208 people were executed 
between January 1985 and June 2015 in Saudi Arabia, nearly 1/2 of them 
foreigners, adding that juvenile offenders and people with mental disabilities 
were among them.

The UN panel said 134 people have been executed in the kingdom this year, 44 
more than last year's total.

"We urge the Saudi authorities to establish a moratorium on the use of the 
death penalty, halt executions of persons convicted who were children at the 
time of the offence, and ensure a prompt and impartial investigation into all 
alleged acts of torture," the UN experts said.

(source: Agence France-Presse)






SUDAN:

Sudanese president pardons armed groups leaders, members


Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir on Monday issued 2 presidential decrees 
pardoning leaders and members of armed groups all over the country if they 
agree to participate in the national dialogue, official SUNA news agency 
reported.

A number of rebel leaders, top of them Yasir Arman and Malik Aqar of the Sudan 
People's Liberation Movement (SPLM)/northern sector, are facing judicial 
rulings on charges, some of which amount to death penalty.

The 2 decrees came in affirmation of what al-Bashir has announced at the 
meeting of the general assembly of the national dialogue on Aug. 20, when the 
president expressed the government's readiness to declare a ceasefire for 2 
months so that the national dialogue could be conducted in a healthy 
atmosphere.

In January 2014, al-Bashir declared an initiative calling on the opposition 
parties and the armed groups to join a national dialogue to end the country's 
crises.

Al-Bashir's invitation found a relative acceptance from political forces, but 
the process faced difficulties that slowed it down.

The armed movements in Darfur, South Kordofan and Blue Nile regions rejected to 
join the dialogue, insisting that a parallel forum should be established under 
the supervision of the African Union High-Level Implementation Panel.

(source: Xinhua News Agency)






BANGLADESH:

Bangladesh court indicts 13 in beating death of teenager shown in online video


A court in northeastern Bangladesh indicted 13 people on Tuesday in the beating 
death of a 13-year-old boy that shocked a nation used to violent crime because 
a video of him being tortured was posted online.

Metropolitan Sessions Judge Akbar Hossain Mridha said the trial of the 13, 
including the main suspect who fled to Saudi Arabia, will begin Oct. 1.

The boy, Samiul Islam Rajon, died of internal bleeding after being attacked in 
the northeastern city of Sylhet. The attackers allegedly were punishing him for 
stealing a bicycle, an allegation his family and police say is unfounded. His 
body bore at least 64 injuries, according to an autopsy report.

The main suspect, Kamrul Islam, has been detained in Saudi Arabia and is 
awaiting repatriation. 10 men are behind bars after being arrested with the 
help of local residents, and 2 others are still at large.

The 10 arrested defendants pleaded innocent Tuesday. Some face murder charges 
while others are accused of helping the attackers.

Murder charges carry a maximum penalty of death.

The chilling, 28-minute cellphone video was widely viewed online. In it, the 
boy is heard screaming in pain and pleading with his attackers, who laughed 
when he asked for water.

Like many poor children in Bangladesh, Rajon was forced to leave school to work 
to help his family, in his case selling vegetables.

(source: Agence France-Presse)



SRI LANKA:

Friday Forum opposes death penalty


The Friday Forum said it was deeply disturbed at the prospect of judicial 
executions taking place again in Sri Lanka after a gap of nearly 40 years. 
"This is, we believe, an understandable, but, a simplistic and 
counter-productive reaction to horrible crimes. It is a measure that will 
divert attention from the real need, which is to seek why and how these 
appalling things are occurring, and then take preventive action," it said in a 
statement.

The statement further added: "The true incentive to crime is that perpetrators 
feel that they can get away with it. The real deterrent is the likelihood that 
one will be found out, arrested, tried, convicted and punished.

"The remedy is improving the criminal justice system - better crime prevention, 
better crime detection, better investigation, improved prosecutions and trial 
procedures.

"It is in the most horrific and pitiable cases, where there is huge pressure on 
the police, both by their superiors and by the public, to show results, that 
arrests of innocent persons and miscarriages of justice are most likely to take 
place.

Do we have enough faith in our police, our prosecutors, our judges, our defence 
lawyers, our courts, our public from whom juries are drawn, to be sure that 
arrests and prosecutions and convictions will never be influenced by 
inefficiency or carelessness or political pressure or corruption? Or just plain 
bona fide mistake? That perjured evidence will never be acted on? Even under 
the best criminal justice system, wrong convictions are bound to take place".

(source: dailynews.lk)






INDONESIA:

Indonesian Soldier Accused Of Killing Woman, 2 Children In Papua


An Indonesian soldier has been detained on suspicion of killing a pregnant 
woman and her 2 young children in remote West Papua province, the military said 
on Tuesday.

The unidentified soldier allegedly stabbed the woman and children with a sickle 
late last month after she ignored his romantic overtures, a source said.

Speaking on the development Military spokesman Maj.-Gen. Endang Sodik, said "he 
had been detained at the local military headquarters".

The soldier could face the death penalty if found guilty by a military 
tribunal.

Herman, the slain woman's husband, demanded death for the killer, a source 
said.

"I want him to be tried openly," he was quoted as saying.

The Papua region, which consists Papua and West Papua provinces, has been the 
scene of a low-level separatist insurgency for decades.

The military has been accused of gross human rights abuses during 
counterinsurgency operations there.

(source: Leadership Nigeria)






INDIA:

2006 Mumbai train blasts: Prosecution not to seek death for all 12 
convicts----Serial blasts on Mumbai local trains on July 11, 2006, killed at 
least 188 persons.


The prosecution in the Mumbai serial train blasts case on Tuesday said it would 
not seek death penalty for all the 12 convicts. The defence lawyers, winding up 
their arguments on the quantum of punishment, pleaded that none of the convicts 
be given the death because according to the prosecution's own case they were 
mere foot-soldiers and not the masterminds.

Earlier this month, the judge Yatin Shinde convicted 12 accused while 
acquitting one. Serial blasts on Mumbai local trains on July 11, 2006, killed 
at least 188 persons.

Special Public Prosecutor Raja Thakare on Tuesday said that as far as the 
gravity of the offence was concerned, all the accused stood on the same 
platform. "If we go by the principle that all conspirators should be treated 
equally, then everyone should get the death penalty. However, I would not pray 
for death for all," he said.

Thakare said he would classify the convicts into 2 categories: those who should 
get the death penalty and those who should get life imprisonment.

"The punishment in grave and serious offences should reflect the revulsion felt 
by the great majority of citizens," said Thakare.

"The offence against the state is committed with a view to striking terror and 
disturb the peace in the community and also to cause breach of public order," 
he argued.

"There is a foreign hand in the commission of offence and some of the convicts 
went to Pakistani terror training camps to get training in handling of arms and 
preparing bombs," Thakare told the court.

The RDX, which was used in the blasts, is capable of causing a mass 
destruction, prosecutor Thakare noted.

Apart from the 188 deaths, the blasts also caused a loss off Rs 22 crore to the 
public exchequer, he said. It created a fear psychosis in the minds of the 
people, especially the commuters of Mumbai suburban trains. This trauma and the 
shock and agony caused by the blasts could not be calculated, he said.

"It is not a case of a single isolated incident but a systematic planting of 
seven powerful bombs in a diabolical manner, set with such an extreme precision 
that they exploded within five minutes (of each other) causing utter chaos and 
confusion among the helpless and defenceless victims," Thakare argued.

All the accused were settled, well-educated, had occupations and families; none 
of them claimed that he was induced by monetary temptations to take part in the 
conspiracy and they all were mature enough to know what was wrong and what was 
right for the society. But none of them had second thoughts about 
participating, said the prosecutor.

Earlier, defence lawyer Yug Chaudhry argued that the mastermind of the 
conspiracy was Lashkar-e-Toiba member Azam Cheema (shown as an absconding 
accused in the case).

"Cheema was the mastermind while the convicts are the foot-soldiers; even if 
the convicts had withdrawn, Cheema may have brought some new people to execute 
his plans," he said.

It was Cheema who gave instructions and exercised complete control and selected 
people from India and Pakistan for the operation, he said.

"Cheema was the architect of the entire operation, the RDX and finance required 
to execute the operation was provided by him," Chaudhry argued. The 
prosecution's argument would continue tomorrow.

(source: dnaindia.com)



IRAN----execution

Iran regime hangs 19-year-old


Iran's fundamentalist regime has hanged a teenager in the north-eastern city of 
Mashhad.

The unnamed 19-year-old man was hanged in Mashhad's central prison on Sunday.

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."

Amnesty International said on September 7 that "the Iranian authorities must 
end their unprecedented killing spree - more than 700 people have been executed 
so far this year."

Iranians plan to rally outside the United Nations in New York on September 28 
to denounce the visit by the mullahs' President Hassan Rouhani to the UN 
General Assembly.

The rally, which is being organized by the Organization of Iranian-American 
Communities (OIAC), will press the international community to hold the regime 
in Iran accountable for its abhorrent human rights record.

The mullahs' regime in Iran continues to execute more of its citizens per 
capita than any other U.N. member state. Some 2000 people have been executed 
under Rouhani in the past 2 years.

(source: NCR-Iran)