[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

April 7



MOROCCO:

Amnesty International Calls on Morocco to Adopt UN Moratorium on Death Penalty


Director General of Amnesty International Morocco, Mohamed Sektaoui, on 
Wednesday called on the Moroccan government to adopt the United Nations 
moratorium on the death penalty and the Second Optional Protocol to the 
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, aiming at the abolition 
of the death penalty.

Mr. Sektaoui, who was presenting the 2015 world report of Amnesty International 
on the death penalty during a meeting with the press, also called for the 
implementation of the recommendations of the Equity and Reconciliation 
Commission to abolish the death penalty and "all signs related to the death 
penalty in the penal code".

With 9 death sentences in 2015 and a de facto moratorium, Morocco holds a good 
position among MENA countries, where 831 death sentences were recorded in 17 
countries and 1,196 executed judgments in 8 countries, he pointed out.

The use of capital punishment increased significantly in 2015 in the MENA 
region, Sektaoui said, adding that the total number of known executions 
increased by 26 pc compared to 2014, while the death sentences posted a 6pc 
increase.

(source: moroccoworldnews.com)






BAHAMAS:

Majority Verdict Not Enough In Murder Case, Says Judge


A JUDGE ruled yesterday that he would not convict 2 men of murder, aggravated 
or not, on a majority verdict decided by a jury in a recent murder trial.

Rashad Sullivan and Patrickedo Rose, both 25, appeared before Justice Bernard 
Turner to learn whether the judge accepted the 10-2 guilty verdict for murder a 
jury had arrived at during their six-hour deliberations of the November 2012 
murder of Dario "China" Knowles, 25, at Lincoln Boulevard.

"A legal dispute had arisen on whether the 2011 amendment to the Penal Code 
allowed for the court to accept majority verdicts in murder cases where the 
question of the discretionary death penalty does not arise if a conviction is 
reached.

"The amendment, which followed the Privy Council's decision in the Maxo Tido 
appeal, notes that only certain types of aggravated murder are currently 
punishable by death. These include murder of a law enforcement officer; murder 
of a judicial officer, including judges, registrars and prosecutors; murder of 
a witness or juror; murder of more than one person; murder committed by a 
defendant who has a prior murder conviction; and murder in exchange for value.

"The amendment further provides that any murder committed in the course of/or 
in furtherance of a robbery, rape, kidnapping, terrorist act, or any other 
felony is punishable by death, with no explicit requirement of intent to cause 
death.

"Noting that the reasons for his decision would be provided in a detailed 
written ruling to follow, Justice Turner said yesterday he would not accept the 
10-2 guilty verdict the jury arrived at last December.

"As the jury had also returned a 10-2 guilty verdict for conspiracy to commit 
murder, the judge formally convicted the pair of that charge and adjourned 
sentencing to May 19 at the request of lawyers for the accused who sought the 
production of social inquiry reports.

"Sullivan and Rose, with 29-year-old Eddie Artus of Sugar Hill Road, were 
alleged to have conspired to commit murder between November 1 and November 25, 
2012.

"Sullivan and Rose were further accused of the actual murder.

"Knowles, the son of accused murderer and drug trafficker Dion "Emperor" 
Knowles, was shot and killed on Lincoln Boulevard off Cordeaux Avenue. He was 
found lying in the street, shortly after several gunshots were heard in the 
area. The elder Knowles was killed in 2011.

"Artus was acquitted on direction of the judge at the close of the 
prosecution's case. The 2 other men claimed they were induced into making 
statements to police through physical mistreatment and threats. They maintained 
their innocence.

"Investigators had denied the abuse allegations when cross-examined after 
testifying that Sullivan allegedly admitted he was present when his co-accused 
committed the crime. Rose also allegedly assigned the blame of the killing to 
Sullivan.

"Rose, was represented by Glendon Rolle, while Sullivan was represented by 
Lennox Coleby. Darell Taylor and Aaron Johnson prosecuted the case.

(source: tribune242.com)






GREAT BRITAIN:

Britain Is Making Millions Training Police In 21 Countries That Use The Death 
Penalty----The UK's national College of Policing has earned 6.2 million pounds 
in the last 3 years through overseas training contracts, a freedom of 
information request has shown.


Britain's College of Policing, the professional body for police training, has 
made millions of pounds in the last 3 years by training forces in countries 
that use the death penalty.

Among the countries where the college offers training in "leadership, forensics 
and intelligence" are Bahrain, China, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Uganda. In all, 
21 of the countries where the college operates training programmes have the 
death penalty. Yesterday Amnesty International revealed that executions 
worldwide are at a 25-year-high, with at least 158 people killed in 2015 in 
Saudi Arabia alone.

At least 25 of the countries in which the college operates have forces that 
have been accused by campaigners of human rights abuses and torture.

BuzzFeed News has seen a document that shows 242 officers from the college have 
been deployed in the last 3 years to Qatar, where police have been accused of 
torture and abuse.

In the Dominican Republic, another country where the college operates, 87 
people were killed by the police in the 1st half of 2014. Amnesty International 
has written an open letter to nation???s president saying that it has 
documented cases of torture, forced disappearances, and arbitrary arrests in 
the country.

In Jamaica, the police killed 93 people last year, and Amnesty has also 
expressed concerns about arbitrary arrest and the treatment of prisoners there.

Despite the concerns over the countries in which it operates, the college has 
made vast profits on its overseas training contracts. A freedom of information 
request by campaigners and seen by BuzzFeed News reveals the college earned 6.2 
million pounds (including 2.7 million pounds from the Middle East and 1.3 
million pounds from Africa) in the last 3 years by offering the training.

Andrew Smith of Campaign Against Arms Trade, which carried out the FOI request, 
told BuzzFeed News: "The police college has worked with some of the most 
repressive police forces in the world. There is very little information about 
what the work involves and no evidence that it has resulted in improved human 
rights anywhere.

"A number of the police forces involved have been accused of torture, and many 
uphold and enforce extremely repressive laws, including the death penalty. The 
UK police college should not be giving legitimacy to these practices or 
profiting from the oppression taking place."

There are questions of transparency around the exact nature of the training 
provided by the college. It does not disclose commercial details, partly 
because, it says, doing so could "expose vulnerabilities in the capability of 
overseas police forces that could be exploited by criminals". Documents 
discussing the contracts that have been unearthed by campaigners, such as this 
agreement with the Kingdom of Bahrain, have done little to illustrate the 
nature of the work.

Earlier this year the BBC's World at One revealed that more than 250 officers 
from Saudi Arabia had been given specialist training, but the college refused 
to disclose the content of that training (and the amount it was paid). The 
Financial Times columnist David Allen Green said it was "hardly reassuring" to 
know that the International Policing Assistance Board, which approves the 
deals, has never rejected a training proposal.

A spokesperson for the College of Policing said: "Any training of overseas law 
enforcement officers is overseen by the cross-governmental International 
Policing Assistance Board (IPAB) which comprises policing representatives and 
those of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Home Office, Ministry of Defence, 
Department for International Development and devolved administrations.

"IPAB coordinates the delivery of the Government's overseas interests and 
reviews training initiatives to ensure that they support the UK's international 
priorities.

"All training delivered by the College meets the highest international 
standards and respect for human rights and dignity is interwoven into 
programmes.

"Decisions about UK policing assistance overseas must reconcile the 
difficulties of working with countries whose standards of human rights may be 
at odds with our own with the opportunity to address national security 
concerns, reduce harm to individuals, help to protect UK citizens overseas and 
contribute to reform in those countries.

"The College has never provided overseas assistance without IPAB's 
recommendation."

(source: buzzfeed.com)



BANGLADESH:

Family meets Jamaat chief Nizami at Kashimpur jail----Members of convicted war 
criminal and Jamaat-e-Islami chief Motiur Rahman Niazami's family have met him 
at Kashimpur jail in Gazipur.


Prison authorities confirmed that Nizami's wife, daughter, son, and 
daughter-in-laws met him for around 30 minutes in a room inside the prison on 
Thursday noon.

This is the 4th family visit since the Jamaat leader was handed down the death 
warrant for orchestrating the massacre of Bangladesh's best brains in 1971, 
using his ruthless Al-Badr militia.

Kashimpur Central Jail 2 Jailor Md Nashir Ahmed said Nizami's wife Begum 
Samsunnahar Nizami, son Nazib Momen, daughter Khadiza Tahera, daughter-in-laws 
'Saleha' and 'Raiyan' met him.

"They discussed family matters and the review of the death sentence," the 
Jailor said.

They left the prison around 1:30pm, he added.

The International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) had issued the death warrant for Nizami 
on Mar 15, 2016. His family members met him on Mar 16, 24, and 31.

The ICT had, on Oct 29, 2014, ordered his execution, for the murders and rape 
in Pabna and the mass killing of intellectuals during the War of Independence.

The Supreme Court, after hearing his appeal later, upheld the maximum penalty 
for the Jamaat chief. He pled for a review of the verdict on Mar 29.

An influential minister in the BNP-Jamaat coalition government of 2001-6, he 
carries another death sentence for his role in the 10-truck arms haul case in 
Chittagong.

Born on Mar 31, 1943, in Monmothpur of Pabna's Sathia Upazila, Nizami had 
earlier headed Islami Chhatra Sangha, Jamaat's student front before it was 
renamed to become Islami Chhatra Shibir.

The Jamaat-e-Islami had actively opposed the secession from Pakistan and formed 
militias to collaborate with the invading forces of the Pakistani Army in 1971.

Nizami was chief of the Al-Badr, a militia made up of members of the so-called 
Peace Committee and Islami Chhatra Sangha.

Al-Badr gained notoriety for executing prominent pro-liberation members of the 
Bengali intelligentsia ranging from doctors, journalists and teachers to 
writers and composers on Dec 14, just days before Bangladesh secured victory by 
defeating West Pakistan's forces.

(source: bdnews24.com)






INDIA:

SC likely to hear Nizami's review petition Sunday


The Supreme Court (SC) may hear the review petition of condemned war criminal 
Jamaat Ameer Motiur Rahman Nizami on Sunday against its verdict upholding the 
International Crimes Tribunal's judgment that had sentenced him to death, 
reports news agency UNB.

The review hearing has been enlisted as item number 19 in Sunday's cause list 
of the Appellate Division.

A 4-member bench of the Appellate Division, led by chief justice SK Sinha, will 
hear the petition.

Earlier on 3 April, the Supreme Court deferred the hearing for a week on the 
review petition of the Jamaat chief.

On 29 March, Barrister Najib Momen, son of Nizami, submitted a 70-page review 
petition with the Appellate Division. The review petition mentioned 46 grounds 
seeking release of the convict in the war crimes case.

Meanwhile, Nizami's family members met him at Kashimpur Central Jail in Gazipur 
on Thursday.

Nashir Ahmed, jailer of the central jail part-2, said his wife Shamsunnahar 
Nizami, son Barrister Najib Momen, daughter Khadiza Tahera, daughter-in-law 
Saleha and Raiyan reached the jail gate around 12:45pm and stayed there for 
half an hour.

On 15 March, the ICT issued a death warrant for Nizami for his crimes against 
humanity during the Liberation War in 1971 after the apex court released the 
full text of its verdict upholding his death penalty.

On 6 January, a 4-member bench of the Appellate Division, headed by chief 
justice Surendra Kumar Sinha, upheld the death sentence of the Jamaat Ameer for 
his crimes against humanity during the war. The Supreme Court upheld the ICT-1 
order sentencing Nizami to death for the wartime crimes, including genocide and 
murder of intellectuals.

On 29 October, 2014, the ICT-1 sentenced Nizami to death for committing crimes 
against humanity during the Liberation War. The tribunal sentenced Nizami, the 
1971 commander-in-chief of Al Badr, a secret killing squad of Jamaate-e-Islami, 
the capital punishment each on 4 counts of charges of war crimes, terming Al 
Badr a criminal outfit.

Nizami filed an appeal with the SC on 23 November, 2014 challenging the death 
sentence and claimed himself innocent and sought to be cleared of the charges.

(source: Prothom Alo)






SAUDI ARABIA:

Coming Out On Facebook May Soon Be A Death Sentence In Saudi Arabia


Facebook is making you gay - at least, according to Saudi Arabia. In recent 
weeks, government officials and local prosecutors have been attempting to curb 
what they reportedly believe is an outbreak of homosexuality caused by the 
widespread adoption of social media in the country. PinkNews, an LGBT-centric 
publication based in the U.K., is reporting that the Middle East nation may 
reinstitute the death penalty for homosexuality, in fear that the Internet is 
"turning people gay." Soon, even coming out online in Saudi Arabia may be a 
death sentence.

Laws that mandate capital punishment for gay people are already on the books in 
Saudi Arabia, but they are rarely enforced. Currently, same-sex intercourse 
between 2 men is classified as zina in Sunni jurisprudence, which means it's 
punishable by death or lashing. In 2002, 3 men were beheaded for the fact of 
their sexual orientation, although the official charge from Saudi authorities 
was the vaguely worded crime of "luring children and harming others." More 
recently, a Medina man was subjected to 450 lashes and given 3 years in prison 
for arranging hookups with other men via his Twitter account.

In one way, Saudi officials are correct: Social media platforms like Twitter 
and Facebook have been a major boon to LGBT people attempting to live their 
lives in a country where repression is national policy. These websites give 
queer people a place where they can connect with others, which is why social 
media has long been at the center of the government's anti-gay crackdown. In 
2014, the gay dating app Grindr began displaying warnings to users in countries 
like Saudi Arabia and Egypt that police "may be posing as LGBT to entrap you." 
Egypt does not mandate the death penalty for homosexuality, but 10 countries - 
including the United Arab Emirates, Yemen, and Somalia - still do. The Grindr 
messages also ran in Russia and Sudan.

These anti-gay operations have been growing in recent years. In 2014, 2 men in 
Egypt were arrested for advertising their apartment as a hookup spot on 
Facebook, charging $200 a night to men who wished for rent the space. Each 
received 2 years in prison. Last year, an illegal same-sex wedding in Riyadh, 
the nation's capital, was cut short when police raided the ceremony and 
arrested the couple. Okaz, a newspaper based in Jeddah, reports that in the 
past 6 months, 35 men have been prosecuted for sodomy, while another 50 were 
apprehended on the charge of "cross-dressing."

Although the country might point the finger at Facebook for this uptick in 
arrests, the truth is more complicated. According to the Atlantic's Nadya Labi, 
the country has long had a flourishing queer culture, one that both hides in 
the shadows and often operates in broad daylight. The Saudi men Labi spoke with 
referred to Riyadh as a "gay heaven." Radwan, who was born in Saudi Arabia and 
grew up in the U.S. before returning to Jeddah as an adult, adds that it's 
surprisingly easy to be "picked up" (e.g. for sex) in Saudi Arabia - even on 
the street. "You can be cruised anywhere in Saudi Arabia, any time of the day," 
he said.

When it comes to same-sex relations between 2 women, Saudi society often looks 
the other way. Yasmin, a college student living in Riyadh, tells Labi, "There's 
an overwhelming number of people who turn to lesbianism." At her university, 
one building is a notorious hangout spot for students wishing to kill time 
between classes by partaking in Sapphic pleasures in its spacious bathroom 
stalls. The building's walls are littered with graffiti that offer faith-based 
warnings to all who enter: "She doesn't really love you, no matter what she 
tells you" and "Before you engage in anything with [her] remember: God is 
watching you."

Why is queerness is so ubiquitous in a country where it's so dangerous? Some 
say that it's a product of gender segregation. This February, a Saudi 
researcher released a report that linked the total division between sexes with 
a rise in "situation-based" homosexual behavior, one that proved extremely 
controversial. Nonetheless, it makes a certain amount of sense. In a society 
where it's forbidden to mix with member of the opposite sex - so much so that 
even religious spaces are divided by sex - the faithful may have no other 
outlet for their desires. Yasmin adds that the young women seeking carnal 
interludes in university restrooms may not be lesbians, per se. She refers to 
them as akin to "cellmates in prison."

Yasmin's take is compelling, but it's not entirely accurate. If homosexuality 
were a temporary stopgap prior to getting married, why were 4 adult gay couples 
arrested in Saudi Arabia last year? A 2014 survey discovered that these are not 
isolated cases: In Iran, nearly 20 % of college students identify as gay or 
lesbian. That figure is much larger than the recent Public Religion Research 
Institute report showing that "7 % of [U.S.] millennials identify either as 
lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender." Those results are particularly 
noteworthy in a country that not only puts gays to death, but doesn't even 
recognize that its LGBT population exists. In 2006, former president Mahmoud 
Ahmadinejad infamously said: "We don't have any gays in Iran."

The real takeaway from these reports should be obvious: Repression doesn't 
work.. It may even make the "problem" these countries are trying to fix even 
bigger. For years, conservative religious countries have attempted to control 
LGBT people with a campaign of harassment and violence, but increasing numbers 
of queer folks continue to make themselves visible - in any way they can. After 
news broke that Saudi Arabia was considering the death penalty for disclosing 
sexuality on social media, Twitter users protested by doing exactly what the 
proposed new law prohibits: coming out. The hashtag "You will not terrorize me. 
I'm gay" began trending in the country last week.

Those 7 words speak to the powerful resilience of queer people. Even if Saudi 
Arabia and other countries like it police every social media platform in 
existence, the LGBT community will continue to do what it has always done: 
survive. In a country that is determined to ignore, silence, and exterminate 
its queer population, the simple fact of existence continues to be a radical 
form of resistance.

(source: Nico Lang; thefrisky.com)