[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Aug. 30




NORTH KOREA----executions

Kim Jong-un reportedly orders 2 officials to be executed by anti-aircraft 
guns----1 challenged Kim's leadership while the other dozed off in a meeting.


North Korean leader Kim Jong-un ordered the executions of 2 senior officials 
with an anti-aircraft gun in early August, South Korea's JoongAng Ilbo 
newspaper has reported. These would mark the first executions ordered by Kim 
from outside the military or his party.

According to the report, Ri Yong Jin, a senior official in the education 
ministry was arrested for falling asleep during a meeting with Kim. Ri was 
arrested on site, "intensively questioned" and executed on charges including 
corruption.

The paper said that former Agriculture Minister Hwang Min was executed over a 
proposed policies that were seen as a direct challenge to Kim's leadership. 
Hwang was replaced by Ko In Ho at meeting of the rubber-stamp parliament in 
late June.

The unnamed source said that 2 men were publicly executed on "special order" 
from Kim at a military academy in Pyongyang. The executions could not be 
confirmed by a spokesman at South Korea's Unification Ministry, Bloomberg 
reported.

The report has yet to be independently verified and there have been instances 
where reports regarding executions in the reclusive country have turned out to 
be false.

Since taking power in 2011 following his father's death, Kim has ordered the 
executions of dozens of officials. Kim was said to have ordered the execution 
of his uncle and 1-time deputy Jang Song Thaek 3 years ago. 1 year later, he 
ordered the executions of 50 officials on charges as varied as graft or 
watching South Korean soap operas.

In January 2015, it was reported that he had General Pyon In Son, head of 
operations in the army, executed for disagreeing with him and in May of that 
year, he had his defence minister Hyon Yong Chol killed for falling asleep at a 
rally. Yonhap News reported in February that Kim had his military chief Ri Yong 
Gil killed on charges including corruption.

Reports of the latest round of executions in North Korea come after a senior 
diplomat in London defected to South Korea. Thae Yong-ho fled to Seoul after 
claiming he was "tired of Kim's regime". In response, Pyongyang denounced Thae 
as "human scum" and accused him of being a sex criminal. Kim reportedly ordered 
the execution of those who failed to prevent the defection.

(source: ibtimes.co.uk)






AFGHANISTAN:

Afghan Taliban: Haqqani's brother sentenced to death


A local court in Afghanistan is said to have awarded death penalty to a brother 
of Sirajuddin Haqqani, deputy chief of the Afghan Taliban.

A section of the media quoted Baseer Aziz, the spokesperson for the office of 
the attorney general, as saying that a primary court has awarded death sentence 
to Anas Haqqani, who was captured by US security officials after he visited 
Qatar in October 2014, along with another leader Hafiz Rashid. They were 
arrested in Bahrain, Taliban had confirmed at the time.

The spokesperson would not say when and where the court sentenced Anas and on 
what charges. There was no official word on the matter, while the US-funded 
Radio Azadi also reported on the authority of 'credible sources' that a court 
has awarded death sentence to Anas Haqqani.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said he was trying to verify the report. 
"We have started investigation into the matter," Mujahid told The Express 
Tribune when approached on WhatsApp.

Nunn.asia, a website which mainly reports on the Afghan Taliban said Anas has 
been condemned to death under "pressure from the government's circles".

The Taliban had confirmed the detention of Anas and Rashid and said they had 
travelled to Qatar to meet the Taliban leaders who were freed from the infamous 
Guantanamo Bay detention centre.

The US later handed over Anas and another senior Taliban commander to Afghan 
authorities, while the Afghan government had claimed that Anas was arrested in 
eastern Khost province.

Afghan legal experts say the convicts have the right to appeal in the superior 
judiciary.

(soruce: The Express Tribune)






MAURITANIA:

Death Penalty Still Looms for Mauritanian Blogger Who Spoke Out Against 
Caste-Based Discrimination


A Mauritanian blogger has been sentenced to death by Nouadhibou Criminal Court 
after writing a blog post criticising the use of Islam to justify a caste 
system that dates back to the Middle Ages.

Mohamed Cheikh Ould Mohamed Ould M'kheitir, whose father is prefect for 
Nouadhibou, the economic capital in the south of the country, is a 29-year-old 
trained accountant. They are part of a caste group known as les forgerons (the 
"forger cast"), one that was originally made up of blacksmiths.

He has appealed the conviction, which dates back to 2014. Writing for the 
website Chezvlane on 25 December 2014, he said:

"For those who dare to invent fake hadith and attribute them to the Prophet 
(peace be unto Him), no morals and no religion can stop them from interpreting 
an article written by a simple normal young man - a layman at that. They won't 
spare any effort in stirring up collective Muslim discontent to serve their 
interests. That's how they claimed that the forgerons blasphemed against the 
Prophet (PBUH) in an article one of them wrote. It was just like when they 
claimed that it was a forgeron who was responsible for the Prophet's teeth 
falling out during the Battle of Mount Uhud.

Bearing that in mind, I'd like to confirm here the following:

1. I have not, consciously or unconsciously, blasphemed against the Prophet 
(PBUH) and I will never do so. In actual fact, I don't believe there's anyone 
in the world who shows him greater respect than myself (PBUH).

2. All the facts and accounts I cited in my previous article were historically 
accurate. These accounts can of course be interpreted literally and 
superficially or looked at more closely and deeply."

On 21 April 2016, the Court of Appeal in Nouadhibou confirmed his sentence to 
death after re-examining the case. The accused is no longer considered to be an 
apostate but simply a non-believer.

Following this re-examination of the accusations against him, human rights 
campaigners in Mauritania remain hopeful that the Supreme Court will dismiss 
the death sentence and announce a more lenient sentence.

The Senegalese website Setal recalled the turn of events:

"This Thursday, the Court of Appeal did not follow the accusation which called 
for his death sentence to be upheld. Lawyers are happy with the turn of events, 
even if for them it's clearly not enough. It's been two years and three months 
since Mohamed Cheikh ould Mkheitir was arrested for a simple article posted on 
the Internet. This article was judged as being blasphemous towards the Prophet 
and Islam. This shocked the most conservative section of Mauritanian society 
who at the time called for him to be sentenced to death." This is the most 
severe sentence possible for the blogger - a severe sentence that many believe 
was issued due mostly to internal political strife. In a 26 April 2016 post on 
the Amnesty International website, human rights journalist and campaigner 
Sabine Cessout quoted a colleague (who remains anonymous) who commented on the 
case:

The whole affair reveals "the internal politics...with a tribunal which wants 
to fund Salafis, a spiraling trend in our country, as throughout the whole 
Arab-Muslim world"

International Federation for Human Rights (IFHR) quoted Fatimata Mbaye, 
President of l'Association Mauritanienne des Droits Humains (AMDH) (The 
Mauritanian Association for Human Rights), former vice-president of the IFHR 
and advocate for anti-slavery campaigners speaking on the issue:

Translation

"This sentence - the first for "apostasy" in Mauritania since Independence - 
signifies a step backwards in terms of tolerance and shows just how much issues 
of cast, religion, slavery and therefore democracy are taboos in Mauritania. 
We're noticing society and politics is becoming less tolerant towards voices of 
dissent on these issues."

After the post was published, religious extremists sparked public calls for the 
blogger to be hanged. The Senegalese website Leral described the public 
sentiment which had been stirred up in Mauritania against the accused:

Translation

"A year ago thousands of Mauritanians took the streets of Nouakchoutt, 
Naouadihbou and elsewhere demanding he be hung, plain and simple. Some of these 
had read the incriminating article - others had never even seen it. The 
Republican President, in front of a crowd of protesters which had grouped in 
front of the entrance to the palace, declared: "Thank you from the bottom of my 
heart for gathering in such numbers here to condemn the crime committed by a 
individual who is against Islam, the religion of our people, our country, the 
Islamic Republic of Mauritania, which as I've said in the past and I'm 
reaffirming today, is not secular and never will be... I assure you that as a 
result, the Government and I myself will stop at nothing to protect and defend 
this religion and its sacred image...". This declaration made by the President, 
those of other different political parties along with the protests and fatwas 
demonstrated their reasoning."

The 2006 of the Noble Peace Prize winner Aminetou Mint Noctar also drew outrage 
from extremists after she expressed support for the blogger, some of whom 
issued a fatwa against her. Noctar is also the 2010 winner of the medal of 
Chevalier in the French Legion of Honour. According to the website Africa News, 
Noctar was the first Mauritanian woman to be nominated for the Noble Peace 
Prize for her commitment and work towards human rights.

On the website aw41k.com, Yehdhih Ould Dahi, head of the radical Islamist 
movement "Ahbab Errassoul" (Friends of the Prophet) condemned Noctar for 
defending the blogger:

Translation

"May this villain who's defending Mkheitir, saying that he's a prisoner of 
conscience and demanding he be released so he can go back home to his wife, be 
cursed by Allah, the Angels and all people. This woman compares the Friends of 
The Prophet to members of Boko Haram and Takfiris because they call for the 
Prophet to be respected and honoured. Today, with the blessing of Allah, I 
declare her to be an apostate for having tempered the outrage in defence of the 
honour of the Prophet. She's an infidel and it this therefore lawful to seize 
her family members and assets. Those who kill or poke out her eyes will be 
rewarded by Allah."

Amid the public vitriol around Mohamed Cheikh Ould Mohamed Ould M'kheitir's 
case, his life hangs in the balance. For now, he will continue to languish in 
prison.

(globalvoices.org)


IRAN:

UN rights expert condemns Iran's 'illegal' execution of 12 people on 
drug-related charges


The United Nations rights expert on the situation of human rights in Iran has 
expressed outrage over the execution of 12 people on drug-related charges, just 
days after he had publicly appealed to the Iranian authorities not to go ahead 
with the capital punishment.

"The execution of individuals for drug-related offences is simply illegal," the 
Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran, Ahmed Shaheed, 
said in a news release from the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human 
Rights (OHCHR).

According to the release, Mr. Shaheed noted that international law only allows 
the imposition of the death penalty for the "most serious crimes," where there 
is intentional killing, and after a fair trial that respects the most stringent 
due process guarantees. None of these conditions were respected, the release 
added, at least in the case of one of the people executed, Alireza Madadpour.

According to OHCHR, Mr. Alireza Madadpour was arrested in November 2011 after 
990 grams of crystal meth were found during a raid on a house he cleaned. He 
was tried by a Revolutionary Court and his state-appointed defence lawyer never 
met him, with the trial lasting only 20 minutes. Furthermore, Mr. Madadpour's 
request for pardon and retrial were not granted.

"Combating drug trafficking, a serious concern in Iran, does not justify the 
use of the death penalty in drug-related cases," the Special Rapporteur said. 
"The execution of Mr. Madadpour and 11 others shows the Iranian authorities' 
complete disregard of its obligations under international human rights law and 
especially of international fair trial standards and due process guarantees."

The UN expert also renewed his call on the Government of Iran to end all 
executions and to immediately institute a moratorium on the death penalty.

Special Rapporteurs and independent experts are appointed by the Geneva-based 
UN Human Rights Council to examine and report back on a specific human rights 
theme or a country situation. The positions are honorary and the experts are 
not UN staff, nor are they paid for their work.

(source: un.org)

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

Pictures of the 12 Prisoners Executed On August 27 (+18)


Iran Human Rights (IHR) reported on the execution of 12 prisoners for drug 
offences in Karaj Central Prison on Saturday August 27. These executions 
haven't been announced by the authorities.

A local source in Iran has provided Iran Human Rights with photos of the bodies 
of these prisoners after they were hanged to death. The photos were reportedly 
taken before the bodies of the prisoners were returned to their families. Sign 
of the rope is evident on the neck of the prisoners.

Between 50 to 60% of the executions reported by IHR have not been announced by 
the authorities and are confirmed by its own sources in Iran.

(see: http://iranhr.net/en/articles/2637/)

(source: Iran Human Rights)






BANGLADESH:

Jamaat-e-Islami tycoon Mir Quasem loses final battle to dodge death penalty for 
war crimes


The Supreme Court has sounded the death knell for Jamaat-e-Islami business 
baron Mir Quasem Ali by refusing to review the death penalty it had handed down 
for his 1971 war-time atrocities.

Nation's wish has come true: AG

The verdict of the top appeals court means there is now no legal bar to 
executing his death sentence for the abduction, torture and killing of teenage 
freedom fighter Jasim Uddin Ahmed during Bangladesh's 9-month War of 
Independence from Pakistan.

In line with the rules, now the pro-Pakistan Al-Badr militia commander can only 
seek president's mercy by repenting for his crimes.

The government will execute the sentence if he does not seek clemency or the 
president rejects his petition.

A 5-strong Appellate Division bench headed by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar 
Sinha delivered the verdict on Tuesday.

"Petition is dismissed," the chief justice said after taking seat at 9am.

The 4 other members of the bench are Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain, Justice Hasan 
Foez Siddique, Justice Mirza Hussain Haider and Justice Mohammad Bazlur Rahman.

Upholding Mir Quasem's death sentence, the court said, "We found him guilty. 
Conviction is maintainable."

Later, Attorney General Mahbubey Alam told reporters that the apex court has 
also made a correction in the review verdict regarding Charge No. 14 against 
Mir Qusaem.

"Charge No. 14 says Nasiruddin was taken to Dalim Hotel and tortured. The 
Appellate Division has upheld the 10-year prison sentence given to the accused 
on that charge. But it wasn't mentioned in the verdict's operating part. Only 
that has been corrected."

Under this charge, Mir Quasem was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment for 
leading a group of Al-Badr members in abducting Nasiruddin Chowdhury from his 
house in late November 1971 and torturing him at Dalim Hotel.

Chowdhury was released along with more than 100 others on Dec 16 by the locals.

An official of the Supreme Court Registrar's Office said a certified copy of 
the full review verdict will soon be sent to the Dhaka Central Jail through the 
International Crimes Tribunal, kick-starting the process to hang Mir Quasem.

The wartime "terror of Chittagong" had rapidly risen through the ranks to 
change his own and the Jamaat's financial and political fortunes with 
extraordinary shrewdness and went on to bankroll party schemes.

The 63-year-old war criminal is currently in a condemned cell at Gazipur's 
Kashimpur prison. He heard the verdict on Tuesday morning on radio, jail 
officials said.

After the judgment was pronounced, his chief defence counsel Khandker Mahbub 
Hossain told reporters, "The court has delivered the verdict based on false 
witnesses and evidences.

"The court had no other choice. The law is formulated in a way that it somewhat 
forces (the court) to accept 'hearsay' evidence."

Asked whether his war criminal client would seek presidential mercy, Hossain 
said, "Please go and ask (Mir Quasem). I am a lawyer, fighting for law."

On the other hand, Attorney General Alam in his immediate reaction said the 
State was happy with the verdict. "The wish of the whole nation and I have come 
true."

The process of execution followed in previous war crimes cases would be 
maintained this time as well, he added.

Mir Quasem is the 6th war criminal to see the verdict at its execution level. 
He is the 5th top Jamaat leader whose death sentence for war crimes has been 
upheld in the final verdict.?

Attempts to obstruct justice

The same Appellate Division bench judged Mir Quasem's appeal on Mar 8, 
upholding the death sentence given by the ICT on Nov 2, 2014.

The law minister of the day, Shafique Ahmed, when the trial was underway on Apr 
28, 2013, said Mir Quasem gave $25 million to a US lobbyist firm to make the 
war crimes trial questionable.

The government has copies of the receipt of the transaction and the contract, 
he said.

The State submitted the memo to the Supreme Court during the hearing of the 
appeal.

The Washington firm Cassidy and Associates said in the receipt that it had 
received $25 million from the Jamaat financier for "professional service".

During the hearing of the review petition, Chief Justice Sinha said the court 
did not take the receipt as evidence, but considering the number of companies 
the convict owned, the State did not apparently do 'excesses' to bring the 
allegation.

The chief justice's dissatisfaction over the inefficiency of the prosecution 
and investigation panel during the appeal hearing had also created ripples.

The attorney general also said at the hearing that the Appellate Division 
acquitted Mir Quasem of 1 of the 2 charges, for which he was given death 
sentence by the tribunal, due to 'incompetence' of the prosecution and 
investigation panel.

The defence tried to defer the review petition hearing on numerous occasions.

According to Attorney General Alam, the time of hearing Mir Quasem's review 
petition is double the other cases.

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

Seeking presidential pardon last option for war criminal Mir Quasem to avoid 
death penalty


Mir Quasem Ali, known as the financier of the Jamaat-e-Islami, has lost his 
last legal battle to avoid the death sentence on him for 1971 war-time 
atrocities through the Supreme Court's rejection of his review petition.

The verdict from the top appeals court on Tuesday now means that there is now 
no legal bar to execute his death sentence for the abduction, torture and 
killing of teenage freedom fighter Jasim Uddin Ahmed during Bangladesh's 
9-month War of Independence from Pakistan.

The development has left the pro-Pakistan Al-Badr militia commander of 1971 
with the option to seek president's mercy by repenting for his crimes.

The 5-strong Appellate Division bench headed by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar 
Sinha delivered the verdict Tuesday morning.

Mir Quasem is the 6th war criminal to see the verdict at its execution level 
and the 5th top Jamaat leader whose death sentence for war crimes has been 
upheld in the final verdict.

Before him, death-row war criminals Motiur Rahman Nizami, Ali Ahsan Mohammad 
Mujahid, Md Kamaruzzaman and Abdul Quader Molla and BNP leader Salauddin Quader 
Chowdhuyr had filed review petition and failed to overturn their sentences.

All of them were executed after the apex court scrapped their petitions.

In line with Article 49 of the Constitution, any convict can seek pardon from 
the president as the last option to dodge the death penalty. Mir Quasem now 
will have the same chance.

But the government will execute the sentence if he does not seek clemency or 
the president rejects his plea.

An official of the Supreme Court Registrar's Office said the court will publish 
the full review verdict after all the judges sign it. Then it will be published 
on the Supreme Court's website too.

Then 3 copies of the verdict will be sent to the International Crimes Tribunal 
(ICT), which sentenced Mir Quasem to death in November 2014, the jail 
authorities and the district magistrate of Dhaka.

2 more copies will also be sent to the home ministry and the counsels of both 
the State and defence.

The 63-year-old war criminal is currently in a condemned cell at Gazipur's 
Kashimpur prison.

After receiving the verdict's copy, the ICT will order the prison authorities 
to take necessary steps following the judgment.

Once the ICT judges who had delivered the original verdict sign it, three 
copies will be sent to the jail authorities, the district magistrate and the 
home and law ministries.

Then prison officials will read out the verdict to Mir Quasem and ask whether 
he would seek presidential clemency.

Regarding the course after that, Attorney General Mahbubey Alam said, "If he 
(Quasem) files the mercy petition, it will be sent to the president. Then the 
process will follow the president's decision."

"It will be a different matter if the president pardons him. If not, then the 
process to execute him will begin. And if (he) does not seek mercy at all, he 
can be executed any time."

In that case, the government will decide when Mir Quasem will be executed.

However, his family will be allowed to meet him in jail for the last time 
before the execution. But the sentence will not be carried out until the mercy 
petition issue is resolved.

The whole process will be set into motion once the full review verdict is 
published, said the attorney general.

President Md Abdul Hamid is currently in London for eye treatment and medical 
check-up. He is scheduled to return home on Sep 4.

Asked whether the authorities will have to wait until Sep 4 for the president's 
return, Mahbubey Alam said, "The president can be notified about this wherever 
he is staying. There is no problem about that."?

(source for both: bdnews24.com)