[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Jan. 13



GAZA----new death sentences

Gaza court sentences 4 to death for 'spying for Israel'


A military court in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip on Wednesday sentenced 4 
Palestinians to death on charges of spying for Israel, a statement and court 
sources said.

The court said in a brief statement that a 23-year-old man from the Zeitoun 
area south of Gaza City had been sentenced to death on espionage charges. It 
did not provide his name.

3 other men who "fled from justice" were also found guilty in absentia, it 
said.

A court source told AFP the 4 were convicted on "charges of spying for the 
occupation", including "surveillance" and providing information about cars and 
homes to help Israel plan alleged assassinations.

Before these sentences, 167 people had been sentenced to death by courts in 
Gaza and the occupied West Bank, according to the Palestinian Centre for Human 
Rights.

Hamas took over the Gaza Strip in 2007 after a battle with Fatah, which runs 
the Palestinian Authority. 80 of the death sentences have been given in Gaza 
since that date.

Islamists Hamas have previously carried out executions against those accused of 
dealing with Israelis, with the killings sometimes taking place in public 
squares.

Under Palestinian law, collaborators, murderers and drug traffickers can face 
the death penalty.

(source: Al Arabiya News)






EGYPT:

Founder of Opposition Party Risks Death Penalty If Found Guilty By Military 
Court


On 22 November 2015, the detention of Hany Mohamed Hassanin Sharaf, founder of 
the Civilized Alternative Party and former Egyptian Air Force pilot, was 
renewed for 45 days pending investigations.

While Hany's arrest appears to have been triggered by his political activism 
and in particular his work on the creation of a new opposition party, the 
military prosecution justified his detention by charging him with various 
trumped-up military crimes, using the pretext of his former occupation as an 
Air Force Pilot. Should Hany be found guilty before the Cairo Military Court, 
which postponed his trial to 17 January 2016, he risks to be sentenced to death 
without being given the possibility to fairly defend himself.

In view of these facts, Alkarama sent an urgent appeal to the UN Working Group 
on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD), hoping this UN Special Procedure for the 
protection of human rights could help make him benefit from a fair trial, by 
ending his prosecution before the Military Court of Cairo, which lacks the 
necessary independence and impartiality to try civilians.

Hany was abducted by Egypt's Homeland Security on 18 November 2015 as he made 
his way through Cairo International Airport to visit his daughter who studies 
medicine in Astrakhan, a city in southern European Russia.

Fearing that he could be tortured in detention in retaliation for his political 
affiliations, his family contacted Alkarama which sent a 1st urgent appeal to 
the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances 
(WGEID) to clarify his whereabouts on 24 November 2015.

A week later, Hany's family was informed that he was detained in a military 
facility and that he had been referred to the Military Court of Cairo under the 
suspicion that he had stolen and shared documents related to his former 
occupation as an Air-Force Pilot, accusations that were fully refuted by his 
family. Nonetheless, several military intelligence officers let themselves into 
Hany's house without any warrant in November and December 2015, confiscating 
all the documents that were related to his former work as a pilot.

The military prosecution then charged him with "stealing flight maps and routes 
of aircrafts" and "disclosing military information via satellite broadcasting 
outside of Egypt," on the sole basis of evidence provided by the military 
intelligence and without allowing Hany's lawyer to consult it.

Hence, his case was referred to a military court, even though the accusations 
brought against him are related to a time where Hany was already a civilian and 
not an Air-Force pilot anymore, a former occupation that gave the authorities a 
pretext to prosecute him.

Under Egyptian military law, such accusations could lead Hany to be sentenced 
to death by the Military Court of Cairo, which postponed his trial to 17 
January 2016.

Trials of civilians before military courts are considered as "in breach of the 
fundamental requirements of independence and impartiality and of guarantees for 
a fair trial" by the UN WGAD, which reiterated its position in its Opinion 
35/2014 regarding the detention of Khaled Hamza and others following a trial 
before a military court.

"Referring civilians before military courts has been increasingly used against 
political opponents in Egypt in the past year, especially since a Decree 
adopted in October 2014 has greatly extended the jurisdiction of military 
courts to judge civilians," declared Thomas-John Guinard, Alkarama's Legal 
Officer for the Nile region.

"In a case like Hany's, given the accusations brought against him and the fact 
that he was creating an opposition party, it is highly likely that he will be 
found guilty and sentenced to death. That is the reality of military courts in 
Egypt: to serve justice in a manner that satisfies the executive."

To remedy to Hany's situation, Alkarama solicited the UN Working Group on 
Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) to ask the Egyptian authorities to halt the military 
prosecution of Hany Mohamed Hassanin Sharaf and to release him immediately. 
Alkarama also invites the authorities to urgently repeal the decree that 
extended the jurisdiction of military courts to try civilians and to amend the 
2014 Egyptian Constitution accordingly to end this practice.

(source: All Africa News)






BELARUS:

EU condemns continued use of death penalty by Belarus


The EU Spokesperson made a statement today following the handing down of a 
death sentence to Mr. Yakavitski by the Minsk Regional Court of the Republic of 
Belarus.

The statement, published by the European Union External Action Service (EEAS), 
highlights the EU's opposition to capital punishment in all cases and without 
exception. This is in line with a key objective of the EU???s human rights 
policy.

"We urge Belarus, the only country in Europe still applying capital punishment, 
to join a global moratorium on the death penalty as a 1st step towards its 
abolition" reiterates the EU Spokesperson.

(source: enpi-info.eu)




ZIMBABWE:

Rights Lawyers Hope to Outlaw Death Penalty in Zimbabwe


Zimbabwe's Constitutional Court began its year Wednesday with a request from 15 
death row prisoners for their sentences to be commuted. Rights lawyers are 
hoping the death penalty will be outlawed in Zimbabwe this year.

The lawyer for the 15 said they have been waiting for their executions for 
periods ranging between 4 and 20 years.

All have been convicted of murder or treason, which carry capital sentences in 
Zimbabwe.

Their lawyer, former Zimbabwe finance minister Tendai Biti, said after this 
case is over he wants the death penalty completely outlawed. "When someone has 
been sentenced to death, he cannot be subjected to death row for so long and 
wait for so many years on death row.We are saying that is unconstitutional.

We would want to challenge the death penalty. And I believe we will do so this 
year, once parliament passes amendments to Criminal and Evidence Act. We do not 
believe in the death penalty," he said."You can also see that some of the 
judges do not believe in it, including the minister of justice who is now vice 
president who does not believe in it. They just have not had the courage to 
simply say, 'Let us outlaw it.'"

The vice president Biti refers to is Emmerson Mnangagwa, who opposes the death 
penalty.

In 2013, Mnangagwa said he would "rather resign than sign certificates for 
executions." "We have 89 people on death row. 2 of them are women. They are 
lucky, I did not sign the papers for their execution. At the end of the day, we 
have commuted [their sentences] to life imprisonment," he explained.

Since those comments, the number of prisoners awaiting execution has risen to 
more than 100.

Biti said a ban on the death penalty must come from the courts, instead of 
depending on the benevolence of 1 politician.

On Wednesday, he argued that Zimbabwe's constitution protects everyone, 
including convicted prisoners, against torture or cruel, inhuman and degrading 
punishment.

He said the long periods his clients have spent in prison, never knowing when 
they might be hanged, amount to such punishment. Death-row prisoners in 
Zimbabwe are not told in advance of the date and time of their execution.

(source: Voice of America News)

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

117 Zim inmates on death row


The 14 inmates are seeking an order to have their cases remitted for 
resentencing so that their sentences can be commuted to life sentences.

Zimbabwe has 117 inmates on death row at a time the country does not have a 
hangman, a situation that has left a number of the condemned prisoners 
subjected to psychological torture as a result of the delays in carrying out 
the executions. This was revealed at the Constitutional Court in Harare 
Wednesday where Shadreck Chawira and 14 others are challenging the 
constitutionality of their continued incarceration while they await the 
hangman's noose.

Harare Central Prison is the only prison designed for death row inmates but 
some of the prisoners sentenced to death were now being kept at Chikurubi 
Maximum Prison because of shortage of space, the court heard.

Justice Luke Malaba, leading a full bench of the Constitutional Court, reserved 
judgment on the case.

The 14 inmates are seeking an order to have their cases remitted for 
resentencing so that their sentences can be commuted to life sentences.

The lawyer for the inmates, Tendai Biti, told the court that his clients had 
been on the death row for periods ranging from 3 to 21 years and had suffered 
enough punishment that there was no need for them to be executed.

He said their continued incarceration was in violation of sections 51 and 53 of 
the Constitution and infringed on their rights to life and human dignity, which 
were the most important in the Bill of Rights.

Biti said he had 14 separate affidavits from the inmates explaining the 
conditions in prisons and the psychological torture that they suffered as a 
result of their placement on death row.

Given that his clients had served lengthy prison terms with various problems 
associated with incarceration in Zimbabwean prisons, Biti submitted that the 
correct remedy was to for the court to declare unconstitutional the continued 
incarceration and the blanket imposition of the life sentence.

"The court can make any order which is in the interest of justice... refer back 
to the High Court or resentencing taking into account the delay and what would 
have taken place over the years," he said.

State Counsel Olivia Zvedi said the severity of the crimes committed by the 
applicants warranted the treatment they were getting from the State, including 
being kept in solitary confinement for more than 20 hours per day.

Biti later told journalists that he would soon be challenging the death penalty 
as it was discriminatory and unequal.

"We would like to challenge the death penalty and we believe we will do so this 
year once parliament has passed amendments to the Criminal Procedures Amendment 
Act," he said.

"Some of the judges also don't believe in the death sentence. The fact of the 
matter is that there are some people, like the Minister of Justice, now the 
vice president, who feel that it is not right, they just don't have the courage 
to say let us outlaw it .The Constitution itself is discriminatory, women 
cannot be executed but men can be. Anything that is discriminatory and unequal 
is unconstitutional."

(source: African News Agency)






INDONESIA:

West Jakarta Prosecutors office will continue to seek death penalty for drugs 
lords


The West Jakarta Prosecutors Office will continue to seek the maximum sentence 
of death for big players in the drug trafficking world.

The West Jakarta Prosecutors Office head Reda Manthovani said on Tuesday that 
last year, his office handled 721 drug cases and sought the death penalty for 
25 suspects, particularly for those who were involved in the trafficking of 
large amounts of narcotics.

According to Reda, his office would seek the death penalty for at least 11 "big 
drugs suspects," this year. "The people have sent tons of narcotics to 
Indonesia. They did not merely sell narcotics here, but even established a drug 
factory," Reda said during a press conference.

Many human rights activists have complained about his firmness against drugs 
suspects, Reda said, adding that he believed that firm action against the drugs 
traffickers should be implemented so as to protect young people from drugs.

"Just imagine if one of the members of your family became a narcotics user," 
said Reda. "China is a great country, but they were defeated because of opium. 
We don't want to be like that," Reda said, citing the history of China, a 
nation that was defeated by invaders during the opium war.

He said that the West Jakarta Prosecutor's Office had demanded the death 
penalty for Iwan Setiawan, who is accused of possessing 450 kilograms of 
marijuana, but the West Jakarta District Court chose to punish him with a life 
sentence. "We will file an appeal," Reda said.

(source: The Jakarta Post)






IRAN----execution


Prisoner Executed on Moharebeh Charge----Iranian official sources report on the 
execution of a prisoner in Zanjan's central prison on a Moharebeh charge 
(commonly translated as "enmity against God").


The Zanjan Prosecutor, Hassan Mozaffari, has reported on the execution of a 
prisoner on a Moharebeh charge at Zanjan's central prison. According to the 
report, a crowd of people watched as the prisoner, only identified as "H.S.", 
was hanged in the prison's vicinity on Tuesday January 12.

According to Mozaffari, the prisoner was arrested in July 2014 after he and an 
accomplice, identified as A.A., allegedly committed rape, piracy, extortion, 
armed robbery, and torture & physical assault. A.A. was reportedly hanged on 
rape charges on the morning of Sunday April 26 2015.

(source: Iran Human Rights)