[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Jan. 27




GRENADA:

Grenada man charged with murder in death of US tourist


A man accused of killing a tourist from Georgia in a machete attack on an 
isolated beach in Grenada made his 1st appearance Wednesday before a judge on 
the Caribbean island to face a charge of capital murder.

Dave Martin Benjamin did not enter a plea and was not given an opportunity to 
speak in the brief hearing. A lawyer has not yet been appointed to represent 
him. The 27-year-old could get the death penalty if convicted. Grenada has not 
carried out an execution since 1978.

Hundreds of people gathered outside the courthouse to get a glimpse of Benjamin 
as he was led into court in jeans and a checkered shirt.

The suspect surrendered to authorities Monday, a day after the body of Jessica 
Colker, a 39-year-old physician's assistant from Atlanta, was found in a wooded 
area near an isolated beach where she had been walking with her husband.

Benjamin became the chief suspect because people had seen him begging on the 
beach before the incident, Acting Police Commissioner Winston James said after 
the court hearing. He did not disclose what other evidence investigators had 
collected and said that Benjamin had not confessed to the crime.

Police say Benjamin waylaid Colker and Brian Melito around noon on Sunday as 
they walked along the shore. The husband fled to get help and his wife was 
missing when he returned. Her body was found later that day in a wooded area. 
An autopsy found that she died from extensive skull fracture and asphyxia. 
James said there were signs of sexual assault.

Colker worked as a physician's assistant at a children's hospital in metro 
Atlanta. Van Melito is a physician. The couple, who met at a dance workshop in 
Costa Rica, married in November 2014, according to an online wedding album.

"Jessica could fill the room with laughter in a second," Kristin McManus, a 
friend from her hometown of Yorktown, Virginia told WAVY-TV. "And her smile 
just glowed, and she was such a caring person, an open person."

Police said earlier that Benjamin was convicted of robbery and burglary in 2009 
and of a rape in 2013. He was released early from prison in November because of 
good behavior.

Benjamin's next scheduled court appearance is Friday.

(source: Associated Press)






IRAN----execution

Political prisoner hanged on verge of Rouhani'd visit to Europe


The Iranian Resistance calls on the international community and human rights 
defenders to condemn the criminal execution of dervish, political prisoner 
Fardin Hosseini. His secret execution in Kermanshah's prison on January 21 as 
Rouhani, the demagogue president of the Iranian regime, was about to travel to 
Italy, Vatican and France makes Rouhani's visit all the more illegitimate and 
makes holding Rouhani accountable for the severe violation of human rights 
2fold necessary. The execution of over 2200 prisoners, including followers of 
various religions and faiths, is part of the infamous dossier of Rouhani's 2 
1/2 years presidency. Rouhani, along with other leaders of this regime, should 
face justice for all their crimes, particularly for crime against humanity for 
the execution of 120,000 political prisoners.

Mr. Fardin Hosseini was constantly under torture and interrogations in 
intelligence ministry cells and medieval prisons in Qom, Dieselabad of 
Kermanshah, and Gohardasht (Rajai Shahr). The henchmen also arrested his family 
and harassed them to extract forced confession from him.

He wrote In a letter to Amnesty International and the Special Rapporteur on the 
situation of human rights in Iran in June 2015: I was numerously pressured by 
my torturers that if I accept the charges brought against me during my 
interrogation and if I confess and accept the fictitious charges in the courts, 
they would pay a large sum of money to me and my children and they can relocate 
me to any place in the world that I want and that I will be protected ... all 
this calamity was solely for my beliefs.

Time and again he asked for an open court with the participation of the media, 
but the Iranian regime never accepted his request.

Iranian regime's judiciary had accused Mr. Fardin Hosseini of killing Mullah 
Sabaei, the former Friday prayer imam of Savejbolaq, in mid June 2007 but he 
repeatedly denied the allegations. Sabaei working under Mullah Mohammadi 
Gilani's supervision was involved in issuing death verdicts and massacring 
prisoners in executions of political prisoners in 1981.

(source: Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran)






LIBYA:

Whipped for drinking alcohol and executed for stealing: The horrific moment 3 
men are shot dead in front of a mob by ISIS barbarians in Libya


ISIS militants in the Libyan town of Sirte have executed at least 3 men and 
whipped another for drinking alcohol, according to a 'photo report', published 
by the terror group.

Published on an anonymous content sharing website, it shows the deaths of 3 men 
and the whipping of 4 others.

In 1 photo a man in a grey t-shirt, his face blurred, is led to his death - the 
caption says he was executed for the sin of 'banditry'.

According to the 'report', the other men were executed for converting from 
Islam, for cursing god and for belonging to a militia loyal to Khalifa Haftar, 
the UN-backed government general deeply hostile to Islamist forces - both the 
self-appointed government in Tripoli and ISIS.

The post is entitled 'Implementing punishment in the city of Sirte' and links 
to ISIS-related hashtags in Arabic.

In the 7 photos, each is captioned with the sin the men are accused of 
committing and their punishment.

A crowd of masked men stand to watch as the punishments are carried out - a 
mixture of executions and whipping.

One photo shows a group of 4 of the accused on their knees in front of a crowd 
of masked men, as their 'sentence' is read out - the caption declares flogging 
is the punishment for drinking wine.

ISIS reportedly has 3,000 fighters in Sirte and has imposed the strict rules 
familiar with residents in their defacto capital in Raqqa, Syria.

Beheadings and crucifixions plague the town, which has been deserted by 
citizens by the thousands.

It comes as analysts warn that the terror-group is rallying more and more 
groups under their banner, despite losing ground in its strongholds of Iraq and 
Syria.

'From the start, Islamic State has vowed to take its fight globally, but until 
recently it has been focused on managing its caliphate in Iraq and Syria,' said 
Michael Kugelman, of the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington.

With the Iraqi army re-taking some of the territory the group had taken, IS 
'has re-dedicated attention to focusing on a more global approach', he said.

'The big question, after the Jakarta attacks and all of these attacks around 
the world in recent months that have been claimed by ISIS is - are these 
militants only inspired by ISIS or have they been directly managed by ISIS?' he 
said, using another name for the group.

Kugelman believes that IS is for now content to take credit for the attacks, 
using the 'brand recognition' of its name that has spread across the world, 
partly through social media, without necessarily dedicating resources or 
manpower to these groups.

'What you have here are disillusioned, alienated militants, who have been 
fighting with a different organisation, who are interested in identifying 
themselves with a more dynamic cause. And they see ISIS as a very dynamic cause 
- they are in the media all the time and commit spectacularly brutal attacks.'

(source: Daily Mail)