[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

June 1



SAUDI ARABIA:

Saudi Arabia on course to execute more than 100 people in first 6 months of 
2016 as use of death penalty rises


The rate of executions so far this year has been higher than 2015, which set a 
21-year record

Saudi Arabia could be on course to put more than 100 people to death in the 
first 6 months of this year after a dramatic surge in executions.

The death of a Nigerian man convicted of murdering a police officer on Sunday 
brought the total for 2016 to at least 95 people and humanitarian organisations 
fear the rate of killings will continue.

"Executions in Saudi Arabia have been surging dramatically for 2 years now and 
this appalling trend shows no sign of slowing," said James Lynch, deputy Middle 
East and North Africa director at Amnesty International.

"The steep increase in executions is even more appalling given the pervasive 
flaws in Saudi Arabia's justice system, which mean that it is entirely routine 
for people to be sentenced to death after grossly unfair trials."

Saudi Arabia on course to double number of beheadings this year

Now 21, Amnesty says he was sentenced to death based on "confessions" allegedly 
extracted through torture, in a violation of international human rights 
standards.

He was arrested aged 17 after taking part in anti-government protests and tried 
by a counter-terrorism court for a series of offences such as attacking 
security forces and committing armed robbery.

2 other young men, Abdullah al-Zaher and Dawood al-Marhoon were sentenced to 
death a few months afterwards, on a list of similar offences, and Amnesty 
International is among the groups calling for the convictions to be quashed.

The British Government said it has "regularly raised" but that under Saudi law 
they were considered to have been adult at the time of their alleged crimes.

Reprieve, a legal charity, said juvenile offenders were also among those 
executed in January, including a man thought to be 14 at the time of his arrest 
following demonstrations.

The organisation said that if maintained, the current pace could see more than 
320 prisoners killed by the end of this year.

Saudi Arabia was among the "human rights priority countries" highlighted by the 
Foreign and Commonwealth Office in a recent report, although the British 
Government has been criticised for its close relationship and lucrative trade 
deals with the state.

The report said that as the principle of capital punishment is enshrined in 
Saudi Arabia's Sharia law, abolition is unlikely in the near future, and that 
2015's rise in executions was partly due to long-running legal cases being 
concluded.

"We condemn and do not support the death penalty in any circumstances and that 
includes Saudi Arabia," David Cameron said in April. "We always make 
representations on the death penalty."

(source: The Independent)






IRAN:

Call to revoke young man's death sentence


The Iranian Resistance is calling for the cancellation of a death sentence 
issued for Mohammad Reza Haddadi, aged 15 at the time of his alleged crime, and 
requests from all human rights organizations, especially the UN High 
Commissioner for Human Rights, the UN Human Rights Council, UN Special 
Rapporteur on Arbitrary Executions and UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in 
Iran to take urgent action aimed at forcing the cancellation of this criminal 
execution. Haddadi has been held in Adel Abad Prison of Shiraz, central Iran, 
for the past 13 years.

Moreover, three prisoners in the cities of Shiraz, Kavar (located 51 kilometers 
south of Shiraz) and Nour (in Mazandaran Province, northern Iran) were hanged 
through the span of May 28th to the 30th.

2 inmates were also hanged on May 31st in Noshahr Prison (northern Iran). 
Therefore, the number of executions in Iran reached 73 in the month of May.

Executions, lashing and torture, especially against the youth, reflect the 
increasing fear sensed by the fascist regime ruling Iran regarding an imminent 
eruption of anger and social protests. These developments reveal that the mask 
of moderation used by the criminals ruling Iran is nothing but a deceptive 
plot.

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

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

Saving young lives from execution in Iran


To mark 1 June - International Children's Day - Raha Bahreini from our Iran 
team describes how Amnesty has managed to raise awareness about the death 
penalty and save juvenile offenders from the gallows in Iran.

It starts with a panicked phone call.

Our contact tells us that a juvenile offender (a person aged below 18 at the 
time of their crime) has just been transferred to solitary confinement - the 
final step before execution.

This is often our 1st glimpse of this young person and the desperate situation 
they are in. Why? Because the families of those on death row often fear 
reprisals if they publicize the plight of their loved ones. They sometimes 
believe that international lobbying and public campaigning will only complicate 
the situation and hasten the execution. At times, the authorities themselves 
give families false assurances, claiming that if the family does not publicize 
the case, their loved ones might be spared.

The moment we are prompted to intervene is often the moment when the 
authorities' promises are exposed as hollow and the young person is just days 
or hours away from execution.

A race against the clock

Once we get the call, it's a race against the clock - and winning literally 
becomes a matter of life and death.

We scramble to collect court documents and testimonies, verifying them through 
reliably informed sources. We work swiftly and under pressure alongside our 
media and campaigning colleagues to issue a press release and send urgent 
appeals to our network of activists. We co-ordinate efforts among our global 
offices and organize Twitter storms, letter-writing campaigns, and email 
actions.

Through all this, we urge our activists to generate a global outcry about this 
young person who, up until a few days ago, had been suffering in isolation on 
death row.

Once we have exhausted every avenue, there is nothing left to do but wait.

At this point, we feel helpless, imagining that young person frightened and 
alone in their cell. We keep in touch with our contacts, scrabbling for 
updates. Iran is several hours ahead of London and they execute at dawn, so we 
keep awake until late,checking our phones for good news - while dreading the 
worst.

Lives saved

Our greatest moments of relief come when we hear that we have saved a life - as 
we did when Alireza Tajiki was spared execution last month. He had been 
arrested when he was just 15 years old and sentenced to death in 2013 on the 
basis of torture-tainted "confessions". When we learned of his execution date, 
we had just 4 days to save him. But in those four days we got hundreds of 
people to appeal to Iran's authorities while we engaged in diplomatic 
interventions. And it worked. The authorities stopped his execution within 24 
hours of the moment he was scheduled to be hanged. Although Alireza Tajiki is 
still at risk of execution, this short-term victory gives us time to build on 
our efforts to save him once and for all.

Alireza isn't our only success. There is Salar Shadizadi, who we saved twice 
from execution. Like Alireza, he was sentenced to death for a crime committed 
when he was 15 years old. First, we convinced the authorities to postpone his 
execution and move him out of solitary confinement in August 2015. When they 
rescheduled his execution to November, we stopped them again - despite having 
just a few days to do it.

There was also Saman Naseem, who had been scheduled to hang in February 2015. 
He was sentenced to death based on "confessions" that he said were extracted 
through torture. We launched a worldwide campaign to stop his execution. Then, 
the day before the execution, Saman was transferred to an undisclosed location 
where he remained for the next 5 months. In that time, we mobilized our 
activists to demand that the authorities reveal his fate and whereabouts. In 
July 2015, his family was finally informed that he was alive and was allowed to 
visit him. The authorities quashed his death sentence and granted him a retrial 
- 2 positive steps that we had campaigned for.

The power of a movement

Over the past 18 months, thousands of people worldwide have spoken out against 
Iran's use of the death penalty on juvenile offenders, which is illegal under 
international law.

These efforts have shed light on the plight of more than 160 juvenile offenders 
languishing on Iran's death row. They have also hugely increased the 
reputational cost of executing juvenile offenders for the Iranian authorities.

With help from Amnesty's supporters, we have achieved a fantastic outcome for 
Alireza, Salar and Saman.

But our work is far from finished. The immediate threat of execution may be 
over, but the tortuous waiting game continues for these and other young people 
growing up on Iran's death row. Only yesterday, Mohammad Reza Haddadi - who has 
spent the last 12 years on death row for a crime committed when he was 15 - was 
spared execution a 6th time, thanks to yet another public campaign on his 
behalf.

And so our struggle continues, until the authorities stop giving juvenile 
offenders the death penalty - so that no child faces the gallows in Iran again.

(source: Raha Bahreini, Amnesty International)






GAZA:

Hamas Should Halt Executions ---- 3 Executed Amid Perceived Crime Wave


The Hamas authorities in the Gaza Strip should halt planned executions. 3 men 
were put to death on the morning of May 31, 2016, as the 1st step in a declared 
plan to kill 13 convicted criminals. The executions came after a number of 
highly publicized murders.

"The death penalty is always wrong, especially in a legal system like Gaza's in 
which torture and coercion are common," said Sari Bashi, Israel and Palestine 
director. "Gaza's leaders should be addressing due process abuses, rather than 
making them worse by killing people."

On May 26, the authorities in Gaza announced a plan to execute 13 people 
convicted of murder and sentenced to death. Attorney General Ismail Jaber said 
that authorities would execute 3 people before the holy month of Ramadan, which 
begins next week, and the other 10 after the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr, at 
the end of Ramadan. Those executed on May 31 were identified by the Palestinian 
Center for Human Rights (PCHR), an independent human rights group, as Sh., 43, 
from Khan Younis, a police officer who was shot to death by a firing squad; and 
E., 28, from Rafah; and Sh., 38, from an unspecified town, both of whom were 
hanged.

Gaza executions graphic

In recent weeks, Gaza's social and mainstream media have buzzed with discussion 
of a spate of violent crimes. Hamas authorities have sentenced 88 people to 
death since taking control of Gaza in 2007, according to PCHR. In that time, 
they have executed at least 46 people, including the 3 on May 31. Most of them 
were executed without any judicial process. During the 2014 war, Hamas 
authorities summarily executed 23 people accused of collaboration with Israel. 
In February 2016, the Hamas military wing tortured and executed a commander 
accused of "morality" crimes. A majority of the remaining 22 people executed 
were convicted in military courts, where due process protections are 
particularly compromised.

The Palestinian Independent Commission for Human Rights, a statutory watchdog 
group, said it had documented violations of Palestinian law and due process in 
the manner in which the 3 people executed on May 31 were detained, 
interrogated, and tried, including torture.

Palestinian law requires presidential ratification of death sentences. But 
Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president and Fatah leader, has refused to 
authorize executions since taking office in 2005. Hamas had refrained from 
carrying out judicially imposed death sentences since the 2 factions signed a 
reconciliation agreement in the spring of 2014. PCHR said that without 
presidential ratification, the executions amounted to extrajudicial killings.

Human Rights Watch opposes the death penalty in all circumstances, because it 
is inherently cruel and irreversible. Human Rights Watch has documented serious 
abuses in criminal justice in Gaza that make the May 31 executions particularly 
egregious. Palestine, which acceded to International Convention on Civil and 
Political Rights in 2014, should ratify the treaty's 2nd optional protocol, 
with the aim of abolishing the death penalty in Gaza and the West Bank, Human 
Rights Watch said.

"Hamas should cancel its plan to resume executions after the holiday," Bashi 
said. "Murder is a heinous crime, but imposing the death penalty is not the 
answer."

(source: Human Rights Watch)

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

Hamas to execute 13 Gazan criminals as warning to others


On May 26, before the execution of the three Palestinian prisoners, the deputy 
leader of Hamas' political bureau, Ismail Haniyeh, announced that the 
organization had decided to execute 13 Palestinian prisoners who had been 
sentenced to death previously. Hamas also announced that the executions would 
take place publicly in Gaza City's Palestine Square to serve as a deterrent.

Haniyeh's announcement sent shockwaves through Palestinian society, pitting 
Gaza against Ramallah and supporters of the death penalty against its 
opponents, including the Palestinian Authority. In response to criticism by 
Gazan human rights organizations, Hamas went back on its plan to conduct the 
executions in Palestine Square. Instead, Hamas explained that the executions 
would take place in a closed compound in front of journalists, who will be 
permitted to photograph and film the events and then air the images to show how 
Hamas is actively fighting crime. The 1st execution took place in the Gaza 
prison.

Ever since the 2007 coup in Gaza, the leaders of Hamas have boasted to me about 
how they have managed to restore order and safety to Gaza after the "chaos," 
which is how they describe the disorder that threatened Palestinian society in 
the days of PLO leader Yasser Arafat and later, when Palestinian President 
Mahmoud Abbas ruled the Gaza Strip. The problem that Hamas is now facing is 
that its own regime is coming under harsh criticism with the sharp increase in 
local crime.

Mustafa Ibrahim, a veteran human rights activist in Gaza, told Al-Monitor, 
"Hamas is under attack and facing very serious public pressure. Since 2007, it 
has sentenced 73 civilians to death, but only executed 17 of them, mostly for 
collaboration with Israel. Some of them were executed publicly during Operation 
Protective Edge, and the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades dragged their corpses 
through the streets. It was a brutal act intended to deter collaboration with 
the Zionist enemy."

Ibrahim, speaking to me before the three Palestinians were executed, said that 
it was not yet certain who the 13 selected for execution were, "but all human 
rights organizations in Gaza are fervently opposed to the executions."

Hamas' decision to impose the death penalty on 13 prisoners already sentenced 
to death is not just the result of public pressure from Gaza residents who want 
to see their personal security restored. As always, the Hamas decision also has 
a political aspect.

On May 13, Suria al-Badri was murdered. She was the mother of Dr. Bassam 
al-Badri, Gaza's senior medical coordinator who was responsible for sending 
patients for urgent medical treatment outside of Gaza, some of them to Israel. 
Badri is a familiar figure in Gaza and identified with the Fatah movement. His 
mother was killed by his neighbor, Mahmoud al-Hudri. He broke into the Badri 
home while everyone was supposed to be attending a family event. When Badri's 
mother surprised and recognized him, he stabbed her to death.

The murder of the well-known doctor's elderly mother sent shock waves 
throughout the Gaza Strip and provided Fatah activists with reason to attack 
the Hamas regime. Hamas promised "change and reform," Fatah activists mocked, 
when in fact there has been a sharp rise in cases of armed robbery and murder 
under its rule.

With its image shattered, Hamas felt the need to respond, and this is the 
motivation for the leadership's rapid decision to execute 13 criminals with TV 
cameras rolling. According to Hamas, some of the executions will be broadcast 
live on Al-Aqsa TV.

"Yes, there were executions in Gaza even under Mahmoud Abbas," Ibrahim said. "5 
Palestinians were executed in Gaza up until 2005. After that, there was a 
moratorium on the death penalty. Human rights organizations in Gaza demanded 
that death sentences never be implemented, as a rule, and that criminals and 
prisoners accused of treason be granted minimal rights. Our demands were 
demonstrably ignored until now, and even come under extensive public criticism 
in Gaza, where we Gaza human rights activists are called 'bleeding hearts.'" 
Ibrahim was quick to stress, "Despite all the attacks against us, we believe 
that Palestinians should act like all the other civilized nations in the world. 
Palestine was recognized as a state by the institutions of the United Nations, 
so we must adopt the 2014 UN declaration that executions are immoral."

The execution of the 3 Palestinian prisoners clearly indicates that Hamas did 
not cave in to the pressure exerted by the human rights organizations. Indeed, 
even before the news about the execution, Ibrahim argued that Hamas' image is 
so tarnished that it will not relent, and that it will ultimately execute the 
prisoners. He believes that the 13 will include the murderer Mahmoud al-Hudri, 
as well as the perpetrators of other killings that shocked the Gaza Strip over 
the last year. To reduce criticism, Ibrahim claims that several prisoners 
sentenced to death on charges of collaboration with Israel will also be 
executed.

Human rights activists in Gaza claim that the executions will not keep 
criminals from committing crimes. They argue that the crime wave in the Gaza 
Strip is the direct result of Gaza's severe economic situation. Unemployment, 
poverty, desperation and hopelessness are what cause so many young people to 
descend to crime. Furthermore, so many Palestinians in Gaza use drugs, 
particularly Tramadol, a painkiller that many Gazans take regularly. The cost 
of these tablets, which were smuggled in the past into Gaza from Egypt, has 
gone up consistently with the closing of the tunnels, causing deep crises for 
those Palestinians who have grown addicted to them.

Gaza is a seething pressure cooker that could blow up at any moment, at least 
according to human rights activists in the Gaza Strip. They say that there is 
only one thing that Hamas can do about it. It must redirect some of its 
resources designated for increasing its military power to benefit the people of 
Gaza suffering from dire poverty and hopelessness.

"But it won't happen," 1 human rights activist in Gaza told Al-Monitor on 
condition of anonymity. "Would you people in Israel reduce your defense budget 
to help the sick and needy? It won't happen here either. This is how we are 
destined to live."

(source: al-monitor.com)