[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

March 15




LEBANON:

Judge seeks death penalty for suspects linked to 2015 Beirut bombings


A military judge Tuesday demanded the death penalty for 20 accused of 
organizing and planning a 2015 twin suicide attack that killed 47 people and 
wounded more than 200 in a Beirut suburb.

(source: The Daily Star)






BANGLADESH:

FULL VERDICT RELEASED ---- War trial: Nizami to get 15 days to seek review


The Supreme Court today released its full verdict that upheld the death penalty 
for war criminal Motiur Rahman Nizami, leaving him with option to seek review 
of the verdict.

Talking with The Daily Star, Attorney General Mahbubey Alam said the 
Jamaat-e-Islami chief can move a review petition with the Supreme Court within 
15 days of receiving the copy of the full verdict.

The apex court released the 153-page judgement after its 4 judges concerned 
signed the verdict.

The International Crimes Tribunal-1 handed Nizami death penalty on October 29, 
2014 for crimes against humanity during the 1971 Liberation War.

On January 6, a 4-member bench of the Appellate Division of SC upheld the death 
sentence of the Al-Badr Bahini chief Nizami for his crimes against humanity 
during the country's Liberation War.

The SC bench unanimously upheld his death penalty for masterminding the killing 
of intellectuals and involvement in 2 incidents of mass killing of over 500 
people in Pabna in 1971, paving the way for his execution.

The Jamaat ameer now has the option of seeking review of the SC judgment after 
the release of the verdict's full text. If his review petition is rejected, he 
will get a chance to seek presidential clemency.

If Nizami decides not to seek clemency or is denied it, he will be the second 
Al-Badr top leader after Mojaheed to walk the gallows.

Nizami is the third former minister after Jamaat leader Ali Ahsan Mohammad 
Mojaheed and BNP leader Salauddin Quader Chowdhury to get death penalty for 
their notorious role during the war.

(source: The Daily Star)






PAKISTAN:

Army chief ratifies death sentence of climber killer among 13 terrorists


Army Chief General Raheel Sharif Tuesday ratified death sentence of 13 
'hardcore terrorists' found guilty of terrorism-related offences including the 
2013 massacre of 10 foreign mountaineers, said the Inter Services Public 
Relations (ISPR).

Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) member Irfan Ullah was sentenced for the 
attack on the base camp at Nanga Parbat, Pakistan's 2nd highest mountain, which 
shocked the world and scarred the country's climbing tourism industry.

Gunmen dressed in police uniforms stormed the camp and shot dead 10 foreign 
mountaineers - including 1 American with dual Chinese citizenship, 2 other 
Chinese, 3 Ukrainians, 2 Slovakians, 1 Lithuanian and 1 Nepalese and a 
Pakistani guide.

"Today Chief of Army Staff confirmed death sentences awarded to another 13 
hardcore terrorists, who were involved in committing heinous offences relating 
to terrorism, including killing of foreign tourists at Nanga Parbat," the ISPR 
said in a statement.

The other 12 had been charged with various severe crimes from attacking schools 
and an airport, to killing security officials, civilians and damaging 
helicopters.

Pakistan has hanged more than 300 people since lifting a moratorium on the 
death penalty in December 2014.

The nuclear-armed South Asian nation lifted the 6-year moratorium and amended 
the constitution to allow military courts to try hardcore militants after 
Taliban gunmen killed more than 150 people, most of them children, at an 
army-run school in Peshawar on December 16, 2014.

In June 2014, the army launched an operation in a bid to wipe out militant 
bases in North Waziristan tribal area and end the bloody decade-long Islamist 
insurgency that has cost thousands of lives.

(source: arynews.tv)

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

SC to hear appeals against military court convictions----Supreme Court upholds 
death penalty for 2 over war crimes


The Supreme Court of Pakistan will commence hearing 10 appeals instituted 
against military court convictions of militants from tomorrow, the media 
reported yesterday.

The appeals will be taken up by a five-judge larger bench, headed by Chief 
Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Anwar Zaheer Jamali, Dawn online reported.

At the last hearing, on February 24, Jamali had ordered that all the challenges 
against military court decisions be clubbed, with the directive that execution 
of the convicts would remain suspended until the pending petitions were 
decided.

2 of the convicts were awarded death sentence by the military courts for their 
alleged involvement in the December 16, 2014, carnage at the Army Public School 
in Peshawar, which killed more than 150 people, most of them school children.

The South Asian nation unveiled a sweeping plan to curb militancy after the 
attack.

A 6-year moratorium on the country's death penalty was lifted and the 
constitution amended to allow military courts to try those accused of carrying 
out attacks.

Hangings were initially reinstated only for those convicted of terrorism, but 
in March they were extended to all capital offences.

Earlier this year the Ministry of Interior and Narcotics Control said 332 
people had been executed in the country.

Following the attack on the school, senior lawyer Salim Shah Hoti had said 
persons found involved in helping militants in carry out terror attacks 
(facilitators) are liable to be sentenced to death in accordance with the law 
of the land.

Military courts had been set up after the passage of 21st Amendment in Jan 2015 
to proceed with terror- related cases.

After lifting of the moratorium on death penalty through an executive order 
following the Army Public School attack, these courts were authorised to 
sentence to death facilitators, abettors and handlers of the terrorists without 
any distinction.

The interior ministry was required to send the case of facilitators arrested by 
security forces for their involvement in the attack at Bacha Khan University to 
the military courts because the law applied to them.

However, opponents of the policy stress that Pakistan's legal system is unjust, 
with rampant police torture and poor representation for victims during unfair 
trials, while the majority of those who are hanged are not convicted of terror 
charges.

"They (government) are hanging petty criminals but known terrorists on death 
row are awaiting their punishment for years," Asma Jahangir, a lawyer and human 
rights activist in Pakistan, has been quoted as saying.

She has accused the government of failing to act consistently, citing the men 
convicted of murdering journalist Daniel Pearl in 2002, who were handed death 
sentence years ago but have yet to be hanged.

But supporters of the plan argue that executions are the only effective way to 
deal with the scourge of militancy in Pakistan.

Earlier this month, the Senate of Pakistan proposed changes in the laws 
pertaining to counter-terrorism strategy to ensure swift dispensation of 
justice along with mechanism for security and protection of witnesses, 
prosecutors and judges.

The report of the Committee of Whole, Senate of Pakistan 2015 emphasised 
enhanced evidential value of confessional statements in terrorism cases and 
increased co-ordination between police and military-run intelligence agencies.

Regarding the enforced disappearances, the Senate's report states that the 
Constitution's articles regarding fundamental rights of citizens should be 
taught in all academies run by military, para-military forces and police.

The Senate has given 90 days to the government to adopt its recommendations.

(source: Gulf-Times)






INDIA:

SC junks petition seeking abolition of death sentence


The Supreme Court on Monday refused to re-examine the Constitutional validity 
of death sentence in the light of the evolving jurisprudence across the world 
to do away with the extreme punishment and dismissed a plea seeking abolition 
of capital punishment.

A bench of Justices P C Ghose and Amitava Roy refused to entertain a PIL 
pleading the court to revisit the relevance of death sentence in a modern 
society on the ground that it failed to act as deterrent and resulted in 
violation of human rights.

According to National Crime Records Bureau, the total number of death sentences 
handed out by courts between 1998 and 2013 was 2052, an average of 132 a year. 
But in most of the cases, awarding extreme punishment could not get approval 
from the higher courts. The SC confirms barely 3 to 4 death sentences each 
year. Over 64 people were awarded death sentence by lower courts in 2014, 
according to Amnesty International's Death Penalty Report 2015.

. Although death sentence has been executed only in 4 cases in the last 15 
years, civil rights groups have been very vocal about its abolition terming it 
"barbaric and a form of judicial killing". Mumbai blast convict Yakub Memon was 
executed last year preceded by Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru (2013), 
26/11 Mumbai attacker Ajmal Kasab (2012) and Dhananjoy Chatterjee (2004).

Advocate Mathews Nedumpara told the bench that the apex court in its various 
judgements had underscored the "vice" of arbitrariness in awarding death 
sentence. He told the bench that the 'rarest of the rare' theory, propounded by 
the SC 35 years ago, has been variedly and inconsistently applied which needed 
to be examined.

. "There have been and always will be cases of executions of innocent people. 
No matter how developed a judicial system is, it will always remain susceptible 
to human failure," the petitioner said, adding, "At the time of Independence, 
the capital punishment was order all over the world, but with passage of time 
it came to be considered to be inhuman and it was abolished in all European 
countries."

(source: The Times of India)






IRAN:

UN rights expert concerned over rate of juvenile executions in Iran


UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ahmed 
Shaheed, expressed continued concern Monday regarding Iran's alarming rate of 
juvenile executions and other flaws in the justice system. Shaheed's report 
calls for complete removal of the juvenile death penalty, as Iran is one of the 
only countries still using this practice in violation of international law. 
Shaheed also discussed problems with due process, failure of officials to 
implement Iranian law in a manner that complies with international law and 
other problems with the administration of justice. While recognizing some 
reform and recent successful elections, Shaheed stated, "[t]here remains a 
considerable gap between protections afforded to the accused in Iranian law and 
the reality on the ground."

The use of the death penalty remains controversial worldwide. Last month 
Amnesty International (AI) [advocacy website] criticized Iran's justice system 
after 40 men were sentenced to death. In January AI reported on the many 
juvenile offenders on death row in Iran. Last year AI said that use of the 
death penalty in Pakistan was undergoing a "disturbing and dangerous" 
escalation after the execution of 2 men convicted of non-terrorism offenses. In 
2014 UN officials called on the government of Iraq to impose a moratorium on 
the death penalty in response to a significant rise in executions since the 
country restored capital punishment in 2005. The report stated that 73 
executions of juvenile offenders took place between 2005 and 2015 and that 160 
juvenile offenders are currently on death row.

(source: The Jurist)

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

Most Executions Unannounced by Iranian Authorities----Only 373 of the total 969 
executions cases in 2015 were announced by official sources.


About 60% of all executions included in IHR's 8th annual report on the death 
penalty were unannounced by Iranian authorities.

IHR's annual report distinguishes between official and unofficial or 
unannounced executions. The group's unofficial execution reports are verified 
and confirmed by 2 independent sources. About 60% of all executions included in 
this report were not announced by Iranian authorities. Some of these executions 
were carried out in secret, without the family or the lawyer being informed, 
and some were simply not announced by the official media. Only 373 of the total 
969 executions cases in 2015 were announced by official sources.

Official executions are those announced by official websites of the Iranian 
judiciary, Iranian police, the National Iranian Broadcasting Network, official 
or state-run news agencies and national or local newspapers. Unofficial or 
unannounced executions are not announced by official sources, but are confirmed 
by IHR through unofficial channels. These include other human rights NGOs or 
IHR's sources within Iran. The sources of unofficial reports are often 
eyewitnesses, family members, lawyers, sources within the prisons and the 
Iranian judiciary. IHR has only included unofficial reports that were confirmed 
by 2 independent sources.

In 2015, IHR received reports of secret or unannounced executions from 16 
different prisons across the country. In the ethnic regions of Baluchistan, 
Azerbaijans (East and West), and Kurdistan more than 97% of the executions were 
either carried out secretly or were not announced by official Iranian media.

Prisons in the ethnic regions of Iran have the highest percentage of 
unannounced or secret executions. More than 95% of all executions in the ethnic 
regions of Iran's provinces of West and East Azerbaijan, Baluchistan and 
Kurdistan were not announced by the official media.

The unannounced executions of 2015 are marked yellow inthe graph above and are 
categorized based on province (excluding the Tehran and Karaj areas). Prisons 
in the provinces of Fars (south), West Azerbaijan (northwest), Hormozgan 
(south) and Kerman (southeast) had the highest number of executions.

The yellow in the diagram above represents the unofficial/unannounced 
executions in the 2 provinces of Iran with the highest number of executions in 
2015. Ghezel Hesar and Rajai Shahr prisons in Karaj were the sites with the 
highest number of both officially announced and unannounced executions in 2015.

QUICK FACTS ABOUT SECRET OR UNANNOUNCED EXECUTIONS IN 2015:

-- At least 596 (61%) of the executions were not announced by official Iranian 
sources

-- Drug related offences accounted for the charges in 77% of the unannounced 
executions

-- Executions of women and foreign citizens (mainly Afghan and Pakistani) were 
mainly not announced

-- Executions for none of the political or security related charges were 
announced by the official sources

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

UNODC Renews Cooperation with Iran Despite 638 Drug Executions in 2015


Iran has used the death penalty for drug related crimes since the inception of 
the Islamic Republic in 1979. Both crime rates and drug abuses in Iran have 
increased in the past 3 decades.

The annual report by IHR provides a special focus on drug related executions in 
Iran and looks at the cooperation between the United Nations Office for Drugs 
and Crime (UNODC) and Iran against drug trafficking.

638 of the recorded 969 executions in 2015 were drug related, even though 
several top Iranian officials have admitted that executions have not reduced 
drug problems (including trafficking) in Iran. The number of drug executions in 
2015 was the highest in more than 25 years, but despite this, the UNODC 
recently renewed its cooperation with Iran in the fight against drug 
trafficking. In December 2015 UNODC Executive Director Yury Fedotov announced a 
new $20 million funding settlement for anti-drug operations in Iran - a deal 
which represents a doubling in the agency's support for Iranian 
counter-narcotics efforts. The UNODC's new Iran Country Program is expected to 
run between 2015 and 2019, but the UNODC has not disclosed who will donate to 
the project, or what human rights safeguards will be imposed to prevent it 
facilitating drug related executions.

Most of the individuals who are sentenced to death in Iran for drug related 
offences are carriers belonging to marginalized groups in Iranian society, in 
particular the ethnic regions such as Baluchistan and Kurdistan. There is an 
overall lack of transparency in the Iranian judicial process, all those 
convicted of drug related charges were tried behind closed doors, and most of 
those executed on drug charges were not identified by name. Some of the issues 
those in Iran who are accused of drug offenses face are unfair trials, lack of 
access to a lawyer, and coerced confessions. Iranian authorities have claimed 
that many of those sentenced to death for drug related charges were involved in 
organized armed smuggling; however, investigations by IHR indicate that most of 
the individuals who were executed in Iran on drug related charges were not 
involved in armed drug smuggling. Witness statements given to IHR indicate that 
people arrested and accused of possession or trafficking of drugs are 
systematically tortured in Iranian detention centres until they agree to a 
confession.

More than 2,690 people were executed in Iran in the six years from 2010 to 
2015. With more than 638 executions for drug related offenses, 2015 was the 
deadliest year since 1990.

The prisons which carried out the most drug related executions in 2015 were 
Ghezel Hesar and Rajai Shahr prisons, both located in the Tehran/Karaj area. 
Kerman (southeastern Iran), Hormozgan (southern border) and Urmia (northwestern 
border) also had a high number of drug related executions. Most of the 
executions were not announced by official Iranian media.

UNODC COOPERATION WITH IRAN

The United Nations Office for Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has cooperated with Iran 
in the fight against drug trafficking for the past decades. Several European 
states provided millions of dollars worth of support through UNODC to 
counter-narcotics forces in Iran. In February 2015 UNODC Executive Director 
Yury Fedotov gave a speech in Tehran noting that "no country can compete with 
Iran when it comes to the amount of narcotics discovered and seized". In early 
2015 the human rights group Reprieve uncovered a formal UN evaluation of 
UNODC's Iranian operations which warned of a potential "funding crisis" if 
donors withdrew support due to human rights concerns. The document suggested 
the human rights policy that UNODC published in 2012 - calling for a "temporary 
freeze or withdrawal" in funding if drug offenders are executed - was neither 
"promoted nor implemented" in Iran. It also noted that "no action" was taken to 
prevent death sentences and executions as a result of the UNODC's work.

INTERNATIONAL ATTENTION ON DEATH PENALTY FOR DRUG OFFENCES

International attention on the death penalty for drug related offences is 
relatively new. In recent years a growing number of global institutions and 
agencies have expressed public concern about Iran's use of the death penalty 
for drug related offences, and called for an end to international cooperation 
with Iranian counter-narcotics efforts. In October 2015, the European 
Parliament passed a resolution by 569 votes to 38 majority condemning Iran's 
high rate of drug related executions, and called on the European Commission and 
member States "to reaffirm the categorical principle that European aid and 
assistance, including to UNODC counter-narcotics programs, may not facilitate 
law enforcement operations that lead to the death sentences and the execution 
of those arrested". The resolution follows decisions by individual donor states 
to withdraw funding from UNODC operations in Iran. In 2013, Denmark withdrew 
its support for such efforts, stating that "the donations are leading to 
executions". The United Kingdom subsequently did the same, citing "the exact 
same concerns" as Denmark. Ireland also took similar action, with the 
then-Foreign Minister explaining that "we have made it very clear to the UNODC 
that we could not be party to any funding in relation to where the death 
penalty is used so liberally and used almost exclusively for drug traffickers".

Iran Human Rights calls on the United Nations to freeze all cooperation 
involving law enforcement against drug trafficking until Iran removes the death 
penalty for drug offences from its law. "We call on Iran to impose a moratorium 
on the death penalty for drug related offences...We also ask the Iranian 
authorities to give special consideration to the most vulnerable groups in the 
Iranian society, including Afghan citizens," says Raphael Chenuil-Hazan, 
Executive Director of Ensemble Contre la Peine de Mort (ECPM), a human rights 
group that collaborated with IHR on its 8th annual report.

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

Ghezelhesar: Death Camp Home to 3000 Prisoners Awaiting Execution


Karaj's Ghezelhesar Prison, also called the death camp, is home to more than 
3,000 prisoners sentenced to death for drug related charges.

IIHR's 8th annual report reveals that in 2015 at least 200 prisoners were 
executed in Ghezelhesar Prison, and they were all on death row for drug related 
offenses. The executions in this prison dramatically increased after a group of 
the death row prisoners gathered peacefully in the courtyard on May 21, 2015, 
calling on the Iranian Supreme leader Ali Khamenei to reduce their sentences. 
In the 5 weeks following the peaceful gathering more than 70 prisoners were 
hanged in groups of 11 to 17. One of the 13 prisoners who was transferred for 
execution on May 31 2015, attempted to postpone his execution by stabbing 
another prisoner on death row. When a prisoner who is sentenced to death for 
drug related charges commits a murder, his death sentence for drug related 
charges is postponed, since "qisas" (retribution in kind) is given higher 
priority. On its website IHR has published several interviews with death row 
prisoners in Ghezelhesar.

CASE: Innocent school teacher, Mahmood Barati. No prior criminal record and the 
father of a 3-year-old boy when he was arrested in 2006 on a trumped up drug 
related charge. Sentenced to death solely based on the false testimony of a 
drug convict, a testimony that was later withdrawn on 2 separate occasions. 
Despite this, Iranian authorities still executed Mahmood in Ghezelhesar Prison 
on September 7, 2015. According to witness testimonies, Mahmood had been 
tortured and forced to confess.

(source for all: Iran Human Rights)






MOROCCO:

Petition Calls on King Mohammed VI to Allow Castration of Pedophiles


Following the tragic story of the little boy Imran who was subject to a sexual 
and physical abuse a Moroccan mother launched an online petition 
onAvaaz.orgaddressed to King Mohammed VI calling for the adoption of the death 
penalty against pedophiles.

I am a mother and I am traumatized after what happened to the little boy 
Imran'wrote Ghita B. the author of the petition.

I do not feel safe in my country. I am afraid for my son for all children. I 
want every pedophile who abuses a little angel to be sentenced to death and 
make an example for other inhuman pedophiles' the mother added.

The petition has garnered already 1652 signatures.

Crimes of solicitation of minors and their sexual abuse are punishable with a 
maximum sentence of 30 years in prison under the Moroccan Penal Code.

However La Coalition Contre les Actes Pedophiles(the Moroccan Coalition Against 
Child Abse) said in its annual report on pedophilia in Morocco published last 
November that the number of reported child abuse cases in 2015 reached 935 an 
increase of 10 percent compared to 2014 (850 cases).

Khalid Cherkapoui President of the Coalition reportedly said that most of the 
court rulings against convicted pedophiles in 2015 were light.

Most of court rulings against convicted pedophiles were between 1 year and 4 
years in jail Some pedophiles were even released due to lack of evidence' 
Cherkaoui said.

The 4-year-old boy Imran was subject to a brutal assault last week by a 
16-year-old homeless boy who raped him and threw him in a deserted place in Hay 
Hassani Casablanca before the authorities found him in terrible condition. 
Moroccan media reported that King Mohammed VI ordered the transfer of the 
little boy to Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Hospital in Casablanca to receive the 
necessary medical care.

(source: menafn.com)