[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

May 30




GAZA:

In the Case of Gay Gaza Commander Executed for 'Moral Crimes,' New York Times 
Editorialists Are MIA


A brief news article in the New York Times last week reported that Hamas has 
called for resuming the death penalty in Gaza. According to the report, capital 
punishment there has "mostly stopped" since 2014, though "an exception was the 
case of Mahmoud Ishtiwi, a Hamas commander, who was fatally shot in April for 
'moral crimes' after he was accused of theft and of having sex with another 
man."

Good for the Times for reporting on the issue, and for its earlier enterprising 
page one coverage of the Ishtiwi case. But, one wonders: Where is the follow-up 
from the Times' editorial page and columnists?

The appointment of Avigdor Lieberman as Israel's defense minister generated a 
lead Times editorial denouncing him, in part, because, he "has proposed 
instituting the death penalty for convicted terrorists." The Times also ran 2 
op-ed columns hostile to Mr. Lieberman.

So, in the case of an Israeli official who merely proposes executing 
terrorists, the Times mounted a full-fledged editorial campaign. In the case of 
the Palestinian Arab regime in Gaza actually carrying out a death sentence on a 
suspected homosexual, the Times editorial page fell totally silent. And not 
merely silent.

It's as if the paper's editorial writers are contorting themselves to avoid 
mentioning the issue. A recent "editorial observer" column about places where 
"gay and transgender people are widely stigmatized" singled out Uganda, 
Jamaica, the Dominican Republic, Gambia, Russia and Nigeria. Bizarrely, the 
column did not mention Gaza at all.

Likewise, as of this writing at least, there has been no Times editorial 
denouncing Iran for the 30 college students who, the Times news section 
reported, were each given a punishment of 99 lashes "for attending a graduation 
party that included men and women." This, despite the flood of Times editorials 
advocating the US-Iran nuclear deal and denouncing Prime Minister Netanyahu of 
Israel for opposing it.

It's a classically anti-Israel and anti-Jewish double standard. An Israeli 
Jewish politician merely suggests executing genuinely criminal terrorists, and 
the Times editorial page whips itself into a frenzy of outrage. Meanwhile, 
Gazan and Iranian Muslims actually impose the death penalty on someone 
suspected of being gay - or order an extensive public violent beating of 
college students for the "crime" of attending a co-ed social event - and the 
Times editorialists take a pass. It's pathetic.

(source: Ira Stoll, The Algemeiner)






BANGLADESH:

Son of hanged Bangladeshi politician lauds Erdogan, Turkey----'We hope that 
some other Muslim countries do the same thing,' says Mohammad Nakibur Rahman, 
son of Motiur Rahman, Jamaat-e-Islami leader


Turkey's decision to pull its ambassador from Bangladesh after a party leader 
was put to death there should be emulated by other Muslim nations, according to 
the leader's son.

"The overwhelming sympathy and reaction of the people is heartwarming, 
especially the reaction of President Tayyip Erdogan," Mohammad Nakibur Rahman 
said while speaking to Anadolu Agency, calling Erdogan's reaction 
"unprecedented".

Turkey asked its ambassador, Devrim Ozturk, to return to Ankara in the 
aftermath of the hanging of senior Jamaat-e-Islami party leader, Motiur Rahman 
Nizami, in the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka.

"We hope that some other Muslim countries do the same thing," Rahman said.

"And the way the Turkish people reacted -- from the bottom of our hearts, from 
the people of Bangladesh, we are definitely, definitely grateful," he added, 
referring to protests in Istanbul and Ankara after his father was executed.

"We hope and pray that the rest of the Muslim world will follow suit, and soon 
they will be united against all the oppression, not just in Bangladesh, the 
oppression that's going on in Egypt, the oppression that's going on in Syria, 
Palestine, Myanmar, all over the world," he added.

Nizami was sentenced to death in October 2014 after being found guilty of 
committing wartime atrocities including murder, rape, looting and collaborating 
with the Pakistani army during Bangladesh's war of independence in 1971.

Opposition parties and international organizations criticized the legal process 
that resulted in Nizami's death, with Human Rights Watch expressing concerns 
over whether the accused received fair trials.

And the US State Department said that despite improvements to the tribunal 
process more work needs to be done to "ensure these proceedings meet domestic 
and international obligations.

"Until these obligations can be consistently met, we have concerns about 
proceeding with executions," it said shortly after the capital penalty was 
carried out.

3 other individuals have been sentenced to death, according to Rahman, who 
urged a greater reaction to prevent the sentences from being carried out.

"Hopefully this awareness will give conscience to the government, and they will 
not go ahead with the next 3 executions," he said. "Inshallah [Allah willing] 
Allah has a better plan."

(source: aa.com.tr)

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

Rangpur couple get death penalty for killing son


A Rangpur court yesterday handed death penalty to a couple for killing their 
5-year-old son.

The convicted are Bipen Chandra, 40, and his wife Aduri Rani, 35, of Chharan 
Hindupara village in Mithapukur upazila of Rangpur.

Bipen is now in prison while Aduri is on the run, said police.

Judge Abu Zafar Mohammad Quamruzzaman judge of District and Session Judge's 
court delivered the verdict.

According to the court prosecution, Aduri married Bipen, deserting her 1st 
husband Bikash Chandra Roy.

After their marriage, her son Bilash Chandra used to live with his mother. But 
being a stepfather, Bipen could not accept it. Aduri therefore sent him to his 
grandmother.

As the boy opposed to live with the grandmother and returned to his mother, the 
angry couple killed him on 11 April, 2011.

Police recovered the body of the boy the following day.

Moslem Uddin, sub-inspector of Mithapukur police, filed a murder case the same 
day against Aduri and Bipen, said Public Prosecutor Faruk Mohammad Rezaul 
Islam.

(source: The Daily Star)






IRAN----executions

Iran regime carries out 2 public executions


Iran's fundamentalist regime has publicly hanged 2 men in Fars Province, 
southern Iran, and Mazandaran Province, northern Iran, in the past 24 hours.

On Monday, May 30, an unnamed 40-year-old prisoner, was hanged in public in the 
town of Noor in Mazandaran, according to the state-run Young Journalists Club 
(YJC) news agency which quoted the regime's prosecutor in Noor, Qanbar Qanbari.

On Sunday, May 29, a man identified only by his surname Zohrabi, was hanged in 
public in the town of Kovar, 40 kilometers south of Shiraz, the provincial 
capital in Fars.

The mullahs' regime last Thursday publicly hanged a man, identified only as 
Hamid B., in the southern city of Shiraz.

The latest hangings bring to at least 118 the number of people executed in Iran 
since April 10. 3 of those executed were women and 2 are believed to have been 
juvenile offenders.

Ms. Farideh Karimi, a member of the National Council of Resistance of Iran 
(NCRI) and a human rights activist, last week called for an urgent response by 
the United Nations and foreign governments to the recent spate of executions 
and the appalling state of human rights in Iran.

Iran's fundamentalist regime earlier this month amputated the fingers of a man 
in his thirties in Mashhad, the latest in a line of draconian punishments 
handed down and carried out in recent weeks.

The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) said in a statement on April 
13 that the increasing trend of executions "aimed at intensifying the climate 
of terror to rein in expanding protests by various strata of the society, 
especially at a time of visits by high-ranking European officials, demonstrates 
that the claim of moderation is nothing but an illusion for this medieval 
regime."

Amnesty International in its April 6 annual Death Penalty report covering the 
2015 period wrote: "Iran put at least 977 people to death in 2015, compared to 
at least 743 the year before."

"Iran alone accounted for 82% of all executions recorded" in the Middle East 
and North Africa, the human rights group said.

There have been more than 2,300 executions during Hassan Rouhani's tenure as 
President. The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation 
in Iran in March announced that the number of executions in Iran in 2015 was 
greater than any year in the last 25 years. Rouhani has explicitly endorsed the 
executions as examples of "God's commandments" and "laws of the parliament that 
belong to the people."

(source: NCR-Iran)