[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worlldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Oct. 1




CHINA:

Drug dealers sentenced to death in NE China


A court in northeast China's Liaoning Province has sentenced 9 members of a 
drug-dealing gang, with 4 of them sentenced to death or a suspended death 
penalty, the court said Friday.

The ruling was handed down by the Shenyang City Intermediate People's Court on 
Thursday.

Gang leader Chen Xuhong, 55, and Zhu Guobao received the death penalty for 
dealing and transporting drugs. Shi Xiaomao and Liu Zhongtao were sentenced to 
death with a 2-year reprieve, said the court in a written statement.

The other 5 received prison terms ranging from 2 1/2 years to 10 years.

The court found the gang transported and sold up to 33 kg of methamphetamine 
starting in May 2014.

The statement did not mention whether the defendants would file an appeal.

(source: globaltimes.cn)






INDONESIA:

Student, accomplice caught with drugs may face death


A female private college student, 19, and her male accomplice could potentially 
face the death penalty after they were caught in possession of over 1.5kg of 
cannabis.

The Sibu-born student was nabbed by anti-narcotics police around 12.20pm on 
Thursday shortly after she collected a parcel, sent from Peninsular Malaysia, 
at a Pos Laju facility at Jalan Song.

The parcel contained slightly over one kilogramme of cannabis packed together 
with 'kek lapis'.

District police chief ACP Abang Ahmad Abang Julai told a press conference 
yesterday that the student then led police to a nearby parking lot where her 
accomplice, a 26-year-old local male, was waiting inside a car.

"A search of the car produced 11 grammes of cannabis. The pair later led police 
to a house at Jalan Cenderawasih where 475 grammes of cannabis were found, 
along with weighing equipment and drug-related paraphernalia.

"We believe the house was used by the suspects to process and package the drugs 
for sale. In total, we seized 1.505kg of cannabis valued at RM26,656," he said, 
adding that the student was in her 3rd-year of an accounting programme, while 
the married male suspect was working as a security personnel in the private 
sector.

Both suspects have since been remanded for 4 days to facilitate further 
investigation under Section 39(B) of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, which 
carries the mandatory death penalty upon conviction.

Abang Ahmad said Thursday's bust was the 7th case classified under Section 
39(B) of the Act involving cannabis in the district so far this year, 
indicating an increase in the demand for the drug.

"Overall, 16 cases under Section 39(B) in Kuching are recorded this year 
involving various drugs. However, recent busts suggest that cannabis seems to 
be the drug currently in demand."

He called upon all parties, particularly parents and school authorities, to be 
wary and alert the police if they found their children or students involved in 
drug-related activities.

"There is an urgent need to address the issue because youngsters are supposed 
to be the leaders of tomorrow. We must make sure their future is not destroyed 
by drugs."

(source: The Borneo Post)






SAUDI ARABIA:

Saudi Arabia contradicts itself on child executions at UN----Saudi delegation 
told UN child rights committee that it does not execute children, but gave 
written evidence to the contrary


Saudi Arabia has admitted to the UN in writing that it sentences children to 
death, despite denying the accusation in oral evidence to the body's child 
rights committee last week.

The Saudi delegation to the UN's Committee on the Rights of the Child said last 
week, in a live webcast, that "the crime must have been committed by a 
perpetrator who is an adult at the time in order for them to be sentenced to 
capital punishment".

According to the delegation's oral evidence, "the age of liability is always 
18" in Saudi Arabia.

However, in written evidence to the same committee, the Saudi delegation 
confirmed that children as young as 15 can be sentenced to death in the 
kingdom.

Executing people who were juveniles at the time of the offence is illegal under 
international law.

A written reply to a list of issues put forward by the Committee on the Rights 
of the Child admitted that children who commit serious crimes can be sentenced 
to death, but cannot be executed until they reach the age of 18.

"Children who have reached the age of 15 and commit a qisas or hudud offence 
face qisas or hudud penalties depending on their offence, although the penalty 
is not enforced until they reach the age of 18," the delegation wrote.

In the Saudi legal system, which is based on a hardline interpretation of 
Islamic scripture, qisas offences are those for which the victim, or relatives 
of the victim, can carry out a punishment of "retaliation in kind" against the 
accused.

Murder and manslaughter are listed as qisas crimes, which can be punished with 
execution, in Saudi Arabia's penal code.

Hudud crimes relate to a category of crimes that are specifically mentioned in 
Islamic scripture - they include blasphemy, theft, adultery, slander and 
banditry.

A number of people sentenced to death as juveniles are currently still on death 
row in Saudi Arabia.

Ali al-Nimr, the nephew of a prominent Shia cleric whose execution earlier this 
year sparked mass protests, is facing the death sentence for anti-government 
protests when he was under 18.

2 others were convicted alongside him in similar cases. Earlier this year, 
authorities executed Ali al-Ribh, who had been arrested from a school class 
aged 17 due to activism calling for reform.

The Saudi government's apparent contradiction over its stance on child 
executions was reported on Friday by Reprieve, a UK-based anti-death penalty 
charity.

Harriet McCulloch, deputy director of Reprieve's death penalty team, decried 
what she called the Saudi government's "propaganda" aimed at the international 
community.

"It is outrageous for Saudi Arabia to lie to the UN and pretend that children 
are not sentenced to death in the kingdom.

"The international community should not fall for the Saudi government's 
propaganda.

"Saudi Arabia has already executed juveniles ... this year. The UK Foreign 
Secretary must urgently call for all death sentences imposed on juveniles to be 
overturned."

(source: Middle East Eye)






IRAN:

Executions against drug traffickers will remain in place: Iran


Iran's Judiciary Chief Sadeq Amoli Larijani said on Thursday that it is not the 
Judiciary's policy to cancel executions for drug traffickers, Mehr reported.

"The claim that executions have not been useful is irrelevant," said Larijani 
during a judicial conference in Mashhad.

The senior judge said drug traffickers have inflicted a great deal of harm on 
the country, noting that an immediate action is needed in response to such 
crimes.

The judiciary chief further urged all prosecutors across the country not to 
"delay the implementation of verdicts, and carry them out immediately after 
they are issued."

He went on to say that the prosecutors are not allowed to delay the verdicts 
for 3 years.

"We cannot do away with executions in general because it undermines the 
judiciary's deterrent effect," Larijani remarked.

He also urged the prosecutors to "impose other forms of punishments, if 
possible, instead of death penalty".

Iran has been under pressure by the UN Human Rights Council for its use of 
death penalty against drug traffickers.

However, Iranian officials denounce such pressures as interference in the 
country's domestic affairs and call on the UN officials to "refrain from 
politicizing the issue of human rights" in the Islamic Republic.

The Iranian High Council for Human Rights has responded to criticisms against 
the country's Judiciary, saying that the structure of Iran's judicial system 
guarantees the process of a fair trial.

(source: Tehran Times)