[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Sept. 11



IRAN:

Request from UN to prosecute Iran regime for 1988 massacre


A number of families of the prisoners executed in 1988 massacre have sent a 
letter to Mr. Ahmad Shahid (Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights 
in Iran) asking him to get involved in regime's horrific crime during 1989 
massacre and prosecute Iranian regime for committing this crime.

Following is the text of their letter.

Honorable Mr. Ahmad Shahid

So far, we have individually sent you a number of letters asking you in each 
one to intervene, to reveal and ask the international community to prosecute 
those responsible in committing this horrific crime, the 1988 massacre.

It should be pointed out that this is not only our request but the request of 
all mothers, fathers and families of those executed all over Iran. As we 
previously told you, they may not have the possibility to write you a letter 
since a lot of them live in villages and remote areas of Iran.

We'd like to report a case to you which is related to one of regime's notorious 
agents named "Mohammad Ali Kazemi Jorakani". This murderer is one of those who 
got fired from the prison and was then employed by plainclothes suppression 
group who secretly commit inhumane acts against youth. He is currently serving 
the regime in Isfahan and has confessed that he has trapped and killed a member 
of People's Mojahedin Organization(PMOI/MEK) on the road leading to the 
airport.

Mr. Shahid

Now that this hired agent confesses to his suppressive and inhumane act, it is 
not clear how many similar acts he has committed, only to be transferred from 
his workplace so as not to be seen by local people and keep killing the 
children of people in a new location.

As those responsible in the 1988 massacre, like "Pour Mohammadi" current 
minister of justice, who have confessed to their criminal acts and even 
committed additional horrific mass executions during this past month, they are 
going to keep suppressing and violating human rights even more freely if this 
massacre remains with impunity.

We, the families of those massacred in Khuzestan province, are grieving so much 
and our families are also being harassed by these executioners.

Once again, we are asking you to use all the mechanisms you have in hand to 
help put on trial all those responsible for committing this horrific crime in 
Iran's prisons. They are still ruling disgracefully while the international 
community is silent.

We're hoping for that day to arrive

With respect

The families of massacred prisoners in Khuzestan province

September 8, 2016

The facts:

-- More than 30,000 political prisoners were massacred in Iran in the summer 
of 1988.

-- The massacre was carried out on the basis of a fatwa by Khomeini.

-- The vast majority of the victims were activists of the opposition PMOI 
(MEK).

-- A Death Committee approved all the death sentences.

-- Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi, a member of the Death Committee, is today Hassan 
Rouhani's Justice Minister.

-- The perpetrators of the 1988 massacre have never been brought to justice.

-- On August 9, 2016, an audio tape was published for the 1st time of 
Khomeini's former heir acknowledging that that massacre took place and had been 
ordered at the highest levels.

(source: NCR-Iran)






TRINIDAD & TOBAGO:

The real issues relating to crime reduction


The respective teams led by the Prime Minister and the leader of the Opposition 
met 2 Fridays ago on violent crime.

The main promise afterward was that there would be co-operation on anti crime 
legislation, including the Government giving the Opposition early notice of the 
bills it intended to introduce and facilitating discussion to find out from the 
Opposition any area of concern about the contents of a bill. There was talk of 
greater use of a Joint Select Committee.

The population was sceptical that legislative co-operation may make a dent in 
crime.

"We have so much legislation already but it is not enforced". "The police don't 
hold anybody". These were 2 common expressions of the skepticism that 
legislative co-operation would bring down violent crime in an environment where 
if one citizen has a dispute with another he can then shoot, stab or chop the 
other to death and walk away with complete impunity.

This column long ago identified the impunity factor as a major incentive to the 
perpetration of violent crime. I am amused to see that some persons living nice 
within the establishment have suddenly found their voice on this subject.

A 2nd output of the joint talks was the ritual reference to the death penalty 
still being "the law of the land". I say the reference is ritual because the 
death penalty cannot be carried out currently for reasons that have been 
repeatedly identified in these columns.

There are at least 4 such columns, entitled respectively The Fallacy of the 
Death Penalty, Remedies for a Murderous Land, Death Penalty Advice and Death 
Penalty Hindrances, laying out in detail the blocks to enforcement of the death 
penalty and submitting that only a constitutional amendment requiring a vote of 
3/4 of the members of each of the 2 Houses of Parliament can remove those 
blocks.

The following words of the Privy Council, per Lord Nicholls, indicate that 
nothing short of a constitutional amendment can revive the death penalty for 
implementation: "If the requisite legislative support for a change in the 
constitution is forthcoming, a deliberate departure from fundamental human 
rights may be made, profoundly regrettable although this may be. That is the 
prerogative of the legislature. If departure from fundamental human rights is 
desired, that is the way it should be done. The constitution should be amended 
explicitly."

Of course having a death penalty is pointless if the police cannot catch the 
killers and have them successfully prosecuted. Part of this failure is a lack 
of discipline in the police service permitting the maintenance of bad egg 
networks within the service.

A long time ago there was extensive delegation of disciplinary control from the 
Police Service Commission to the Police Service itself. Nevertheless we have 
been completely unable, despite this positive step, to restructure the 
organisation and to compel it to use the disciplinary powers it has.

A minister of National Security cannot possibly go into the field and "fix" the 
crime problem. His function, on his own initiative and in conjunction with 
other Ministries and critical stakeholders, like the judiciary, is to provide 
policies and recommend legislation that address the structural deficiencies in 
the system by which we investigate crime and administer criminal justice.

For over 15 years we have been playing around with legislation to get rid of 
preliminary enquiries that clog up the courts and we talking this talk yet 
again. However has the Judiciary identified or been asked which of its judicial 
complement and what resources will be made available to carry out the 
sufficiency hearings? These hearings will be a lynchpin of the system after the 
abolition of preliminary enquiries.

For almost as long we have been trying to make effective use of DNA.

Then there are fundamental macro questions: How do we manage and make 
accountable those who wield the coercive power of the State and its largesse 
and concomitantly expose and destroy the questionable interlocking 
relationships with contractors, suppliers, financiers and relatives, so that 
policemen, if properly trained, equipped and disciplined, will be able to 
penetrate the elite reaches of criminal enterprise in our murderous land?

There has been a persistent lack of awareness that any "plan" to deal with 
violent crime must address the structural deficiencies of our governance and 
justice system. These deficiencies reveal a lack of will to trouble the big 
fish. Lucrative supping with the devil goes on in this place.

These deficiencies, along with grievous socio-economic imbalances, have 
negatively influenced the development of political and cultural norms that 
would support a relatively just, honest and ordered society. The deficiencies 
have taken us in the opposite direction. There is a range of criminal and anti 
social acts, which ordinary citizens feel justified in doing when they can't be 
caught or because others are getting away with it.

When will there be co-operative action on the real issues that facilitate 
violent crime?

(source: Martin Daly, Trinidad Express)