[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

April 11




EGYPT:

Egypt military court refers 36 defendants to Mufti for death penalty



A military court has referred 36 defendants accused of taking part in deadly 
church bombings to Egypt's top religious authority for consideration of the 
death penalty, state television reported on Tuesday.

The defendants are suspected of involvement in bombings that hit 3 Coptic 
churches - 1 at Cairo's Coptic Cathedral in December 2016 that killed at least 
25, and 2 that hit churches in Alexandria and Tanta on the same day in April 
2017 and killed more than 45 people.

Islamic State claimed responsibility for all 3 attacks.

Egypt requires that courts refer cases to the Grand Mufti for consideration of 
the death penalty ahead of a final verdict although his decision is 
non-binding.

The court is expected to issue a verdict on May 15 and 11 of the 36 are being 
tried in absentia, a lawyer involved in the case told Reuters.

Public prosecutor Nabil Sadek said previously that some of the suspects held 
leadership positions in Islamic State and formed cells in Cairo and the 
southern province of Qena to carry out the church attacks.

Some of the defendants are also accused of carrying out an attack on a 
checkpoint in Egypt's Western Desert that killed at least eight policemen in 
2017.

Egypt is facing a more than three-year-old insurgency led by Islamic State that 
intensified after general-turned-president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi led the 
military in overthrowing Islamist President Mohamed Mursi in 2013 after mass 
protests against his rule.

(source: Reuters)








PAKISTAN:

PHC overturns death sentence in double murder



The Peshawar High Court (PHC) has set aside death penalty awarded to a convict 
by a subordinate court in a double murder case in Hangu district.

A division bench comprising Justice Qalandar Ali Khan and Justice Ishtiaq 
Ibrahim accepted an appeal filed by the convict, Muhammad Zaman. It observed 
that prosecution could not prove its case against the appellant and acquitted 
him.

During arguments, Sahibzada Asadullah, counsel for the appellant, submitted 
that the district court had acquitted 2 co-accused including Muhammad Hussain 
and Maiser Ali in the double murder case, while awarded death sentence on 2 
counts to the appellant in 2008.

He pointed out before the bench that there was no eyewitness to the case and 
2nd 3 persons were charged and only the appellant was sentenced. The same 
treatment should have been meted out to the appellant.

(source: thenews.com.pk)