[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

August 15



SRI LANKA:

Noose Looms Large For Drug Dealers


Harshi Sudarshani, a Sunday school teacher in Negombo, and her younger brother 
have faced strained relationships with their friends since their father was 
arrested on a drug charge.

The fisherman was arrested after packets of heroin were found on the boat in 
which he spends long periods at sea in search of tuna.

Sudarshani, who joined religious leaders on an anti-drug protest with thousands 
of others in Negombo in February, denies her father's involvement in drug 
trafficking and blames the businessman owner of the boat.

Her family's worries about the case increased with Sri Lanka's announcement in 
July that it was introducing capital punishment for persistent drug dealers.

"My father is an innocent fisherman who used to go to church," says Sudarshani, 
who is about to move house due to the social stigma of the drug case.

Sri Lanka has been on the map for years as a transit point for drugs, while 
concerns are growing about the use of illegal drugs, especially among children.

The European Union opposes Sri Lanka's decision to introduce the death penalty 
for repeat drug dealers and warned that it could lose trade concessions that 
allow developing countries to pay fewer or no duties on their exports to the 
bloc.

Vacancies for 2 hangmen have been advertised amid a public outcry demanding 
capital punishment for sexual assaults and other serious crimes apart from drug 
dealing.

Civic rights activists oppose the government's decision to hang drug offenders.

"There is no evidence in Sri Lanka or in any country that the death penalty 
reduces crime," says Ruki Fernando, a member of the watchdog Collective and an 
adviser to Inform Human Rights Documentation Center.

"Crime can be best prevented or reduced through an economic-social-political 
system that ensures justice and all rights for all, coupled with an effective 
and independent criminal justice system and strict adherence to the rule of 
law.

"In Sri Lanka, given the deficiencies of the criminal justice system including 
the lack of easily accessible, quality legal aid, many accused, particularly 
from poorer economic backgrounds, do not have access to fair trials, so the 
possibilities of wrongful convictions are high."

Fernando says new evidence may emerge through new technology that shows 
wrongful convictions, but the death penalty is irreversible.

In countries such as the United States, Canada and the U.K., people wrongly 
convicted have been released from death row or prison decades later, he says. 
In the U.S., for every 9 people who have been executed since the death penalty 
was reinstated in 1976, 1 has been exonerated after being proved innocent 
later.

The Anglican Church is opposed to the decision to hang drug dealers.

"The church cannot in any way agree with the move," said Bishop Dhiloraj 
Canagasabey and Bishop Keerthi Fernando in a statement on July 18. "Sri Lanka 
halted judicial executions more than 40 years ago. Although several governments 
in the past have tried to reimpose the death penalty, wiser counsel has always 
prevailed."

Capital punishment was abolished by former president S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike in 
1956 but it was reintroduced following his assassination in 1959.

The country decided to reinstate the death penalty in 2004 for cases of rape 
and drug trafficking but halted its implementation when international human 
rights organizations opposed the decision. The death penalty was last enforced 
in 1976.

Sri Lanka Human Rights Commission said capital punishment is a serious human 
rights violation.

Amnesty International said the country would damage its reputation by resuming 
executions after more than 40 years.

Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith of Colombo, last month clarified his earlier statement 
that was interpreted by some media as his support for the death penalty. He 
said the state should not bring back capital punishment but "criminal minds 
that sought to destroy social peace and harm hundreds" should not go 
unpunished.

Pope Francis has declared the death penalty wrong in all cases because it is an 
attack on human dignity.

Activist Fernando is clear. "The death penalty violates the right to life and 
is a cruel, inhuman and degrading form of punishment that must be rejected in 
any form, for any crime, in any circumstance," he told ucanews.com.

(source: eurasiareview.com)

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

Sri Lanka's Catholic Bishops says no to death penalty


In a statement with regard to the issue of the Death Penalty, the Members of 
the Catholic Bishops' Conference in Sri Lanka today said that the Church 
teaches in the light of the Gospel that the death penalty is inadmissible 
because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person.

It said that the supreme Pontiff Holy Father Francis has approved a new 
revision of number 2267 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

"Consequently the Church teaches in the light of the Gospel that the death 
penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and 
dignity of the person, and she works with determination for its abolition 
worldwide."

Therefore, the Catholic Bishops' Conference called urgent attention of family, 
education system, institutions, religious leaders, politicians and support of 
the civil society, International organizations, NGOs and INGOs and finally the 
Legislative, Judiciary and the Executive to take preventative and curative 
measures and design effective rehabilitation of victims with a supportive 
social system.

"The recent incidents of those convicted continuing to indulge in drug dealing 
from within the precincts of the prisons themselves should be prevented at all 
costs. Stringent security measures are to be taken in this regard," the Sri 
Lankan Catholic Bishops said.

(source: adaderana.lk)






IRAN----execution

Prisoner Hanged in Ardabil


A prisoner was executed at Ardabil Central Prison on murder charges.

According to a close source, on the morning of Monday, August 13, a prisoner 
was executed at Ardabil Central Prison. The prisoner, sentenced to death on 
murder charges, was identified as Moslem Shiri, 37. He was arrested on the 
charge of murder in June 2009.

According to HRANA news agency, Moslem Shiri went on a hunger strike for a week 
in December last year in protest against the continuous harassment by prison 
authorities.

The execution of this prisoner has not been announced by the state-run media so 
far.

According to Iran Human Rights annual report on the death penalty, 240 of the 
517 execution sentences in 2017 were implemented due to murder charges. There 
is a lack of a classification of murder by degree in Iran which results in 
issuing a death sentence for any kind of murder regardless of intensity and 
intent.

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

Political Prisoner Transferred to Urmia IRGC Detention Centre


Kamal Hassan Ramazan, a death row political prisoner, was transferred to the 
Urmia IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps) Detention Center Unexpectedly.

An informed source told Human Rights Network Kurdistan that the IRGC agents had 
visited the central prison of Urmia on Monday, Aug 13, and transferred Kamal 
Hassan Ramezan to the Detention Center of the IRGC under the pretext of 
interrogations. In such a situation, given the certainty of the death sentence 
against him, there is a danger to his sentence at any moment.

This political prisoner has been previously transferred to the detention centre 
of the IRGC and the Ministry of Intelligence in Urmia several times for being 
pressurised to do TV confessions.

Following the clashes of Kurdish parties with Iranian Revolutionary Guards 
forces in mountainous areas of Paveh, Marivan and Oshnavieh several days ago, 
websites linked to the Revolutionary Guards called for the speedy execution of 
the sentences of the Kurdish political prisoners sentenced to death.

Kamal Hassan Ramezan, 31, a Kurdish citizen from Syria (known as Rojava), was 
arrested by the IRGC forces at the Persian Gulf in July 1993 along with 2 other 
Kurdish citizens from the city of Maku (near the city of Urmia) and transferred 
to the IRGC security detention center.

This political prisoner was questioned at IRGC Detention Centre and the 
Intelligence Ministry for 4 months. Later, all 3 political prisoners were 
transferred to Urmia Revolutionary Court (Branch 2) on Aug 14, 2015. The court 
hearing of all 3 political prisoners was headed by judge Sheykhloo who found 
them guilty of membership in the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) after an hour 
of the hearing. All 3 political prisoners were sentenced to 10 years and 1 day 
in prison. The decree was officially announced to the prisoners' lawyer.

The 10 years imprisonment sentence of Ramezan, was reduced to 7 years since he 
did not make an appeal and per Article 442. After the verdict was finalized, he 
was transferred to the Detention Centre of IRGC at Urmia Prison in February 
2014. He was subjected to increasing pressure for 2 months to make confessions 
on TV.

Ramezan was also transferred to the Ministry of Intelligence's Detention Centre 
and the Intelligence Corps (IRGC) in Urmia last year (on 6 December for 8 days 
and 6 January for 10 days) to be questioned in relation to the murder of an 
IRGC officer who was killed about 10 years ago.

On Saturday 20 May 2017, the Enforcement Officer of Urmia Central Prison 
summoned Kamal Hassan Ramezan and officially served him the absolute decree of 
Execution issued by Urmia Revolutionary Court (Branch 3) on the charges of 
membership in PKK and participation in armed conflict with the Iranian 
government. This decree has been issued in absentia at a time when the Kurdish 
political prisoner (resident of Syria) has not even been in Iran.

(source for both: Iran Human Rights)






SUDAN:

Supreme Court Annuls Student's Death Penalty


The Supreme Court has annulled the death penalty on student Asim Omar, a member 
of a student opposition party at the University of Khartoum. He has to remain 
in prison for the death of a policeman.

Omar is a member of the Independent Student Congress Party, student party of 
the Sudanese Congress Party (SCP). He has been accused of killing an anti-riot 
policeman during student protests in April 2016.

The Supreme Court ordered the papers to be returned to the trial court to hear 
more witnesses.

Omar was convicted of murder on August 29 last year, which prompted hundreds of 
students and SCP members to demonstrate near the court against the death 
sentence. On December 5, the Court of Appeal in Khartoum upheld the death 
sentence.

"His hands and feet were shackled, and he faced the possibility of being hung," 
a press statement by the SCP read. In January, the student started a hunger 
strike in the Kober prison in Khartoum to protest the prison administration's 
decision to shackle him.

The Supreme Court's annulment of the death penalty came after Omar had spent 30 
months in Sudanese prisons. The SCP has welcomed the decision and said in a 
press statement to have confidence in the defence lawyers, who have volunteered 
to continue to defend Omar.

The SCP said that the party "would work in all ways available to ensure the 
drop of all charges against him and his immediate release".

'Fabricated'

Asim Omar was held by officers of the National Intelligence and Security 
Service (NISS) on 2 May last year in front of the University of Khartoum, when 
he joined a demonstration against the plans to sell the university buildings.

After a period of incommunicado detention, Omar was handed over to the police 
in Khartoum who officially told him that he had been charged with "causing 
serious harm, but who did not inform him about the injured person, nor about 
the circumstances or causes of the injury".

The SCP claims that the charges were fabricated. In its statement in September: 
"The events became suspicious after he was informed that the charge against him 
had become premeditated murder because he had caused the death of a policeman 
on 28 April. It was obvious the charges were fabricated, as that day the 
student did not leave his home."

(source: allafrica.com)






EGYPT:

Facing the death penalty for reporting on Egyptian massacre


It's been 5 years since the Rabaa Square massacre in which more than 800 
people, who were demanding the return of deposed president, Mohamed Morsi, were 
killed. One of those arrested for reporting on the massacre is photojournalist 
Shawkan.

Prosecutors requested the death penalty for Shawkan, along with hundreds of 
protesters arrested that day.

Ruda Mahrous opens her door to anyone willing to listen to how her son was 
locked up in an Egyptian prison 5 years ago. Mahmoud Abu Zaid, better known as 
Shawkan, was photographing protests in Cairo's Rabaa Square.

After the overthrow of the elected president, Mohamed Morsi, supporters of the 
Muslim Brotherhood-led a mass sit-in there. When Egyptian security forces 
stormed the square, she didn't know if he had survived.

(source: trtworld.com)






UNITED KINGDOM:

The criminal Brits on death row around the world hoping to escape execution


The UK's opposition to the death penalty has come under question over the case 
of alleged Isis terrorists, but many other Brits have already been told they 
will be executed, reports Etan Smallman

Nicholas Ingram declined the offer of a final meal of his choice. Earlier, he 
had eaten a tiny breakfast, a few spoonfuls of eggs, followed by some crackers 
and crisps bought from a prison vending machine by relatives.

The Cambridge-born 31-year-old, who had dual British and US nationality, was 
shaved to remove any stubble that might interfere with his electrocution. He 
spent his final hours sipping a cup of coffee, "quiet and stone-faced", 
according to Georgia prison authorities. Ingram also turned down the chance to 
make a final statement, saying impatiently: "Let's get on with it."

The man who had murdered JC Sawyer, 55, after tying him and his wife to a tree 
11 years earlier, spat at the prison warden before he was strapped into a 
wooden chair and 2,000 volts were passed through his body.

Within minutes, on that day in April 1995, Ingram became the 272nd person given 
the death penalty since it had been restored by the US in 1976 - and the 1st 
Briton. He would not be the last. In March 2002, another British-American, 
Tracy Housel, 43, was executed in Georgia, having been on death row for 16 
years for murdering hitchhiker Jean Drew. And in February 2003, Suffolk-born 
Jackie Elliott, 42, who had also been on death row for 16 years, was killed by 
lethal injection in Texas, for the rape and murder of 18-year-old Joyce Mungia.

In the cases of both Housel and Elliott, the then Foreign Secretary Jack Straw 
phoned or wrote to US authorities in a bid to save the men. Those actions are 
in stark contrast to those of the present Home Secretary Sajid Javid who, while 
writing to the US attorney general in June about 2 IS members who had British 
citizenship and are due to be extradited from Syria to the US, said he would 
not demand the typical "assurances" that the pair would not be executed.

"As you are aware, it is the long-held position of the UK to seek death penalty 
assurances," he wrote, adding: "Our decision in this case does not reflect a 
change in our policy on assistance in US death penalty cases generally, nor the 
UK Government's stance on the global abolition of the death penalty."

Alexanda Kotey and Shafee Elsheikh are 2 of the "Beatles" IS terror cell - 
so-called because of their British accents - and stand accused of multiple 
kidnaps and beheadings.

After a legal challenge by the mother of Elsheikh, Mr Javid suspended 
cooperation with the US authorities over the case.

How many Brits around the world could be put to death?

Up to 70 British nationals are facing possible death sentences abroad, 
according to the most recent available figures, which were released last year.

32 were in Pakistan and 8 in the United Arab Emirates, the Foreign and 
Commonwealth Office revealed. There were also up to 5 British nationals at risk 
of death sentences in each of 6 countries: Bangladesh, the Democratic Republic 
of Congo, India, Kenya, Uganda and the United States.

27 of the Britons were facing possible death sentences for murder, 18 for 
drugs, and fewer than 5 each for blasphemy, kidnapping, terrorism, terrorist 
recruitment or sexual assault.

There were no more than 25 Britons on death row in 2017, the most recent year 
for which figures are available. But there were more than 21,000 people known 
to be under sentence of death across the world, according to Amnesty 
International UK. The charity reports that there were 993 recorded executions, 
in 23 countries, during the year - a fall of 4 % from 2016 and 39 % from 2015.

Only 4 countries - Iran, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Pakistan - were responsible for 
84 % of all known executions last year. But this does not include the thousands 
suspected to have been executed in China, where the data on death sentences are 
a state secret.

15 countries imposed death sentences or executed people for drug-related 
offences.

Beheading was used in Saudi Arabia; hanging in 13 jurisdictions, including 
Egypt, Japan, Kuwait and Palestine; lethal injection in China, the US and 
Vietnam; and shooting in 8 countries including Belarus, North Korea and 
Somalia. There were no reports of judicial executions by stoning, in line with 
data from previous years.

"53 countries working together to protect human rights" is the first thing that 
flashes up on the Commonwealth website, but 4 of its member states were known 
to have carried out executions last year (Bangladesh, Malaysia, Pakistan and 
Singapore). Japan and the US were the only 2 G8 countries to carry out the 
death sentence.

As of September last year, 105 countries had abolished the death penalty for 
all crimes. But France did not get rid of capital punishment until 1981 and the 
UN did not adopt a resolution calling for a global freeze on executions until 
2007.

Changing attitudes

The final execution in the UK took place in 1964 and the death penalty was 
formally abolished in 1998 under the Human Rights Act. But the majority of the 
British public were in favour of capital punishment in this country until 2015, 
when support dropped to 48 %, according to the British Social Attitudes Report.

Last week, Pope Francis changed the Catholic Church's teaching on the death 
penalty, saying it was "inadmissible" in all cases.

The long wait

Convicts are almost always on death row for years, in what Jackie Elliott 
called a "half life" - with time spent exhausting the appeals process and 
trying to enlist politicians, religious leaders and the media to rally behind 
their cause. In the US, a death row inmate waits an average of 15 years between 
sentencing and execution. About 1/4 die of natural causes in that time. Elliott 
said his "hard man" sense of himself disintegrated the day the judge told him 
the date he would die.

"It was like somebody hit me with a brick. And that's when I realised I was 
afraid of dying. All the talk here about how we are not afraid to die, that's 
just bullshit," he told the Daily Telegraph in 2003. "I do believe there is an 
afterlife, but I'm not sure if I am qualified for it. I think about dying a lot 
now. It scares me. I'm trying to prepare for it, try to read my Bible every 
day, but I just don't want to be lying on that gurney and start crying."

In a nod to his British upbringing and his home country's campaign to spare 
him, he said his last meal would be 6 chocolate biscuits and a cup of tea. But 
not all stories of those on death row end in death.

Escaping death

Briton Andy Tsege spent 4 years awaiting execution after he was kidnapped in 
Yemen in 2014 by the Ethiopian authorities who returned him to the country he 
had left in the 1970s, having criticised Ethiopia's ruling party. Tsege, who 
was granted political asylum in the UK in the 1970s, had already been sentenced 
to death in his absence, while he was living in London, accused of plotting a 
coup.

He was pardoned in May and his 1st meal upon arriving back in the UK was blue 
cheese and crackers. He said his ordeal will not stop him from continuing his 
pro-democracy activism.

"There's still work we haven't finished. Politics in Ethiopia is now very 
ethnic-based - so we want to change politics and make it based on policies not 
on ethnicity, and we have a role to play in that area."

'My execution is imminent and I know I might die at any time now'

Lindsay Sandiford, from Cheltenham, has been on death row awaiting her killing 
by firing squad in the Indonesian island of Bali since 2012, having been 
convicted of smuggling cocaine worth 1.6m pounds. She said she was forced to 
carry the drugs by a gang threatening to kill her son.

"My execution is imminent and I know I might die at any time now," the 
62-year-old has written on her website. She has started a knitting group in 
prison, saying it "stops me from going insane. It calms me down and I'm doing 
something useful."

Selling her creations has generated more than 7,000 pounds to fund her appeal 
because the UK Government, while stating its continued opposition to the death 
penalty, refuses to fund legal representation for British nationals overseas.

Harriet McCulloch, from the non-profit organisation of international lawyers 
Reprieve, said: "Everyone knows capital punishment means that those without the 
capital get the punishment. Lindsay's poverty means she has ended up sentenced 
to death after a manifestly unfair trial."

The charity has said that by not funding her legal fight, the British 
Government is in breach of its obligations to one of its citizens. "In a way, 
it will be a relief to have it over with," Sandiford said.

"It's hard to live with the stress and the uncertainty of knowing you are about 
to be executed. But for the sake of my granddaughter - and how she will 
remember me - I have to keep asking for justice. "When she grows up, I want her 
to know I wasn't a bad person. I was coerced into committing this terrible 
crime and I did it because I thought it was the only way to protect my youngest 
son."

(source: inews.co.uk)






INDIA:

Man Sentenced to Death for Rape of Minor Girl After 6-day Trial


A court in this district of Madhya Pradesh on Tuesday sentenced a man to death 
for raping a minor girl.

Additional District Judge Sudhanshu Saxena awarded the capital punishment to 
Naresh Parihar (40), said assistant prosecutor P L Rawat.

The prosecution examined 24 witnesses, he said.

The judge, while pronouncing the verdict, said the Indian society considers 
girls as "goddesses", and if they are not provided security and rapists remain 
at large, their future would be imperilled.

While the crime took place on July 18, the trial started on August 7, and 
within 6 working days it ended with the court announcing the death penalty to 
the accused.

According to the prosecution, Parihar had, on July 18, sent a minor boy to the 
girl's house, which was nearby, with a message that his wife was asking for 
her.

When the girl went to his house, Parihar took her to a room and penetrated her 
private parts with fingers, which amounts to rape under IPC section 376(AB), an 
amended provision, Rawat said.

Before he could force himself on the girl, her mother barged into the room.

When the woman slapped Parihar, he picked up an axe to hit her. The woman and 
her daughter, however, escaped unhurt.

Police arrested him and filed a charge sheet on July 21.

(source: news18.com)

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

MP court gives death sentence for sodomy-murder of minor


A Madhya Pradesh court has awarded death sentence to a man for abducting, 
sodomising and murdering a 10-year-old boy in Datia district.

Special Judge (POCSO) Hitendra Dwivedi imposed the extreme penalty on Nand 
Kishore Gupta late on Monday.

According to public prosecutor Pushpendra Kumar Garg, Gupta had kidnapped the 
victim from Indergarh on March 2. He, along with his accomplice, kept the boy 
hostage and demanded Rs 1 lakh ransom from the father.

When the family failed to pay up, they sodomised and killed the boy and 
disposed of the body in the Deluva canal.

The judge, in his order, held Gupta guilty under various sections of the Indian 
Penal Code for kidnapping for ransom, murder and unnatural offence. He was also 
found guilty under the relevant provisions of the Protection of Children from 
Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.

Gupta was also fined Rs 85,000.

(soruce: business-standard.com)