[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

August 22



LIBYA:

45 Sentenced to Death for 2011 Killings----Due Process Concerns in Mass Trial


Libya's judiciary convicted 99 defendants in a mass trial on August 15, 2018, 
sentencing 45 to death and 54 to 5 years in prison, Human Rights Watch said 
today. The judiciary has a record of conducting unfair trials.

The Government of National Accord should uphold the de-facto moratorium on the 
death penalty and move toward complete abolition. Libya's Supreme Court, in its 
review of the verdict, by the Tripoli Court of Appeals, should critically 
evaluate the evidence in the case, including whether confessions were extracted 
through torture or other illegal means.

"A judiciary that is in shambles has no business sentencing defendants to death 
by the dozen," said Eric Goldstein, deputy Middle East and North Africa 
director at Human Rights Watch. "The quest for justice for past crimes can be 
fulfilled only through trials that are fair, not through judicial killings."

Since the end of the 2011 revolution that ousted Muammar Gaddafi, the right of 
defendants to a fair trial has continued to be undermined by obstacles to 
accessing lawyers, the use of coerced confessions as evidence, lack of access 
to court documents, and prolonged arbitrary detention, with no respect for due 
process. Human Rights Watch has also documented intimidation, threats, and 
attacks by armed groups against lawyers, prosecutors, and judges. Courts and 
prosecutors' offices are only partly operational and are shut in some parts of 
the country.

The trial relates to the killing of protesters during the 2011 revolution. In 
an incident widely referred to the "Abu Saleem Highway Massacre," Gaddafi 
sympathizers and members of his security forces in August 2011 allegedly 
ambushed and killed 146 anti-Gaddafi protesters in the Abu Saleem area of 
Tripoli, the capital, and hid some of the remains. Various armed groups started 
to round up people allegedly involved in the killings after the 2011 revolution 
ended. However, prosecutors only started interrogating the suspects in 2014. 
The case went to court in August 2015.

Human Rights Watch in October 2015 interviewed some of the defendants at a 
prison known as "Al-Roueimy" in the Ain Zara area of Tripoli. Defendants 
described ill-treatment that appeared to amount to torture at various detention 
facilities, including one run by the Abu Saleem Council, an armed group 
controlling the area since 2011. The defendants also said they had lacked 
access to lawyers during their interrogation, and initial court sessions. A 
defendant also said that armed guards would accompany defendants to 
interrogation sessions with the prosecutors, which they found intimidating.

A statement on August 15 by the Justice Ministry of the internationally backed 
Government of National Accord in Tripoli said that the court had originally 
charged 128 people in the "Abu Saleem Highway" incident. In addition to the 99 
sentenced and 22 acquitted by the court on August 15, one defendant was freed 
under an amnesty law, 3 died in detention in circumstances that the statement 
did not elucidate and the cases of the remaining t3 had been tried previously.

Both the prosecutor and defendants can seek a review by the Supreme Court 
cassation chamber. Also, under Libyan law, the Supreme Court reviews all death 
sentences and must confirm them before an execution can be legally carried out.

In an August 19 statement, the Justice Ministry emphasized that "the defendants 
in this case were given a fair trial and that all judicial guarantees were made 
available to them."

International human rights law upholds every human being's inherent right to 
life, and for countries that have not agreed to ban the death penalty 
completely, it limits the death penalty to the most serious crimes, typically 
crimes resulting in death. It strictly forbids the application of the death 
penalty in any case in which it does not appear that the defendant received a 
fair trial. In Libya, the death penalty appears frequently in legislation as a 
proposed punishment for various crimes, including at least 30 articles of the 
Penal Code.

Human Rights Watch opposes capital punishment in all circumstances because of 
its inherent cruelty and its irreversible and inhumane nature.

No death sentences have been implemented since 2010.

The August 15 Justice Ministry statement said that the court president and 
members, the defense lawyers, and relatives of victims and the defendants were 
present during the reading of the verdict. The statement makes no reference to 
whether the defendants attended.

(source: Human Rights Watch)






SRI LANKA:

Sri Lanka to end execution moratorium soon: president


Sri Lanka will soon resume executions after a 42-year moratorium but will send 
home 5 Pakistanis sentenced to death for drug smuggling for execution in their 
home country, President Maithripala Sirisena said Wednesday.

The 5 are among 18 people, including a woman, on death row for drug offences 
whose execution will go ahead, according to Sirisena. He did not give a date 
for the 1st hanging.

"I am determined to carry out the death penalty for serious drug offenders and 
I will start with a list (of 18) given to me by the prisons," he told a public 
meeting in the north of the country.

Sirisena said he would hold talks with talks with Pakistan's new Prime Minister 
Imran Khan on repatriating the condemned Pakistanis and having them executed 
there.

He gave no further details on the feasibility of such a move.

International rights groups and the European Union have asked Sri Lanka to 
reconsider since Sirisena announced last month that he wanted to end the 
moratorium on hanging.

Police believe the Indian Ocean island is being used as a transit point by drug 
traffickers. More than a tonne of cocaine seized in recent years was destroyed 
by police in January.

Official figures show there were 373 convicts on death row in Sri Lanka, 
including the 18 drug offenders, as of last month.

Death sentences are still passed for crimes including murder, rape and 
drug-related offences but the last execution was in 1976.

Nearly 900 people are in prison after being sentenced to death, although many 
have had their sentences commuted to life or are appealing.

(source: dailymail.co.uk)

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

Sri Lankan Catholics need to follow pope's call on death penalty----Pope 
Francis has taken a consistently principled position that human life is sacred.


I was among the Sri Lankans who were shocked to see media reports in July 
indicating that President Maithripala Sirisena and his cabinet have given the 
green light to execute drug offenders on death row.

For more than 4Pope Francis has taken a consistently principled position that 
human life is sacred0 years, through civil wars and insurrections, Sri Lanka 
was 1 of 29 countries that had maintained a moratorium on the death penalty. 
Another 106 countries had abolished it fully by 2017, a year when 23 countries 
were known to have carried out executions.

If some detainees are engaged in drug-related offences from within prison 
grounds, cited as a reason to rein in the death penalty, security in prisons 
must be strengthened. This includes using new technology and holding prison 
officials accountable.

There is no evidence in Sri Lanka, or in other countries, that the death 
penalty has reduced crime by having a deterrent effect.

In Sri Lanka, there are serious deficiencies in the criminal justice system, 
including a lack of easily accessible, quality, legal aid.

The death penalty is an irreversible form of punishment which grants no space 
to consider new evidence that may emerge after a conviction is made, for 
example through new technology, indicating a wrongful conviction.

It has been pointed out that in countries such as America, Canada and the UK, 
people wrongly convicted have been released from death row decades after they 
were put there as new evidence has shown they were wrongfully imprisoned.

Meanwhile, the Colombo-based European Ambassadors have written to the Sri 
Lankan president stressing their unequivocal opposition to capital punishment 
in all circumstances and all cases.

A European Union (EU) diplomat was also quoted as telling the media "if Sri 
Lanka resumes capital punishment, Colombo will immediately lose its GSP-Plus 
status."

Pope Francis has been forthright and taken a consistently principled position 
that human life is sacred and the death penalty is "an inhuman measure that 
humiliates human dignity, in whatever form it is carried out."

He further described it as being "contrary to the Gospel."

However, Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, the Catholic Archbishop of Colombo, 
clarified in statement issued around July 20 that he supports the president's 
move to implement the death penalty in certain cases. He said perpetrators of 
gruesome crimes could be considered as having forfeited their own right to 
life, and whatever punishment was given by courts should be implemented.

The president has called to lift the 42-year moratorium on the death penalty 
for some death row convicts.

Less than 2 weeks after Cardinal Ranjith's statement, the Vatican's 
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) issued a letter to bishops on 
Aug. 1 announcing that a revision of Church teachings had been approved by Pope 
Francis. The revision stated categorically that the death penalty is 
inadmissible and unnecessary even when used to protect the life of innocent 
people.

The Catholic Bishops Conference of Sri Lanka followed this up with a statement 
of their own on Aug. 9 that quoted extensively from the CDF's letter and made 
it clear in no uncertain terms that they unequivocally oppose the death 
penalty.

Now is the time for Sri Lankan Catholics, including the Catholic Bishops 
Conference, the Conference of (Catholic) Major Religious Superiors, and lay 
groups to follow the pope's call for churches to work toward the total 
abolition of the death penalty in all circumstances.

Together, we must call on the country to ratify the 2nd Optional Protocol to 
the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights that calls for the 
abolition of the death penalty. Some 85 countries had ratified it by the end of 
2017.

(source: Ruki Fernando is a Sri Lankan human rights activist who was detained 
under the Prevention of Terrorism Act. He is still under investigation. He is 
also a member of the Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation Commission of the 
Conference of Major Religious Superiors and an adviser to the INFORM Human 
Rights Documentation Centre----heraldmalaysia.com)






SAUDI ARABIA:

Saudi Prosecution Seeks Death Penalty for Female Activist----1st Woman Facing 
Execution in Trials of Shia Protesters


Saudi Arabia's Public Prosecution is seeking the death penalty against 5 
Eastern Province activists, including female human rights activist Israa 
al-Ghomgham, Human Rights Watch said today. The activists, along with 1 other 
person not facing execution, are being tried in the country's terrorism 
tribunal on charges solely related to their peaceful activism.

The Public Prosecution, which reports directly to the king, accused the 
detained activists of several charges that do not resemble recognizable crimes, 
including "participating in protests in the Qatif region," "incitement to 
protest," "chanting slogans hostile to the regime," "attempting to inflame 
public opinion," "filming protests and publishing on social media," and 
"providing moral support to rioters." It called for their execution based on 
the Islamic law principle of ta'zir, in which the judge has discretion over the 
definition of what constitutes a crime and over the sentence. Authorities have 
held all 6 activists in pretrial detention and without legal representation for 
over 2 years. Their next court date has been scheduled for October 28, 2018.

"Any execution is appalling, but seeking the death penalty for activists like 
Israa al-Ghomgham, who are not even accused of violent behavior, is monstrous," 
said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. "Every 
day, the Saudi monarchy's unrestrained despotism makes it harder for its public 
relations teams to spin the fairy tale of 'reform' to allies and international 
business."

Al-Ghomgham is a Shia activist well known for participating in and documenting 
mass demonstrations in the Eastern Province that began in early 2011, calling 
for an end to the systematic discrimination that Saudi Shia citizens face in 
the majority-Sunni country. Authorities arrested al-Ghomgham and her husband in 
a night raid on their home on December 6, 2015 and have held them in Dammam's 
al-Mabahith prison ever since.

Saudi activists told Human Rights Watch that the Public Prosecution's recent 
demand makes al-Ghomgham the 1st female activist to possibly face the death 
penalty for her human rights-related work, which sets a dangerous precedent for 
other women activists currently behind bars.

Saudi Arabia's Specialized Criminal Court (SCC), set up in 2008 to try 
terrorism cases, has since been increasingly used to prosecute peaceful 
dissidents. The court is notorious for its violations of fair trial standards 
and has previously sentenced other Shia activists to death on politically 
motivated charges. The court sentenced a prominent Shia cleric, Nimr al-Nimr, 
and 7 other men to death for their role in the 2011 Eastern Province 
demonstrations in 2014 and another 14 people in 2016 for participating in the 
protests. Saudi authorities executed al-Nimr and at least three other Shia men 
on January 2, 2016 when they carried out the largest mass execution since 1980, 
putting 47 men to death.

International standards, including the Arab Charter on Human Rights, ratified 
by Saudi Arabia, require countries that retain the death penalty to use it only 
for the "most serious crimes," and in exceptional circumstances. Human Rights 
Watch opposes capital punishment in all countries and under all circumstances. 
Capital punishment is unique in its cruelty and finality, and it is inevitably 
and universally plagued with arbitrariness, prejudice, and error.

A recent crackdown on women's rights activists in Saudi Arabia has led to the 
arrest of at least 13 women under the pretext of maintaining national security. 
While some have since been released, others remain detained without charge. 
They are: Loujain al-Hathloul, Aziza al-Yousef, Eman al-Nafjan, Nouf Abdelaziz, 
Mayaa al-Zahrani, Hatoon al-Fassi, Samar Badawi, Nassema al-Sadah, and Amal 
al-Harbi. Authorities have accused several of them of serious crimes and local 
media outlets carried out an unprecedented campaign against them, labeling them 
"traitors."

"If the Crown Prince is truly serious about reform, he should immediately step 
in to ensure no activist is unjustly detained for his or her human rights 
work," added Whitson.

(source: Human Rights Watch)

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

Saudi Arabia seeks its 1st death penalty against a female human rights 
activist----5 human rights activists on trial, including one who would be the 
first female human rights activist to face capital punishment


Saudi Arabian prosecutors are seeking the death sentence for five human rights 
activists, including a woman who is thought to be the first female campaigner 
facing execution, rights groups said.

Israa al-Ghomgham, a Shia activist arrested with her husband in 2015, will be 
tried in the country's terrorism tribunal even though charges she faces are 
only related to peaceful activism, Human Rights Watch said.

Saudi Shia citizens face systematic discrimination in the majority-Sunni 
nation, including obstacles to seeking work and education, and restrictions on 
religious practice. Al-Ghomgahm had joined and documented mass protests for 
Shia rights that began in 2011 as the "Arab Spring" swept across the region.

"Any execution is appalling, but seeking the death penalty for activists like 
Israa al-Ghomgham, who are not even accused of violent behavior, is monstrous," 
said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch.

Al-Ghomgham has been held in jail, without access to legal support, since she 
was detained in a night raid on her home in December 2015. The decision to seek 
the death penalty for her, her husband Moussa al-Hashem and 4 others was first 
highlighted by ALQST, a London-based Saudi rights group.

They face charges including "participating in protests", "chanting slogans 
hostile to the regime," "attempting to inflame public opinion," and "filming 
protests and publishing on social media", Human Rights Watch said.

The trial is set to start on October 28th, and will be the latest shadow on 
crown prince Mohammed bin Salman's efforts to promote himself as a modernising 
reformer.

The kingdom's youngest ruler in the modern era, the 32 year-old power behind 
the throne has pledged to rein in religious extremists and diversify a 
moribund, oil-dependent economy.

He has rolled back some restrictions on women including a long-standing ban on 
women drivers, launched a raft of economic reforms, and imprisoned some of his 
most powerful royal relatives in an anti-corruption drive.

But social and economic transformation have gone hand-in-hand with a tightening 
of political controls, as the crown prince made clear he wants the new Saudi 
Arabia to be shaped only by him.

Ahead of lifting the ban on women drivers, he arrested over a dozen of the 
activists who had campaigned for the very change that he was bringing in. Many 
are still in jail, facing serious charges, and branded "traitors" by local 
media.

The campaign to muzzle critics has not just been domestic. Saudi Arabia 
dramatically cut all ties with Canada after the country's foreign minister 
called on Twitter for the release of 2 jailed activists.

The Canadian ambassador was expelled, Saudi scholarship students told to leave 
Canada and new trade and investment suspended.

Prosecutors seeking the death penatly for al-Ghomgham could set a dangerous 
precedent for other women activists currently behind bars, Human Rights Watch 
warned.

The kingdom has previously executed Shia activists, and the Specialised 
Criminal Court set up in 2008 where the case will be held, is "notorious for 
its violations of fair trial standards", Human Rights Watch said.

A government communications office did not immediately respond to a request for 
comment on the case.

(source: The Guardian)





IRAN----execution

Man Hanged at Gachsaran Prison


1 prisoner was hanged at Gachsaran Prison on murder charges.

According to a report by HRANA, on the morning of Monday, August 20, a prisoner 
was executed at Gachsaran Prison. The prisoner, sentenced to death on murder 
charges, was identified as Keramat Hassani.

Keramat Hassani was from a village in Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad.

A close source told IHR, "Mr. Hassani's family was attacked by 3 thieves in 
2010 and their teenage son was murdered by them. Mr. Hassani shot 2 of the 
thieves which lead to the death of 1 of them and a severe injury in the spinal 
cord of the other one."

It should be noted that the prisoner had gone on a hunger strike last year in 
protest because the prison guards tortured him frequently.

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.

(source: Iran Human Rights)






INDIA:

13 people sentenced to death for raping minors in MP


Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Tuesday confirmed that a 
total of 13 individuals have been sentenced to death in connection with the 
raping of minor girls in the state.

Madhya Pradesh was the 1st state to promulgate a law to award death penalty to 
individuals accused in rape of minor girls. The law, which awards the death 
penalty to rapists of girls below the age of 12, was unanimously passed in the 
state assembly in December last year.

Addressing the media here, Chouhan said, "As per the provisions to penalise 
such culprits with the harshest of punishment, 13 people have so far been 
sentenced to death."

Speaking on the steps being taken to put a stop to such incidents in the 
future, Chouhan said, "On one hand, we are imparting lessons and inculcating 
the right values, and on the other hand, strict punishments, a culmination of 
the 2 will help us prevent such incidents from happening." When asked to 
comment on the death penalty awarded to 2 culprits earlier today, Chouhan said, 
"Today I can say that my heart is satisfied."

The 2 accused, Irfan and Asif, had abducted a 7-year-old girl from her school 
in Hafiz colony in Mandsaur in June this year. The duo then tortured and raped 
the girl before killing her and throwing her body at a secluded spot in the 
city.

Following the incident, the 2 men were arrested, while a Special Investigation 
Team was set up to investigate the matter. The 2 accused were awarded the death 
sentence by a special court in Mandsaur earlier today.

(source: sify.com)