[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

July 4



INDONESIA/SAUDI ARABIA:

Indonesian freed from death penalty in Saudi returns to Indonesia



Nurkoyah, an Indonesian female worker from Rengasdengklok, Karawang, West Java 
Province, awarded death penalty by the Saudi Court for the death of the child 
of her employer, was released and finally returned to Indonesia.

Nurkoyah Marsan Dasan departed from the King Fahd Dammam International Airport 
on Tuesday night (July 3) and is scheduled to arrive in Jakarta on Wednesday 
(July 4) at 15:40 local time, Indonesian Ambassador to the Kingdom of Saudi 
Arabia Agus Maftuh Abegebriel noted in a statement received by Antara here on 
Wednesday.

The Dammam City General Court granted pardon to Nurkoyah, who had been charged 
with murdering her employer's son.

Following a lengthy legal process lasting 8 years, Nurkoyah was finally freed 
on April 3, 2018.

According to Ambassador Abegebriel, during the trial, Nurkoyah received full 
assistance from the Embassy team in Riyadh and Mish'al Al Shareef, as the 
lawyer from the Mish'al Al Shareef Law Office.

The Indonesian ambassador, Legal Attache of the Indonesian Embassy Muhibuddin, 
Police Attache Fahrurrazi, and Counselor Sunan Jaya Rustam facilitated the 
process of returning Nurkoyah to Indonesia.

They accompanied Nurkoyah from the Dammam prison until she arrived at the King 
Fahd Dammam International Airport, some 500 kilometers east of Riyadh City.

Nurkoyah thanked President Joko Widodo for the special attention given to all 
Indonesian citizens in Saudi Arabia facing legal problems and to the Embassy of 
Indonesia in Riyadh that had provided advocacy to secure a pardon from death 
penalty.

Ambassador Abegebriel said Nurkoyah's return to Indonesia was special as she 
was accompanied by Consul of the Embassy of the Republic of Indonesia in Riyadh 
Makki Nahari and was escorted to her hometown by Mish'al Shareef, who is a 
well-known lawyer in Saudi.

During this time, Shareef conducted intensive advocacies for several cases of 
Indonesian citizens in Saudi Arabia, including in Nurkoyah's case.

Ambassador Abegebriel affirmed that the Embassy in Riyadh will remain 
consistent in serving and helping every Indonesian citizen in Saudi Arabia.

(source: Antara News)








CHINA:

Man sentenced to death for drug trafficking, homicide in China



Chen Shixuan was seized in May 2016 by police. The court said he was a leader 
of a criminal gang who had engaged in illegal activities in Bomei Township, of 
Lufeng City in Guangdong.

He illegally made and sold a large amount of methamphetamine, the court said.

In a raid on an apartment in the township on August 16, 2015, police seized 
over 1,929 grams of methamphetamine and a large amount of ingredients. In the 
same year, he sold around 3 kilograms of methamphetamine to 2 buyers surnamed 
Tang and Lai.

According to the court, on September 29, 2015, Chen was responsible for the 
death of a man surnamed Li whom he illegally held in a carwash. Chen also 
kidnapped another man surnamed Zhou in an attempt to exhort a ransom.

Chen was a convicted felon and served time in prison before the trial. His 
repeated offence and leading role in the gang led to him being sentenced to 
capital punishment, the court said.

Other gang suspects are under investigation.

(source: xinhuanet.com)








TAIWAN:

Presidential Office demands retraction of report on planned execution



The Presidential Office on Wednesday demanded the retraction of a report 
claiming the government is looking into the possibility of carrying out 
executions as a way of boosting the Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) 
chances of winning the local elections in November.

ETtoday, an online news outlet, published the report Wednesday, in which it 
said Minister of Justice Chiu Tai-san was called to the Presidential Office 
recently for a discussion about the use of the death penalty amidst a spree of 
serious crimes.

The discussion came to a tentative decision that Chiu would order an execution 
in November, before the local elections on Nov. 24, partly to preserve social 
order and partly to appease public anger over the delay in carrying out death 
sentences, the report said.

The report contained no named sources.

Asked to respond, the Presidential Office issued a statement saying that any 
suggestion President Tsai Ing-wen asked to meet Chiu to discuss the use of the 
death penalty was false.

The office said no such meeting had been held nor had the issue been discussed 
with Chiu and demanded the immediate retraction ofthe report.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Justice also issued a statement on the report which 
it said was a "serious error" and factually incorrect.

Taiwan observed a moratorium on the death penalty from 2006-2009. During former 
President Ma Ying-jeou's administration, 33 death row inmates were executed 
from 2010-2016.

Since Tsai came to office in May 2016, no executions have been carried out. 
There are currently 43 convicts on death row in Taiwan.

(source: focustaiwan.tw)








AUSTRALIA:

Myuran Sukumaran's death-row paintings come to Bendigo



The portrait of Indonesian President Joko Widodo faces the wall; its outline, 
lit from behind, frames the artist's signature and a simple inscription: 
"People can change."

Myuran Sukumaran was executed on April 29, 2015, for attempting to smuggle 
drugs out of Indonesia. But his message remains very much alive.

The anguish, guilt, regret and horror of living with a death sentence in a 
foreign prison is laid bare in an exhibition of more than 100 of Sukumaran's 
paintings which comes to Victoria for the 1st time this week.

"[The exhibition] brings up a lot of memories," says Archibald Prize-winning 
artist Ben Quilty, who taught Sukumaran to paint while on death row. "But it's 
a positive memory, really, of how much the work meant to Myuran and how much he 
hoped that people would see his work and continue to talk about the 
senselessness of the death penalty.

"We discussed that in depth and I promised to do my best get it out there ... 
I've posted the [exhibition] catalogue around the world to different leaders 
who I thought needed to see it. They don't respond. I sent one to [President] 
Jokowi."

The context in which Sukumaran's art was produced is a visceral thread 
throughout the exhibition, which premiered last year at Campbelltown Arts 
Centre as part of Sydney Festival. Many of the works contain overt references 
to their creator's imprisonment and impending execution.

"I can't think of a more powerful anti-death penalty image made in the history 
of humankind," says Quilty. But, he argues, the works hold their own.

"I think I probably underestimated how good the work was. It wasn't until I 
opened the crates [of paintings] in my studio that I realised the possibility 
of how big a show this could be.

"People were saying [Sukumaran's interest in painting] was made up to try and 
gain sympathy, to try save his own life. It???s such a load of crap. You can 
see in the exhibition how much work he did and how he was obsessed with his own 
art practice, like I am obsessed with my own art practice."

Quilty's influence is apparent Sukumaran's paintings. But Campbelltown Arts 
Centre director Michael Dagostino, who co-curated the exhibition with Quilty, 
says Sukumaran was clearly beginning to establish his own style in the last 6 
months of his life. The pieces produced in his final hours - as he painted all 
through the night - are the most powerful.

"About 20 works were painted in his last 72 hours, the majority of them 
self-portraits," says Dagostino. "It's kind of weird, [this selection] doesn't 
feel rushed, it doesn't feel unfinished. They are quite settled as paintings 
and there is a real sadness to them, because he???s always looking back at 
you."

The exhibition also features works from other artists responding to Sukumaran's 
story, including Abdul-Rahman Abdullah, Megan Cope, Jagath Dheerasekara, Khaled 
Sabsabi and Matthew Sleeth.

Myuran Sukumaran: Another Day in Paradise is at Bendigo Art Gallery from 
Saturday until September 16.

(source: canberratimes.com.au)








INDIA:

Punjab CM suggests death penalty for 1st-time drug offenders



Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Wednesday asserted that the 
state government would wipe out the menace of drug abuse.

The chief minister wrote to Home Minister Rajnath Singh, recommending death 
penalty for 1st-time drug offenders.

"Have today written to Home Minister Rajnath Singh ji conveying my Government's 
recommendation for approving death penalty to drug-related-offenders on 1st 
conviction only. We are firm in our resolve to wipe out the menace of drug 
abuse from Punjab," Singh wrote on Twitter.

Yesterday, the Punjab Chief Minister had shared a video message on Twitter 
wherein he had warned the drug smugglers to give up or get ready to face 
stringent actions, even death penalty.

On July 2, Singh had recommended to the Centre to formulate a law that awards 
death penalty to those convicted for drug peddling and smuggling, amid the 
growing drug menace in Punjab.

Meanwhile, he had also said that they have set up a committee to look into the 
matter.

"In last few days, there has been a spurt in deaths due to drugs. We've made a 
committee which is going to meet every day. On Mondays, I'm going to meet the 
committee to see what action has been taken during the week. What is happening 
here is unacceptable," the chief minister had said.

Singh had earlier also acknowledged that drug menace is a major social problem 
of Punjab and that his party is going to take stringent actions in the regard.

(source: aninews.in)








OMAN----female gets death sentence

Omani woman sentenced to death for killing husband----Woman plotted and 
executed the murder along with her lover, who was also sentenced to death



An Omani woman and her lover have been sentenced to death for murdering her 
husband, according to the Public Prosecution.

The court recently sentenced the woman, in her 40s and her lover, another 
Omani, 50s, to death for the premeditated murder of her husband in Oman's 
northern Barka province.

The duo had plotted and executed the murder in 2016.

The woman's lover jumped over the fence of the adjacent house and shot her 
husband in the neck with a gun.

According to the public prosecution, the woman stood over her dying husband and 
watched him take his last breath.

The duo then disposed of the body in a nearby wadi and later returned to the 
house to clean up and erase all evidence of the murder.

The next day the woman filed a missing person complaint with the police and 
even participated in a search for her husband with her neighbours.

The victim's body was found 2 days later in the wadi.

After a detailed forensic report and autopsy, police confirmed the man was 
murdered.

The woman later confessed to the crime after intense police interrogations.

The death penalty is rarely exercised in Oman, but such sentences are usually 
handed out in drug-related crimes and premeditated murder.

(source: gulfnews.com)








IRAN----execution

Prisoner Hanged in Tabriz



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

According to a close source, on the morning of Tuesday, July 3, a prisoner was 
executed at Tabriz Central Prison. The prisoner, charged with murder, was 
identified as Mohammad Aali, 52, from a village near Tabriz.

The prisoner, having been in prison for 5 years, was transferred to the 
solitary confinement from ward 9 of Tabriz Central Prison on Monday.

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)

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

HDP joins calls on Iran to stop Kurdish prisoner's execution



Pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), an opposition faction in Turkey, 
on Tuesday urged the Islamic Republic of Iran to immediately stop the imminent 
execution of Kurdish prisoner Ramin Hossein Panahi.

In a letter penned to Iran's ambassador Mohammad Ebrahim Taherian Fard, HDP 
Co-leaders Pervin Buldan and Sezai Temelli said Panahi's detention and trial 
process was "carried out far from the basic principles of the international 
law."

"On behalf of millions of Kurds and democrats who voted for HDP, Buldan and 
Temeli called on the Islamic Republic of Iran to reverse the death penalty for 
Panahi in no time, stating the [need] for an appropriate fair trial process 
based on universal legal standards,??? a statement on the HDP website read.

"Buldan and Temelli also asked the Islamic Republic to heed calls not to 
execute Panahi," it added.

Panahi was wounded last year by Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) during 
a clash with the Komala, an armed Kurdish opposition group.

He was subsequently placed in custody and held in solitary confinement until 
January this year.

His family received no information about his fate or whereabouts for 4 months 
following his arrest.

His attorney Hossein Ahmadi Niaz told Kurdistan 24 Tuesday that he and 5 other 
lawyers had also sent letters to Iran's President Hassan Rouhani, pleading to 
stop the execution.

Niaz said officials were to allow Panahi's father to see his son 1 last time, a 
sign that the execution could be carried out soon.

United Nations rapporteurs, Amnesty International, and other human rights 
organizations, as well as Kurdish groups, have urged Iran not to implement the 
capital punishment on Panahi.

UN officials voiced "serious concerns" in an April statement that Panahi did 
not receive a fair trial and was mistreated and tortured in detention.

"Executing Mr. Panahi, following his torture, and unfair trial and on the basis 
of charges that do not meet international standards for the use of death 
penalty, would be unconscionable," the experts Agnes Callamard, Dainius Puras, 
and Nils Melzer said in a joint statement released in Geneva.

Iran, along with Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and China, is one of the top countries 
that execute political prisoners.

(source: kurdistan24.net)

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

Iran reduces death penalty, life sentence against 1700 drug convicts



Abbas Jafari-Dolatabadi, the Tehran prosecutor general, announced on Tuesday 
that 1,700 sentences of narcotic-related cases have been commuted from capital 
punishment and life sentence to less severe forms of punishment.

The change in the law on narcotics-related punishments have revolutionized the 
country's policies in fighting against narcotics, Jafari-Dolatabadi told a 
meeting on social harms caused by narcotics, IRNA reported.

He further said out of 3000 requests made to commute narcotics-related 
sentences, 1700 have been reviewed and 1300 remain to be reviewed very soon.

(source: Tehran Times)