[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

July 9



IRAN----execution

Afghan Prisoner Executed in Iran



An Afghan prisoner was hanged at Zahedan Central Prison on murder charges.

According to HRANA news agency, on the morning of Saturday, July 7, a prisoner 
was hanged at Zahedan Central Prison on murder charges.

The Afghan prisoner was identified as Naeem Manduzehi, born in 1970 and married 
with 9 children.

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.

(source: Iran Human Rights)








IRAQ:

A neighbor's word can bring death sentence in Iraq IS trials



More than a decade ago, Ismail Saleh says, a neighbor wanted to marry one of 
Saleh's cousins. Following the custom of their clan in northern Iraq, she was 
meant to wed Saleh, so the family refused. And thus, he says, a feud was born.

Saleh now sits on death row in Baghdad, sentenced to hang after being accused 
of fighting for the Islamic State group, a charge he steadfastly denies. The 
chief evidence against him: the word of that neighbor.

"Sometimes I wake up and for a moment I feel that this death sentence and me 
being here is just a bad dream," the 29-year-old told The Associated Press in 
an interview in a Baghdad prison.

Death sentences are being issued at a dizzying rate in Iraq's rush to prosecute 
and punish suspected members of the Islamic State group, with more than 3,000 
handed out over just the past few years. About 250 people condemned for alleged 
IS ties have been hanged since 2014, including 101 only last year.

Any allegation of having taken up arms for the militant group can bring the 
ultimate penalty, even while the evidence is thin and cursory.

The heavy reliance on informants is particularly glaring, given the potential 
that some are motivated by personal grudges. Informants never appear in court; 
their claims are passed to the judges in dry, written reports from intelligence 
officials with no hint of their possible motivation.

Thousands of defendants are pushed through the courts at a rapid clip, with 
individual trials as short as 10 or 15 minutes and a third of the cases ending 
in the death penalty. Witnesses are very rarely called and no forensic evidence 
presented, raising the likelihood of innocent people going to the gallows.

The cases are so flimsy that President Fuad Masum has refrained from ratifying 
many executions, which is required by law before they can be carried out, a 
senior official in the president's office told the AP.

"We have doubts," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity 
because he was not authorized to discuss the issue.

"We didn't find solid proof in some of the cases we've studied," he said. "We 
attended some hearings and found the cases are ruled on quickly in one 
hearing."

Still, the pressure is rising for executions to be carried out even more 
rapidly, including from Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi. Last month, 13 people 
accused of IS ties were hanged within 3 hours of the president ratifying the 
death documents - an unusually quick turnaround.

The AP spoke to Ismail Saleh and 2 other Iraqis accused of being Islamic State 
group fighters who were sentenced to death, as well as to their families in and 
around the northern city of Mosul.

Like nearly all the other defendants, all three denied ties to IS. Not all the 
details of their accounts could be independently confirmed, but their stories - 
which raise reasonable doubts over their guilt - were not closely examined in 
court before they were condemned to die, underscoring the system's weakness.

That judicial haste was readily apparent when the AP attended 3 consecutive 
days of court sessions in Baghdad in late May.

The court heard an average of a dozen cases a day, most involving accused IS 
members. During those 3 days, the presiding judge, Suhail Abdullah Sahar, 
imposed at least 10 death sentences.

"We do everything we can to get to the truth and we don't want to be unfair to 
anyone," Sahar told the AP. "These defendants are here on the strength of 
testimony given by a secret informer, neighbors or their own families."

The judge acknowledged he knew some informers offered incriminating testimony 
to settle old scores, but gave no indication how he could differentiate true 
testimony from false.

Saleh told the AP that the feud with the family of his neighbor festered for 
years after the dispute over his cousin - even though Saleh ultimately didn't 
marry her either.

In May 2017, shortly after his neighborhood was freed from IS militants, 
security forces arrested Saleh and sent him to a local prison, where he said he 
was tortured and beaten for 4 days. The neighbor, he was told, had turned him 
in, telling authorities he had been temporarily detained by IS because Saleh 
told the militants the neighbor had been a member of the police force.

During his brief trial in December, Saleh said the judge asked if he had 
informed on his neighbor.

"I said no," Saleh recounted. "Then he asked me to leave during consultations. 
When I came back, I was sentenced to death."

His crimes, according to a copy of the verdict obtained by the AP, were joining 
IS, fighting against security forces and informing on the neighbor. The ruling 
said it was based on the neighbor's testimony and a confession by Saleh. Saleh 
says he indeed confessed - but only to stop the torture.

In Mosul, his family said Saleh had his own troubles with IS during its rule. 
Like his neighbor, he was detained when the militants learned he had applied 
for a policeman's job in 2007, according to his mother, sister and wife.

After IS was driven out of Mosul, government-linked Shiite militiamen detained 
Saleh twice on suspicion of belonging to IS, each time holding him overnight, 
said his wife, Hind Zaki.

Zaki said she was 2 months pregnant with their 6th child when the army arrested 
Saleh for the final time. For the next 3 days, she said she received calls from 
his mobile phone and could hear him screaming in the background, as the caller 
told her that her husband had confessed to being an IS member and that she, 
too, was a member.

When she was 5 months pregnant, she said, an army officer and three soldiers 
kicked in the door of her home. The officer beat her, stuck a pistol in her 
mouth and threatened to rape her, Zaki said.

"At one point, I was barely conscious," she said. "The soldiers kept telling 
him, 'Let's go before she dies.'"

She finally saw her husband again after he was convicted, visiting him in 
prison with 3 of their children.

"I don't even know if any of my children know that I have been sentenced to 
death," Saleh said.

Quteiba Younis was 16 in 2014 when IS overran northern Iraq, including his home 
village of Areij. A typical teenager, he was into PlayStation and was just 
starting to get interested in cars. He swam in the Tigris River every day to 
escape the summer heat.

Shortly after the militants' takeover, his father lost his job at a government 
fuel depot, so the teen - the eldest of 10 siblings - had a duty to support the 
family. He eventually found work as a guard at a cement factory taken over by 
IS, a job that required carrying a rifle.

That appears to have sealed his fate: an informant told security agencies that 
Younis was an armed fighter with IS.

"My life has been lost," Younis, now 20, told the AP in a prison interview.

Younis had been detained and flogged by IS militants for selling cigarettes on 
the black market to make ends meet, according to his mother, Nada Hassan.

The family fled Areij as Iraqi forces battled to retake the territory in 2017, 
settling into a camp for the displaced, where federal police arrested Younis in 
February. Younis said he was beaten, tortured with electric shocks and hung 
upside down, finally confessing to crimes he hadn't committed to end his 
torment.

Based on the confession and informant testimony, a judge convicted him and 
sentenced him to death on May 10.

The informant was a distant relative who often gave names to security agents, 
said Younis' father, Saad. Saad Younis said he has never confronted the man for 
what he insisted are lies about his son, but vowed that he will one day.

"I have resigned myself to God's mercy," the father said. "But when this is all 
over, I will face him and ask him why he did that."

The third condemned man interviewed by the AP, Ahmed Nijm, unabashedly said the 
Islamic State group had the right idea. They came to Mosul, he said, "in an 
earnest, sincere search for justice."

Nijm said the militants were initially loved by the people for ending the chaos 
and lawlessness that flourished in the years after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion 
of Iraq.

But despite his admiration for the strict beliefs of IS, he insisted he was 
never a member of the group.

Nijm was arrested in May 2017 during the battle for Mosul as he tried to cross 
into a district still held by the militants. Iraqi security forces were on the 
lookout for IS members attempting to blend in with the throngs fleeing for 
safety. His family said Nijm was arrested only because his long beard marked 
him as Salafi, a Muslim movement that, similarly to IS, advocates an austere 
interpretation of the faith.

"They didn't check his name on the computer," said his mother, Hamdah, 
referring to the databases that officials use to track IS suspects.

A witness identified Nijm as an IS fighter, according to an investigator 
familiar with the case who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because he 
was not authorized to talk.

Nijm said he was beaten and threatened with electrical shocks during his 
interrogation.

"My body is too weak for torture. So I confessed to having joined Daesh for a 
month," he said, using the Arabic acronym for IS.

Nijm, who was sentenced to death on April 19, insisted to the AP that he is not 
afraid.

"I hope death comes to me when I am on my prayer rug," he said. "If I have been 
oppressed, then God will bring me justice. At the end I would rather die as the 
oppressed, not the oppressor."

All 3 men interviewed by the AP did not retain lawyers - common with most 
defendants, either because they cannot afford them or because they have little 
or no contact with their families between their arrests and court appearances.

Judges duly appoint an attorney, selecting from 1 of the 2 normally present in 
the court. They are paid the equivalent of about $30 per case by the 
government.

With each case, the lawyer repeats the same defense - the defendant confessed 
under torture - and moves for an immediate release, a motion almost certain 
never to be granted.

Court-appointed defense attorney Riyadh Saleh said he is not allowed to request 
postponements or time to study case files. Still, he said, "it's understandable 
when you think that Iraq is going through a very delicate phase."

Judges base their verdicts on documents compiled by intelligence agencies and 
investigators, who rarely collect physical evidence and instead almost always 
focus on obtaining confessions and informant testimony.

Human rights groups have repeatedly said Iraqi security forces systematically 
use torture and abuse. But Sahar, the judge, said he didn't believe most 
claims.

"90 % of those who claim to have been tortured say that to escape punishment," 
he said.

In the cases the AP witnessed, Sahar often appeared to pay little attention 
when defendants spoke and was dismissive of their comments. One defendant, 
hoping for leniency, said his shoulder wound was caused by mortar shelling of 
his home. "No, it was caused during your work at a Daesh ammunition factory," 
Sahar shot back.

All but one of the trials attended by the AP ended in a guilty verdict.

Despite the harsh sentences, most defendants remained stony- faced as they were 
shuffled out after their brief time in the stand. But one man erupted as the 
judge read out the names of witnesses who accused him of joining IS, issuing 
religious rulings for the group and delivering a car bomb used in an attack.

"Heaven and Earth as my witness, I don't know these people!" Ahmed Habib cried 
out. Habib said he had been beaten by Kurdish troops who arrested him. "Your 
honor, where is the accountability? Why the torture? This is a democratic 
country, so why I am I not allowed to speak freely?"

He was sentenced to death.

(source: Associated press)








TAIWAN:

Early releases make death penalty more appealing, Ko says



The death penalty is supported by the majority of the public in Taiwan and is 
deeply rooted in Chinese culture, so there should be a mechanism to implement 
life imprisonment if the death penalty were to be abolished, Taipei Mayor Ko 
Wen-je said at a religious event yesterday.

The execution of 7 people on death row in Japan last week once again stirred up 
debate about capital punishment in Taiwan - and with several dismemberment 
cases that shocked the nation last month, politicians were asked about their 
thoughts on the death penalty.

"I like to study statistics and there is only one public issue in Taiwan that 
has overwhelming support from the public: More than 85 % of the public is in 
favor of keeping the death penalty," Ko said.

The death penalty is part of Chinese history, and Emperor Gaozu of the Han 
Dynasty promised his subjects to put murderers to death when he overthrew the 
Qin Dynasty, Ko said.

Many countries have abolished the death penalty, especially EU member states, 
and they often urge Taiwan to follow, Ko said.

"There are cases in which people sentenced to life imprisonment are released 
about 10 years into their sentences," which makes abolishing the death penalty 
more attractive, he said.

Ko was also asked to elaborate on a remark he made on Saturday about former 
president Lee Teng-hui having led Taiwan onto a path of democracy "with no way 
back," which some suspected might mean that Lee had led Taiwan toward populism.

Lee's greatest influence on Taiwan's history is changing the nation's 
character, Ko said.

US political theorist Francis Fukuyama in the 1990s claimed that liberal 
democracy represented the "end of history," but the founding Singaporean prime 
minister Lee Kuan Yew argued for the political ideology of "Asian values," Ko 
said.

After pondering about Taiwan's democratic development, Ko said he discovered 
that it would be impossible for Taiwan to adopt "democracy with Asian values" 
like in Singapore, because Lee has changed the nation's character.

As the path has been taken, Taiwan can only use liberal and free methods to 
solve the dilemmas facing its democracy, Ko said.

(source: Taipei Times)








INDIA:

India's Supreme Court upholds death sentence in Delhi rape case----Top court 
pronounced its judgement on the review petition filed by 3 out of the 4 
convicts handed death penalty.



India's Supreme Court has upheld the death sentence in the 2012 New Delhi bus 
gang-rape case, a crime that sparked widespread protests leading to stronger 
anti-rape laws.

The country's top court upheld its own judgement on the death sentence given 
against four men who had fatally gang raped a 23-year-old physiotherapy 
student, known as Nirbhaya, on a moving bus in New Delhi.

"There is no material to review our order," said the three-judge bench led by 
Chief Justice Dipak Misra, on the review petition filed by three of the four 
convicts - Mukesh, Pawan Gupta and Vinay Sharma - who had been handed the death 
penalty.

Badrinath Singh, the victim's father, said his daughter has "finally got 
justice".

"... It took the court 1 year to review the petitions. However, I am happy that 
my daughter has finally got justice," Singh told reporters.

Of the 6 people arrested for this crime, 1 committed suicide in prison in 2013, 
while a juvenile defendant was sentenced to 3 years in a reform facility and 
released in 2015.

The brutal crime had sparked widespread protests and drew international 
attention over violence against women in India.

'Victorious moment'

A fast-track court had convicted 4 defendants to death less than a year after 
the brutal gang rape and murder of the paramedic student. It was later upheld 
by the high court.

Rohan Mahajan, the lawyer representing the family of the gang-rape victim, said 
it was a "victorious moment".

"Faith in the judiciary has been reinstated. We are satisfied today..." Mahajan 
told local ANI news agency.

In 2016, police in India registered 38,947 rape complaints compared to 2015, 
when nearly 35,000 rape cases were reported, according to National Crime 
Records Bureau data.

The number of rapes reported each year in Delhi has more than tripled over the 
past 5 years, registering an increase of 277 % from 572 in 2011 to 2,155 in 
2016, according to data released by the Delhi Police.

Senior Supreme Court lawyer, Vrinda Grover, said that she was "not at all 
convinced that it [the verdict] will be a deterrent this time around".

"The death sentence had been confirmed by the Supreme Court sometime back and 
this was a review petition. What has happened between the confirmation of death 
sentence and now - there is no diminution of sexual violence against women," 
Grower said.

"There is absolutely no link between death sentence and deterrence of crime. 
Hanging a few men will not change the manner in which women are affected by 
sexual violence in their daily lives. We will be distracted by this death 
sentence while this enables the state to abdicate its responsibility to protect 
women."

(source: aljazeer.com)