[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

July 16




THAILAND:

Man gets death penalty for series of ambushes in Pattani



The provincial court has sentenced a man to death for the slaying of 7 people 
and injuries to 8 others in a series of ambushes in the southern border 
province about 5 years ago.

The court judged capital punishment appropriate for Ibrohem Sungaibaru, 28, of 
Yarang district, Col Thanawee Suwannarat, deputy spokesman of the Internal 
Security Operations Command's southern office, said on Monday.

Public prosecutors arraigned Ibrohem for an ambush in which 3 paramilitary 
rangers and a 4th severely wound at Ban Kortor Ranor village in tambon Klong 
Mai of Yarang district on Sept 12, 2013, he said.

The 4 rangers were repairing toilets at Kortor Ranor mosque. Aniwat Janmol, the 
ranger who survived, said local residents would normally help his team with the 
repair work, but they left early on the day of the attack.

6 men arrived at the site on a black pickup truck and opened fire at the 
rangers with assault rifles. Some continued shooting the rangers after they 
believed them all dead. They then made off with the 3dead rangers' weapons.

Ibrohem was also found guilty of the holdup and theft of a vehicle in tambon 
Bor Thong of Nong Chik district on Aug 1, 2013, and the ambush of Buddhist 
monks and civilians in Mae Lan district on Feb 13, 2014, when 4 people were 
killed and 7 others wounded.

Ibrohem was arrested in Songkhla in April 2016. He has the right to appeal 
against the sentence, Col Thanawee said.

(source: bangkokpost.com)








SUDAN:

Blind Sudanese activist staring death sentence



A visually impaired Sudanese religious teacher, who is also a human rights 
activist, is facing the death penalty for his criticism of government's human 
rights violations in the Darfur.

Matar Younis, aged 48, is among the most outspoken critics of the autocratic 
administration of President Omar al-Bashir.

He could face capital punishment or life imprisonment if found guilty of 
alleged trumped up charges of allegedly "waging war against the state" and 
"undermining the constitutional system."

Younis has also been charged with espionage.

Human rights advocate, Seif Magango, said authorities must drop all charges 
against Younis as well as release him immediately and unconditionally.

"It is absurd that this courageous man who dared to criticize the continuous 
human rights violations against the people in his region could face the death 
penalty," Magango said.

Magango alleged Sudanese authorities had continuously shown contempt for the 
human rights of the people of Darfur but Younis had been one of the few voices 
for victims in the region.

"Younis should not be criminalised for standing up for human rights," the 
activist said.

An estimated 300,000 civilians have been killed and almost 3 million displaced 
in the Darfur crisis.

The crisis began in 2003 when rebel groups fought the government on allegations 
of oppressing non-Arab populations.

(source: cajnewsafrica.com)








INDIA:

Bhai Balwant Singh Rajoana to Start Hunger Strike Tomorrow



Bhai Balwant Singh Rajoana, the death row convict in Beant "Singh" 
assassination case, has announced to go on hunger strike on July 16. He has 
announced to go on hunger strike in protest of the delay in decision by the 
Union Home Ministry on the mercy petition moved by SGPC in March-2012.

In a letter addressed to the Patiala Jail superintendent, Bhai Rajoana has 
informed him that he has been languishing in jails for the last 22 1/2 years 
and is being detained in the execution cell from the last 11 years. He added 
that the SGPC had moved a mercy petition before the Indian President (without 
his consent) in March-2012 seeking commutation of his death penalty to life 
imprisonment. "On March 28, 2012, the Indian President had stayed my execution 
and had forwarded my application to the Union Home Ministry" he informed.

Bhai Rajoana further said in the letter that the Union Home Ministry has not 
been delivering any decision on the petition despite a long period of 6 years 
and 4 months. "In such circumstances, I am forced to go on hunger strike till 
the Union Home Ministry doesn't conclude the petition or the SGPC doesn't 
withdraw this petition" he added.

(source: sikh24.com)








SRI LANKA:

EU says no to death penalty



The heads of diplomatic missions of the European Union (EU) countries would 
convey their displeasure to President Maithripala Sirisena on the move to 
execute death sentence, the Daily Mirror learned.

According to diplomatic sources, the heads of resident missions of the EU 
countries would do so in keeping with their common position to oppose the death 
penalty all over the world.

Sri Lankan courts hands down the death sentence. Nevertheless, no execution has 
taken place since 1976. As a result, those sentenced to death are virtually 
commuted life in prison.

President Sirisena announced recently that he would place his signature to hang 
death to two criminals found to be operating drug trafficking from their prison 
cells with the covert support of the Prison Authorities.

Currently, there are over 1,200 prisoners sentenced to death.

The Justice Ministry announced yesterday that it had submitted a list of 18 
such criminals found involved in drug trafficking rackets operating from prison 
cells.

Sri Lanka voted in favour of the moratorium on the death penalty at a UN forum 
in 2016, confirming its commitment taken during the 6th World Congress against 
the Death Penalty in June 2016.

"Wherever death penalty is implemented, we would urge that Government to stop 
it," the diplomatic source said,

"2 years ago, Sri Lanka voted in favour of a worldwide moratorium on death 
penalty. For example, if Sri Lanka were a European country, it could not even 
become a member of the council of the European Union.

"It is nothing new. The European Union and its member States are campaigning 
all over the world for the abolition of the death penalty".

Asked whether the EU diplomatic missions would take it up with the Government, 
the diplomatic source said: "We will do it in a short time."

(source: dailymirror.lk)




IRAN:

Kurdish political prisoner Zeinab Jalalian urges end to executions



Kurdish political prisoner Zeinab Jalalian called on the people of Iran as well 
as international human rights organizations to take action to abolish the death 
penalty in Iran.

Kurdish political prisoner Zeinab Jalalian who was herself on the death row for 
four years, has written an open letter addressed to death-row political 
prisoners Ramin Hossein Panahi, Zanyar and Loghman Moradi, Kamal Hassan 
Ramezan, etc., calling on the people of Iran and human rights organizations 
around the world to form a front against the death penalty. Text of the letter 
by Kurdish political prisoner Zeinab Jalalian follows:

Everyone together against the death penalty

Ramin, Zanyar, Loghman, Kamal and other political prisoners who have been 
sentenced to death,

Right now, as I am writing this letter to you, I am filled with pain and 
sorrow. Which one of the pains and sufferings of the people of our motherland 
made you rebel for which you have been sentenced to death?

You have also seen those porters who put their lives in their hands to earn a 
piece of bread to feed their loved ones. In all societies people receive a 
salary for what they do as their job. The porters, however, receive bullets 
from the Islamic Republic for what they toil for.

The mother who works at a brick kiln, with her young kids. Her share in this 
male-dominated society and under this misogynous government is only 
discrimination and more suffering.

The young woman who sets herself on fire before the tearful eyes of her mother 
to protest discrimination. Or the young child who looks for bread inside a 
trash bin.

Which one of these pains made you rebel? What are you paying the price for, 
being a Kurd or being a human?

My beloved nation of Iran and human rights organizations,

I am addressing you from behind the bars in a prison of this oppressive regime, 
as a political prisoner who was herself on the death row for many years.

I urge you to unite and form a front against the death penalty. Let us not 
allow the Islamic Republic to make the parents of these death-row political 
prisoners mournful for their own inhuman interests. Let us do whatever we can 
through whatever possible means to stand up to this medieval punishment. Let us 
stand up and resist against the death penalty because our silence would be a 
seal of approval on the death decrees handed down for Ramin, Zanyar, Loghman, 
Hedayat, Kamal, and other political prisoners who are condemned to death.

(source: ncr.iran.org)

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

Iran school official jailed over sexual abuse of boys



A supervisor at a Tehran boys' high school has been sentenced to 10 years in 
prison and 80 lashes for sexual abuse of minors, Iran's semi-official ISNA news 
agency said Sunday.

Reports of assaults against several dozen pupils at a private school in the 
west of the capital sparked outrage in the Iranian press when they emerged in 
late May.

The scandal even prompted the intervention of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah 
Ali Khamenei, who demanded the judiciary take the necessary measures to punish 
the culprit.

On Saturday a court found the school supervisor guilty of "sexual assault 
against minors", "incitement to debauchery" and "undermining decency", ISNA 
said.

Parents of some minors have said that the supervisor incited their children to 
carry out sexual acts after showing them pornographic videos on his mobile 
phone, local media reported.

But the court dismissed accusations of rape after submitting the minors to 
medical tests, it added.

Rape carries the death penalty in Iran.

In January, Iran carried out the death penalty on a man convicted of raping and 
killing a six-year-old child when he himself was a minor, in a case that shook 
the nation.

Setayesh Ghoreyshi was kidnapped in the town of Varamin, south of Tehran in 
April 2016 and was murdered by Amirhossein Pourjafar.

Pourjafar was 17-years-old at the time.

Gholamhossein Esmaili, the judiciary chief for Tehran said, "the family of the 
victim insisted on applying the penalty which took place this morning".

Leading human rights group Amnesty International had previously condemned the 
courts decision and urged Iran to reconsider.

"There is no question that this was a horrific crime and the perpetrator should 
be held accountable. Amnesty International supports the demands for justice 
voiced by Setayesh's bereaved family and the wider Afghan community in Iran, 
but executing a 17-year-old boy is not justice," said Magdalena Mughrabi, 
deputy Middle East and North Africa director at Amnesty International.

85 juvenile offenders were executed in Iran between 2005 and 2017. Amnesty 
International has identified 92 individuals currently on death row for crimes 
committed while they were children.

Iran claims it does not execute minors, however, minors can be sentenced to 
death, with the executions carried out when the convict reaches the legal age 
of 18.

(source: alaraby.co.uk)








JORDAN:

Death penalty for man who murdered neighbour 'for revenge'



The Court of Cassation has upheld a December Criminal Court ruling sentencing a 
38-year-old man to death after convicting him of murdering a man in Zarqa over 
old feuds in August 2014.

The court declared the defendant guilty of shooting and stabbing to death a 
32-year-old man who lived in his neighbourhood on August 28 and handed him the 
maximum punishment.

Court papers said that the defendant and the victim lived in the same 
neighbourhood in Zarqa and had constant problems and impending cases in courts 
against each other.

Almost 6 months before the incident, "the victim and the defendant had a major 
fight that ended with the victim slashing the defendant's face with a 
switchblade", the court papers said.

After that incident, the defendant plotted to "murder the victim to take 
revenge and he bought an unlicensed gun and monitored the victim's movements", 
the court added.

On the day of the incident, "the defendant walked towards the victim who was 
walking in the street and, without uttering a word, shot him several times".

"The defendant then drew a switchblade and stabbed the victim to make sure he 
was dead. He then yelled that he got his revenge and restored his honour," the 
court stated.

The defendant then fled and headed to a relative's home. After hearing about 
the incident, his relative contacted the police and informed them of the crime 
and of the defendant's whereabouts.

The defendant contested the Criminal Court's ruling, claiming that "he never 
plotted the murder and that he killed the victim in a moment of rage".

However, the higher court ruled that the Criminal Court followed the proper 
procedures when sentencing that the defendant deserves the verdict he received.

The Court of Cassation judges were Mohammad Ibrahim, Naji Zubi, Yassin 
Abdullat, Bassim Mubeidin and Majid Azab.

(source: The Jordan Times)








YEMEN:

Houthi court sentences 3 Yemenis from Saada to death



A Houthi militia court in Sanaa has handed down execution orders of three 
citizens from the province of Saada on charges of collaborating with the Yemeni 
legitimate government and coalition countries.

According to media sources affiliated with the Houthi militias, "the Criminal 
Court of First Instance controlled by the militias in Sanaa handed out the 
death penalty to Mohammed Yahya Mohammed Hajar, Abdulrahman Rabshan Hassan 
Amiri and Saleh Abbas Saleh Suleiman".

The same court issued death sentences on 8 other Yemeni citizens last April on 
charges belonging to ISIS and allegedly collaborating with the countries 
belonging to the coalition backing the legitimate Yemeni government.

The sentences come at a time when the Saada, currently a main stronghold of the 
Houthis, is witnessing wide falls among the ranks of the militias as many armed 
Yemeni forces advance on several fronts with the participation of the 
province's tribesmen in fighting alongside them against the militias.

Local and international human rights organizations accuse the Houthi militias 
of widespread abuses against their opponents, including the arbitrary use of 
the death penalty.

The militias, according to Yemeni activists and human rights organizations, 
have turned the judiciary into a tool to defeat its political opponents and 
issue dozens of death sentences against activists, journalists and citizens 
within their areas of control.

(source: alarabiya.net)