[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

May 2



VANUATU:

Parents of 6-year-old murder victim call for death penalty



There are calls for capital punishment in Vanuatu after the brutal killing of a 
6-year-old girl 2 weeks ago.

Police are still investigating but a man has been charged over the incident and 
remanded in custody.

The case has stirred up debate about justice in the country.

Florence Iaurel's body was found by her uncle near a creek 30 minutes from the 
family home on the island of Tanna.

It is alleged the 6-year-old was abducted, raped and then brutally murdered.

Although the full coroner's report has not been released police confirmed 
Florence died from multiple injuries to her body.

The victim's family is now calling for capital punishment, abolished by Vanuatu 
in 1980, to be re-introduced for such crimes.

The chief executive of the Vanuatu National Council of Women, Leias Cullwick, 
fully supports the family saying serious deterrents for such crime are long 
over due.

"The country needs to have a death penalty because now the issue sort of happen 
recently with very innocent young children. It is just not acceptable. We have 
discussed these issues as well and being a Christian country it doesn't give 
you a right to go killing anybody so we need to have a deterrent in place to 
make sure that people's lives and their livelihoods is respected."

The Chairperson of the Vanuatu Christian Council Pastor Allen Nafuki says he 
will be calling a meeting to discuss the issue this week but says he personally 
feels there is no place for capital punishment in Vanuatu.

"Like in the Christian perspective and also Kastom perspective we are not 
allowed. We are saying no, no to capital punishment. So this will be picked up 
by the government but as far as I understand people are not in favour, even the 
chiefs of these islands and our custom leaders do not recognise that."

The chairperson of Vanuatu Women Against Crime and Corruption Jenny Ligo says 
Vanuatu needs stricter enforcement of existing laws.

"The parents their child is dead so they have a right to make that call and it 
is upon the decision makers now to do what they feel is better for Vanuatu. I 
think women of Vanuatu we would like our lawmakers to do the right thing. They 
have to make sure that our laws are enforced to make sure that Vanuatu is 
safe.".

A man has been charged over the killing and he is being held in police custody.

(source: radionz.co.nz)








THAILAND:

Death sentence to Pattani blast defendants



The Pattani provincial court sentenced 6 men to death and 4 others to 
imprisonment in relation to a noodle shop explosion in the southern border 
province 2 years ago.

The death sentence went to Ibroheng Yuso, Amree Lueyo, Santi Chantarasakul, 
Ayub Polee, Isma-ae Tuyong, and Nironig Niday.

Death penalty was commuted to life imprisonment for Aubdulloh Haye-uma, Ruslan 
Waehayee and Masan Salae for their useful information during trial. Hamit Jehma 
was sentenced to 40 years in prison.

Abdulkohar Awaeputeh, chair of the Muslim Attorney Centre Foundation in 
Pattani, said Tuesday that the foundation helped defend the ten men and the 
rulings read on Monday was based on Masan's confession and testimonies from 
interrogators and some suspects treated as witnesses.

The men were arrested in 2016 and 2017. Relatives of the convicted would appeal 
against the rulings.

The bombing happened at a noodle shop in a municipal night market of Muang 
district, Pattani, at about 7pm on Oct 24, 2016. It killed a 60-year-old woman 
and injured 21 others including 5 children.

The blast was caused by a home-made bomb in a steel box detonated remotely by a 
mobile phone.

The incident took place a day before the 12th anniversary of the so-called Tak 
Bai tragedy in which 85 Muslim men died after being arrested and packed into 
trucks by army and paramilitary forces sent to Narathiwat's Tak Bai district to 
break up an anti-government protest.

(source: Bangkok Post)








BAHRAIN:

UN rights expert calls for retrial of four men sentenced to death in Bahrain



UN human rights experts called for a retrial on Monday following flawed trial 
procedure and due process violations in the conviction of 4 men sentenced to 
death in the Bahraini High Military Court in December.

The 4 men, Mohamed AbdulHasan AlMutaghawi, Fadhel Sayed Radhi, Sayed Alawi 
Husain and Mubarak Adel Mubarak Mahanna, are civilians convicted on charges 
related to "participating in a terrorist cell and attempting to assassinate 
Bahrain's Defence Forces Commander-in-Chief." All 4 men were sentenced to death 
and their citizenship revoked. Before the trial, they were reportedly tortured, 
forcibly disappeared, confined alone and coerced to confess. Further, the men 
did not have legal representation until late in the trial proceedings and the 
court ignored their complaints of torture.

Al Khalifa amended the constitution last April giving jurisdiction to the 
military court over civilians. The human rights experts called on the King of 
Bahrain Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa and Bahraini authorities to retry all 4 men in 
accordance with international law and standards. They also urged Al Khalifa to 
rescind the amendment and "pardon all other death sentences and ensure that all 
these and other pending capital punishment cases are retried in full respect of 
fair trial and due process guarantees in compliance with the treaty obligations 
the country has undertaken under the ICCPR and CAT."

(source: jurist.org)

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

Bahraini opposition leader Sheikh Ali Salman could face death penalty



This statement was originally published on adhrb.org on 24 April 2018.M

Bahraini Public Prosecution Advocate General Osama al-Oufi announced on 24 
April 2018 that the High Criminal Court had adjourned the new trial of 
imprisoned opposition leader Sheikh Ali Salman and his 2 in absentia 
codefendants, Sheikh Hassan Ali Juma Sultan and Ali Mehdi Ali Al Aswad, until 
21 June. The court is expected to issue its verdict against the 3 leading 
members of the now-dissolved Al-Wefaq National Islamic Society - Bahrain's 
largest opposition group - on politically motivated charges of establishing 
"intelligence links with Qatar" to "undermine its political and economic status 
as well as its national interest and to overthrow the political system." The 
Public Prosecution Office has called on the High Criminal Court to hand down 
the "maximum penalty," which in this case could be the death sentence.

Sheikh Salman, the only defendant presently detained, was originally arrested 
in December 2014 and ultimately sentenced to 4 years in prison on charges of 
"inciting disobedience and hatred in the kingdom" for giving speeches in his 
capacity as Al-Wefaq's Secretary-General. In November 2017, as Sheikh Salman 
started to near the end of his sentence, the government abruptly brought a new 
set of charges against him and his fellow Al-Wefaq members. The charges appear 
to stem from an open and well-documented mediation attempt originally 
encouraged by the United States (US) during the 2011 unrest, which resulted in 
preliminary communications between Qatar - as a potential mediator - and the 
Bahraini government and opposition. Though these interactions have been known 
since 2011, the accusations were only raised once Bahrain entered into a 
diplomatic dispute between Qatar and several other countries in the region in 
June 2017. The US State Department's recent April 2018 report on Bahrain's 
human rights situation for 2017 expressed concern over the continued 
prosecution of Sheikh Salman and reiterated the United Nations (UN) Working 
Group on Arbitrary Detention's opinion that the opposition leader is 
arbitrarily detained.

The groundless new trial of Sheikh Salman and his codefendants comes as part of 
the government's wider assault on independent political and civil society ahead 
of the 2018 elections for Bahrain's lower house of parliament. In 2017, the 
government forcibly dissolved Wa'ad, the largest secular leftist society, and 
indefinitely suspended Bahrain's only independent newspaper, Al-Wasat. 
Additionally, in 2018 Bahrain's Court of Cassation ruled to uphold the 
arbitrary dissolution of Al-Wefaq, and the authorities have continued to harass 
members of the smaller al-Wahdawi society, the only opposition group that has 
yet to be formally shut down by the government. These actions have all but 
closed political space in Bahrain, leaving virtually no opposition remaining as 
the election approaches.

The Bahraini government has violated Sheikh Ali Salman's rights to liberty, 
fair trial, free expression, and free association as defined in articles 2, 9, 
10 11, 18, 19, 20 and 21 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) 
and articles 9, 14, 18, 19, 21, 22, 25, and 26 of the International Covenant on 
Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). The Government of Bahrain must immediately 
release Sheikh Ali Salman, as well as all other prisoners of conscience, and 
reinstate all arbitrarily dissolved political societies, such as Al-Wefaq and 
Wa'ad.

(source: ifex.org)








IRAN----execution

Prisoner hanged in Saveh Prison



A prisoner was executed at Saveh Prison on murder and rape charges.

According to Iranian Students' News Agency (ISNA), on the morning of Monday, 
April 30, a prisoner was executed at Saveh Prison on the charge of raping and 
murdering a 5-year-old child.

The prisoner, identified as Reza Salehi, 34 years old at the time of the 
execution, was convicted of raping and then murdering a 5-year-old child.

Qasem Abdollahi, the head of the Ministry of Justice of Markazi Province said, 
"Reza Salehi was arrested a few whiles after the investigation started. He 
confessed to visiting the child's mother especially at the night of the murder, 
but he only confessed to hitting the child, not the rape. Nevertheless, based 
on the evidence, the judges realized that the child was abused."

Abdollahi added, "after the Criminal Court issued the sentence in Saveh, it was 
objected to, but the Supreme Court approved the sentence and, afterward, the 
Head of the Judiciary was asked for permission (Estijaz) to carry out death 
penalty which was granted on April 28."

He explained, "In case of Estijaz, the execution will be carried out even if 
the next of kin forgive the defendant or ask for blood money. In this case, the 
next of kin asked for blood money, and the defendant was hanged at Saveh Prison 
on the charge of raping Tabassom Bodaqi, a 5-year-old child." Therefore, Reza 
Salehi was executed on the rape charge, not the murder charge.

(source: Iran Human Rights)

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

Imminent execution of Kurdish man must be halted



Ahead of the scheduled execution on Thursday of Ramin Hossein Panahi, a 
22-year-old man from Iran's Kurdish minority who was sentenced to death in 
January for "taking up arms against the state" after a grossly unfair trial and 
amid serious torture allegations, Philip Luther, Amnesty International???s 
Research and Advocacy Director for the Middle East and North Africa, said:

"Ramin Hossein Panahi's case has been a breathtaking miscarriage of justice 
from start to finish. After appearing at his trial reportedly bearing torture 
marks on his body he was convicted in less than an hour.

"During the investigation period he was denied access to both his lawyer and 
his family, as well as to any details of the evidence against him. In a 
complete mockery of the judicial process, intelligence officials also 
repeatedly pressured him to make a televised 'confession' in exchange for the 
quashing of his death sentence. His refusal to submit to this pressure has seen 
him languishing in solitary confinement.

"We urge the Iranian authorities not to compound this shocking catalogue of 
human rights violations by proceeding with what is the ultimate and 
irreversible denial of human rights. Ramin Hossein Panahi's death sentence must 
be quashed now before it's too late."

Background

Ramin Hossein Panahi was sentenced to death in January 2018 for "taking up arms 
against the state" (baqi). His conviction was based upon his membership of the 
armed Kurdish opposition group Komala, but no evidence linking him to 
activities involving intentional killing - the required threshold under 
international law for imposing the death penalty - was presented at his trial.

Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all cases without exception 
regardless of the nature of the crime, the characteristics of the offender, or 
the method used by the state to kill the prisoner. The death penalty is a 
violation of the right to life and the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading 
punishment.

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

Urgent Action



IRANIAN KURD AT IMMINENT RISK OF EXECUTION

Iranian Kurdish prisoner Ramin Hossein Panahi is scheduled to be executed on 3 
May. He was transferred to solitary confinement on 1 May in preparation for his 
execution. If the execution takes place it would be against international law.

Write a letter, send an email, call, fax or tweet:

* Halt the execution of Ramin Hossein Panahi immediately;

* Ensure that his death sentence and conviction are quashed and that he is 
released unless there is sufficient evidence not obtained through torture or 
other ill-treatment to charge him with a recognizable criminal offence and 
grant him a fair trial, without recourse to the death penalty;

* Order a prompt, independent and impartial investigation into his enforced 
disappearance, prolonged solitary confinement and allegations of torture and 
other ill-treatment, bringing to justice anyone found responsible in fair 
trials;

* Immediately establish an official moratorium on executions with a view to 
abolishing the death penalty

Friendly reminder: If you send an email, please create your own instead of 
forwarding this one!

Contact these 2 officials by 22 May, 2018:

High Council for Human Rights

Mohammad Javad Larijani

Esfaniar Boulevard, Niayesh Intersection

Vali Asr Avenue, Tehran, Iran

Salutation: Your Excellency

H.E. Gholamali Khoshroo,

Permanent Representative of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations

622 Third Avenue, 34th Floor

New York, NY 10017

Phone: (212) 687-2020 ---- Fax: (212) 867-7086

Email: iran at un.int

Salutation: Your Excellency

(source for both: Amnesty International)

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

Political Prisoner in Imminent Danger of Execution



Ramin Hossein Panahi, a political prisoner, was transferred to the solitary 
confinement of Sanandaj Central Prison and, according to his brother, he will 
be executed on Thursday.

According to a close source, on the morning of Tuesday, May 1, Ramin Hossein 
Panahi was transferred to the solitary confinement of Sanandaj Central Prison.

Iran Human Rights (IHR) calls for immediate action by the international 
community in order to stop this execution.

Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, the spokesperson for IHR, said, "Ramin Hossein Panahi 
has been sentenced to death by the Revolutionary Court through an unfair trial. 
His death penalty is not only inhumane but also illegal due to lack of a fair 
trial, and it should be stopped immediately."

Hossein Ahmadi Niaz, the prisoner's lawyer, wrote to Iran Human Rights, "I went 
to the secretariat of the Supreme Court today and unfortunately found out that 
the death sentence was approved. The case is sent to Branch 1 of the 
Revolutionary Court of Sanandaj. Anvar Hossein Panahi, Ramin's older brother, 
was worried about him and said that he was sent to the solitary confinement and 
he would probably be executed on Thursday. However, the court's decision has 
not been announced to me yet; thus I will go to Sanandaj Central Prison to make 
an objection and see if what I heard is true. However, the only important issue 
is that Ramin Hossein Panahi's life is in danger. Their actions are against the 
law. We are trying our best for Ramin."

Amjad Hossein Panahi, Ramin's Brother, told IHR, "Ramin has been transferred to 
the solitary confinement of Sanandaj Central Prison, and he is scheduled to be 
executed on Thursday."

Ramin Hossein Panahi was shot and arrested by the agents of the Revolutionary 
Guard on Friday, June 23, 2017. The agents claimed that he was armed, but 
Ramin's family claim otherwise.

This prisoner was transferred to Sanandaj central Prison on January 9, 2018, 
after spending 200 days in the custody of the Intelligence Organization of Army 
of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution and the Ministry of Intelligence.

(source: Iran Human Rights)