[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

May 26



IRAN:

Sufi Bus Driver on Death Row in Iran Denies Killing Policemen in Audio File 
Released by Lawyer



Mohammad Salas' Attorney Zeynab Taheri Summoned to Court to Face Charges

The lawyer of Tehran-based death row prisoner Mohammad Salas has released an 
audio file in which he denies driving the bus that killed 3 policemen in Tehran 
in February 2018.

Salas, a member of the Sufi Gonabadi Order in Iran known as the Gonabadi 
Dervishes also claimed there was a 2nd bus involved.

"I am innocent. There were 2 buses. I was not the driver of the bus that killed 
those people. I am not a killer. I cannot even kill an ant. My bus was not 
damaged and did not have any bullet marks. The police have fabricated all of 
this. I was not behind the wheel of the bus that killed those people. That was 
another bus," said the voice of the man identified as Salas by his lawyer.

Salas' attorney Zeynab Taheri posted the audio on her Twitter account on May 
22, 2018.

On April 24, Iran's Supreme Court upheld the death sentence against Salas, 51, 
for allegedly driving a public bus through a narrow street during clashes 
between security forces and the dervishes in Tehran on February 19, killing the 
policemen.

Taheri previously told CHRI that Salas was tortured while being interrogated 
and submitted a coerced confession as a result.

"If I had defended myself in court, they would have killed me," said the voice 
in the audio file. "I was too afraid to talk. They had beaten me for 2 hours in 
the police station but all I said was: 'It wasn't me.' They said 'beat him 
until he dies and we'll say he died during the clashes.' I tried to confuse the 
police so that they wouldn't kill me."

"They smashed my head in 17 places with batons," continues the voice. "My brain 
has been smashed. I get dizzy. I've lost my memory. I had memorized the poems 
of Rumi and Hafez but I don't remember anything."

2 days after posting the audio file on Twitter, Taheri tweeted that she had 
been summoned to the Culture and Media Court to face the charges of "disturbing 
public opinion" and "spreading falsehoods."

She has not provided further updates on her case.

On February 19 and 20, 2018, hundreds of dervishes were attacked in front of a 
police station in Tehran while protesting for the release of a fellow dervish 
who was being held there.

Websites run by the dervishes reported that 170 people were hospitalized during 
the clashes in February.

At least 1 dervish - Mohammad Raji, a former commander of the Islamic 
Revolutionary Guard Corps - died sometime between February 20 when he was 
detained at the protests and March 4 when his body was identified by a 
relative.

The Gonabadi Dervishes' interpretation of Islam differs from that of Iran's 
ruling Muslim Shia establishment. The Islamic Republic views any alternative 
belief system, especially those seeking converts, as a threat to the prevailing 
Shia establishment and has imprisoned members of the Sufi order and expelled 
them from university because of their religious beliefs.

(source: Iran Human Rights)








ENGLAND:

150 years ago today, a Fenian became the last person to be publicly executed in 
England----3 days after Irishman Michael Barrett was hanged outside Newgate 
Prison, the law was changed



Today, May 26th, 2018, marks the 150th anniversary of the last public execution 
in England, when Michael Barrett died in front of Newgate Prison, London. 
Crowds witnessed hangings, intended as a deterrent, until the Victorians began 
to question this Hogarthian concept.

Charles Dickens, their most popular novelist, insisted that such spectacles 
brutalised society. In 1840, he attended the execution of Francois Courvoisier, 
a valet who had murdered his master. Dickens recorded that the audience, mostly 
from the criminal underclass, showed no awe for death, but treated it as a 
rough sport. He rejected claims that press coverage created this "depraved" 
excitement. Horror of murder was replaced by a "horrible fascination", which 
seized even good and virtuous onlookers, like Thomas Hardy (16), who witnessed 
the last public hanging of a woman in Dorset in 1856. This inspired his 
greatest novel, Tess of the d'Urbervilles.

Dickens recalled the Mullingar execution of Bryan Seery for attempted murder of 
his landlord in 1846. Seery strongly protested his innocence and his memory 
survives in local folklore. Dickens worried about human error in cases of 
capital punishment, which would prove especially detrimental in Ireland, where 
the administration of law could be controversial.

The Fenian movement was motivated by the cataclysm of the Great Famine and 
ongoing, relentless emigration. It prepared its members for insurrection, 
hoping to establish an Irish Republic. But the March 1867 Rising failed, 
handicapped by the detention of suspects under the habeas corpus suspension. In 
America, the Fenian Brotherhood had split, as did its counterpart at home. 
Leaders still at large operated from England to evade arrest, although 
Fenianism was declining.

On September 11th, 1867, Col Thomas Kelly, who had directed the Rising, and 
Capt Timothy Deasy, both veterans of the American Civil War, were arrested in a 
police coup, which threatened the survival of their organisation. The 
Manchester Fenians planned a rescue. On September 18th, armed Irishmen stopped 
the prison van travelling to Belle Vue Jail. Inefficiency had prevented the 
local police from acting on a vital warning. An unarmed Sergeant Charles Brett 
was locked inside the Black Maria and refused to surrender his keys, while the 
Fenians tried to break it open. The police escort had fled. In the confusion, 
somebody shot at the lock, tragically killing Brett.

A policeman's death in an English city, where the Famine Irish clustered 
together, mistrusted as alien in customs and religion, caused outrage and 
panic. While Kelly and Deasy were liberated, dozens of Irishmen were rounded up 
on suspicion. 5 were tried and sentenced to death on dubious evidence. One of 
them received a pardon, for his involvement was most unlikely, while Edward 
O'Meagher Condon, a American citizen, had his sentence commuted in response to 
US intervention. On November 23rd, Michael O'Brien, Michael Larkin and William 
Philip Allen ("the Manchester Martyrs") were executed in front of the usual 
crowd. Neither had shot Brett, but contemporary law considered anybody involved 
in a fatal incident guilty by association. Irish people believed the executions 
unsafe and unjust. The Martyrs' speeches from the dock highlighted deep-seated 
grievances under British rule, which justified the rescue for nationalists. In 
British eyes they remained murderers, however.

The executions caused a shift in public opinion throughout the Irish diaspora. 
Constitutional nationalists, who had hitherto avoided Fenianism for having 
resulted in 2 failed invasions of Canada and hundreds of arrests, now joined 
funeral processions honouring Allen, Larkin and O'Brien in Ireland and abroad. 
Charles Bradlaugh, a leading radical, and other members of the Reform League, 
which agitated for universal (male) suffrage, highlighted how the British 
administration had failed to address Ireland's suppurating problems. The Fenian 
movement began to revive.

Col Ricard O'Sullivan Burke supported Col Kelly in reorganising the movement. 
When arrested and sent to the Clerkenwell House of Detention in London, he used 
his experience as an engineer in the American Civil War to instruct followers 
to pack a barrel with gunpowder to "spring" him after destroying the prison 
wall. O'Sullivan Burke remained unaware that this wall was less formidable than 
apparent from inside the prison. His small group struggled to raise the 
necessary funds and an informer alerted the police, which once again failed to 
respond intelligently. The fuse malfunctioned on December 12th, but the 
following day the barrel exploded with disastrous effect, killing 12 
working-class people and injuring a hundred in a district, which had been 
sympathetic to the Irish cause.

With hindsight, far too much gunpowder had been used. In the initial panic, 
nobody recognised this as a jail break with tragic consequences. An 
Irish-American terror campaign was expected and 65,000 Londoners were sworn in 
as special constables. Bazalgette, the famous engineer, assisted the police in 
searching for Fenians intent on reaching parliament or Buckingham Palace via 
the sewers. The Home Office planned portable electric lights, should the 
Fenians knock out the gas lamps.

Michael Barrett, a native of Fermanagh working in Glasgow, was eventually 
arrested on information received and tried at the Old Bailey alongside four 
minor London-Irish activists, including a woman. Barrett, a Fenian, had 
assisted Capt James Murphy in planning the jail break, but did not light the 
fuse. Murphy and the real perpetrator escaped to the US. Barrett was never 
satisfactorily identified by witnesses and behaved courageously throughout the 
trial. He was the only one convicted and sentenced to death. Although his 
execution was twice postponed to test potential alibis, ultimately the home 
secretary authorised his hanging at the hands of William Calcraft, the 
notorious executioner, who had also hanged the Manchester Martyrs and Martha 
Brown, Hardy's inspiration for Tess of the d'Urbervilles.

On May 29th, 1868, the Capital Punishment Amendment Act 1868 came into force 
and henceforth Calcraft officiated behind closed doors.

(source: Eva O Cathaoir is the author of Soldiers of Liberty. A study of 
Fenianism, 1858-1908, which will be published by Lilliput Press this 
month----Irish Times)








BOTSWANA----execution

Botswana resumes execution, hangs death row inmate



Botswana continued executions this year, with the hanging of another death row 
inmate in 2018. State media reported that Uyapo Poloko was hanged on 
Friday.Poloko was convicted of killing Indian businessman Vijeyadeyi 
Kandavaranam on January 25, 2010 in Francistown in northern Botswana.

Justice Modiri Letsididi sentenced Poloko to death for the murder, as well as 
12 years in jail for attempted murder charge and 10 years for robbery.

Letsididi, in passing sentence, said there were several aggravating factors in 
the case.

"The crimes were committed in a brutal and ruthless manner because he strangled 
the deceased. Strangulation by nature leads to a slow and painful death.

"In all the circumstances, I am unable to find any extenuating circumstances in 
the conviction for the offences that could reduce the accused's 
blameworthiness,' declared the judge.

Poloko failed in his bid to overturn his death sentence this year after another 
judge, Justice Bashi Moesi, dismissed the convict's application.

In February this year, Botswana hanged Joseph Tselayarona, after a court in 
2017 sentenced him to 20 years in prison for the murder of his girlfriend and 
handed him the death penalty for the murder of the son.

Deprose Muchena, of Amnesty International and the organisation's regional 
director for Southern Africa, said Tselayarona's execution was a step back for 
Botswana and showed the government's contempt for life.

"Joseph's execution is a step back for Botswana and it shows the government's 
contempt for life. The death penalty is an abhorrent punishment and should 
never be used in any circumstances. While many countries in the region are 
moving away from this cruel form of punishment, Botswana is regressing".

(source: journalducammeroun.com)








PHILIPPINES:

Sotto backs disapproval of death penalty reimposition in PH



Senate President Vicente Sotto III today backed opposition to death penalty 
reimposition in the country, as he maintained that such a proposal may face 
rough sailing in the Senate if not limited to high-level drug trafficking.

"The rationale being used for the death penalty not being a deterrent [to 
crimes] and all that, throughout these years, I have researched and found out 
that they are correct," Sotto said in a television interview today.

"That it's anti-poor, and [it can be solved through] prosecution - putting them 
in jail, bulukin mo sa bilangguan is better (letting them rot in jail is 
better) - it's correct," he added.

Sotto, however, singled out in this reason the drug traffickers who, he said, 
continue to plague the country despite being detained.

"They're already in jail and they can still operate. They can do everything 
they want because of money," he said.

"There is no drug lord who is poor; they can avail of all the best lawyers if 
they want," he also noted.

This way, Sotto added, the proposed reinstatement of capital punishment would 
have more chance in hurdlng the Upper Chamber.

"I'll have to be very candid about it. In the Senate, the only way it can be 
passed if is we limit it to high-level drug trafficking," he said.

"On high-level [drug] trafficking they have my vote, but other than that, I 
would probably not agree," Sotto said.

Sotto, however, clarified that he will allow debates for the proposal in 
Senate.

Senators are not inclined to pass a measure reinstating death penalty even as 
their counterpart House of Representatives already approved on final reading 
its version of the bill in March.

Several bills on death penalty have been filed since 2016 in the Senate, 
including those for heinous crimes such as rape, kidnapping, and that of 
illegal drugs, but are still pending in committee level.

(source: Manila Bulletin)








INDIA:

DCW chief urges LG to execute death penalty to minors' rapists



Delhi Commission for Women chief Swati Maliwal today met Lt Governor Anil 
Baijal and requested him to implement the recently passed ordinance to award 
death sentence to the rapists of children below 12 years of age.

She said the LG gave a positive response and stated that he will work towards 
ensuring the same.

Following 10 days of hunger strike by Maliwal in April, the Union cabinet 
approved steps to strengthen the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences 
(POCSO) Act and approved promulgation of the Criminal Law (Amendment) 
Ordinance, 2018, to ensure effective deterrence against rapes.

In her meeting with Baijal, Maliwal informed him that until police resources 
are increased and additional fast track courts are created, the ordinance shall 
only remain on paper.

She appealed to him to ensure that adequate resources are immediately created 
to enable swiftness and certainty of justice.

(source: tribuneindia.com)