[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

November 7




MALAYSIA:

Malaysia court to resume Kim Jong Nam murder trial on Jan. 7


A Malaysian court on Wednesday set Jan. 7 for 2 Southeast Asian women charged 
with murdering the North Korean leader's half brother to begin their defense, 
as their lawyers complained that some witnesses were unreachable.

A High Court judge in August found there was enough evidence to infer that 
Indonesian Siti Aisyah and Vietnamese Doan Thi Huong, along with four missing 
North Korean suspects, had engaged in a "well-planned conspiracy" to kill Kim 
Jong Nam.

The women appeared somber but calm during Wednesday's hearing. The trial had 
been due to resume Nov. 1 but was postponed after a defense lawyer fell ill.

Aisyah's lawyers made a new application to the court to compel prosecutors to 
provide them with statements that eight witnesses had given to police earlier.

Her lawyer, Kulaselvi Sandrasegaram, said they were informed that one of the 
witnesses, the man who chauffeured Kim to the airport, had died while 2 
Indonesian women who were Aishah's roommates were believed to have returned to 
their homeland. She said they have only managed to interview 2 of the witnesses 
offered by prosecutors, while 2 others didn't turn up for their appointments 
and couldn't be contacted.

The witness statements taken by police are important in "the interest of 
justice" and to ensure that what they say to defense lawyers is consistent with 
what they told police, Sandrasegaram told reporters later.

Prosecutor Iskandar Ahmad said the police interviews are privileged statements 
and shouldn't be made public.

Judge Azmi Ariffin said the court will make a decision on the defense 
application on Dec. 14. He also set 10 days from Jan. 7 through February for 
Aishah's defense and 14 days from March 11 through April for Huong.

The 2 are accused of smearing VX nerve agent on Kim's face in an airport 
terminal in Kuala Lumpur on Feb. 13, 2017. They have said they thought they 
were taking part in a prank for a TV show. They are the only suspects in 
custody. The four North Korean suspects fled the country the same morning Kim 
was killed.

Lawyers for Aisyah, 25, and Huong, 29, have told the judge they will testify 
under oath in their defense.

They have said their clients were pawns in a political assassination with clear 
links to the North Korean Embassy in Kuala Lumpur, and that the prosecution 
failed to show the women had any intention to kill. Their intent is key to 
concluding they are guilty of murder.

Malaysian officials have never officially accused North Korea and have made it 
clear they don't want the trial politicized.

Kim was the eldest son in the current generation of North Korea's ruling 
family. He had been living abroad for years but could have been seen as a 
threat to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's rule.

Murder carries a mandatory sentence of hanging, but Malaysia's government plans 
to abolish the death penalty and has put all executions on hold until the laws 
are changed.

(source: Associated Press)



EGYPT:

Egypt court upholds death sentence against toddler rapist in final ruling

The 35-year-old man was convicted of kidnapping and raping the toddler in a 
village in the Nile Delta governorate of Daqahliya in March 2017


A high Egyptian appeals court has upheld a death sentence against a man for 
raping a 20-month-old girl last year, a judicial source said, in a final ruling 
in a case that provoked widespread public outcry.

The 35-year-old man was convicted of kidnapping and raping the toddler in a 
village in the Nile Delta governorate of Daqahliya. The man was arrested on the 
same day of the incident, which took place in March 2017.

The defendant was sentenced to death by a lower criminal court on 1 June after 
the Grand Mufti, the country's top religious authority, approved the court 
recommendation of the death penalty in non-binding but legally required 
opinion.

The Court of Cassation on Wednesday rejected the defendant's appeal against the 
initial sentence, upholding the death penalty. The verdict is final and cannot 
be appealed.

Investigations showed that the defendant, the victim's neighbour, kidnapped the 
child as she was playing in front of her house in a village in the town of 
Belqas in Daqahlia, taking her to an abandoned area where he raped her, causing 
heavy bleeding.

The defendant's father was killed by the girl's uncle in June 2017, the same 
month of the initial court ruling.

(source: ahram.org.eg)







IRAN:

2 More People Receive Death Penalty For 'Economic Crimes'


2 men accused of “conducting organized and systematic disruption” in Iran's 
banking network have been condemned to death and others sentenced to prison 
terms, judicial sources were quoted as saying on Tuesday, November 6.

Dariush Ebrahimian Bilandi and Youniss Bahaoddini are also charged in the 
southern Fars Province with pocketing more than 150 trillion rials (roughly $36 
million) through their orchestrated plan against the banking and economic 
network of the country.

The verdict was issued by the "Special Court for Combatting Economic 
Corruption", Judiciary’s Mizan news website reported.

Based on the same verdict, Mohammad Bahaoddini and Davood Katebi have also been 
sentenced to 10 and 7 years imprisonment respectively, while Iman Pahlavani, 
Morteza Katebinejad and Reza Nader were sentenced to 5-year prison terms.

As Iran's economy is facing serious crisis this year, the Supreme Leader 
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called in June to “confront those who disrupt economic 
security” and called for the establishment of "special courts" to deal quickly 
with "financial crimes".

Based on Khamenei's edict, the verdicts of the so-called Special Courts, save 
death penalty sentences, are final and legally binding.

Several legal analysts and lawyers have since insisted that eliminating the 
right to appeal is explicitly against the constitution.

Nevertheless, an unknown number of people involved in buying and selling gold 
coins and forex have been sentenced to death by the newly formed courts, so 
far.

Already, the death verdicts against 2 of them, Wahid Mazloomin and Mohammad 
Esma'eil Qassemi have been upheld by the Islamic Republic's Supreme Court.

Many have argued that security approach in combatting "economic corruption" may 
be effective in the short term, but it will lose its impact in the long run.

Iran’s economy had been struggling even before President Donald Trump's 
decision in May to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal and reimpose sanctions. 
Most notably, the value of Iran’s national currency, the rial, has plummeted 
against the dollar.

(source: radiofarda.com)





SAUDI ARABIA:

Hearing for female Saudi activist facing possible death penalty postponed 
without explanation


An October 28 hearing for Israa al-Ghomgham, reportedly the 1st female in Saudi 
Arabia to face a possible death penalty for non-violent activism, was canceled 
without explanation and rescheduled for late November.

While similar hearings are often postponed, rights groups called the handling 
of al-Ghomgham's case "unusual" and said it could be due to increased scrutiny 
of the kingdom after the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Saudi Arabia was also due to have its human rights situation reviewed at the 
U.N. Human Rights Council on Monday.

"That happens a lot (at the Specialized Criminal Court), where they ... don't 
have a brief prepared, and they'll ask the judge for a postponement," Adam 
Coogle, a Middle East researcher at Human Rights Watch, told CBS News. "I kind 
of was assuming that that happened, but then the activists were like, 'No it 
was actually strange, because the court just cancelled it and postponed it.'"

Usually, prosecutors would appear in court to request a postponement.

Al-Ghomgham and four other activists are being tried before Saudi Arabia's 
Specialized Criminal Court, which was created in 2008 to hear cases against 
people accused of terrorism and has a history of unfair trials resulting in 
death sentences.

Al-Ghomgham was due to appear in the court on October 28, but neither she nor 
the other activists were transported from their detention facility in the city 
of Dammam to Riyadh, where the Specialized Criminal Court sits, rights groups 
said. They said family members, some of whom had traveled to Riyadh, were 
contacted by the court and told the hearing was canceled.

"Why people, they don't know what's happening. ... These questions (are) 
raising a really big question mark about the judicial system," said Ali 
Adubisi, who runs the European-Saudi Organisation for Human Rights.

Neither Saudi Arabia's embassy in Washington, D.C., nor the Saudi Ministry of 
Interior in Riyadh replied to CBS News' requests for comment.

Al-Ghomgham's next hearing is scheduled for November 21.

(source: CBS News)