[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

October 2



SOUTH AFRICA:

Death penalty unfair to poor blacks



When news of the Dros rape emerged, people started commenting on social 
networks. Most white folks assumed the perpetrator was a black man, hence they 
were furious and demanded the death penalty.

When, however, it was reported that the alleged perpetrator was in fact white, 
the tone of their rage suddenly changed. All of a sudden, people who were 
hopping mad, wanting the rapist hanged, started recommending psychological 
evaluation.

It didn't end there, Afrikaans newspapers started telling all and sundry that 
the fiancée of the alleged perpetrator is pregnant.

I honestly didn't know what to make of that statement. Many black criminals 
have had their kids born while incarcerated and that has never been an issue.

This is exactly why I'm opposed to the death penalty. My feeling is that poor 
blacks, who are poorly represented anyway, will be killed like flies. Let's 
first fix the justice system so that no one is above the law.

Politicians have brought SA to its knees through unprecedented levels of 
looting and no one is behind bars. Until such things stop happening, we can't 
talk about the death penalty.

The advent of DNA has showed that the US government has executed innocent 
people over the years. Sadly, most of them are African-Americans. George Junius 
Stinney Jr was only 14 when he was wrongly executed in 1944. He was black.

Until rich black and white South Africans are made to pay for their sins like 
everyone else, the death penalty is not required.

Richardson Mzaidume

Pimville

(source: Letter to the Editor, sowetanlive.co.za)

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

IFP MP Narend Singh backs death penalty after relatives murder



IFP MP Narend Singh, the brother-in-law of Musgrave Gardens widow Shakila 
Singh, said he believed it was about time the country held conversations about 
imposing sentences harsher than life imprisonment such as the death penalty, 
for people convicted of serious crimes such as murder and rape.

Singh said the IFP expected Parliament to include the issue for debate at the 
next sitting after the party launched a motion calling for public engagement 
similar to ongoing conversations about the issue of the expropriation of land 
without compensation.

Singh said the recent crime statistics were an indication that people needed to 
start having conversations about alternative punishments, including 
re-introducing the death penalty.

His sister-in-law, Shakila Singh, 57, was found dead in her bedroom with duct 
tape binding her face and hands, and her feet bound by plastic cable ties, at 
her home on February 29, 2016. She had been suffocated.

Her long-time domestic worker, Nonjabulo Mteki, 33, was convicted of robbery. 
The killers, Jumar Abdullar, 39, and Kennedy Amon Ngongi, 28, both from 
Tanzania, were convicted of murder and robbery with aggravating circumstances.

Singh said the dead woman's family had got justice, albeit delayed, but they 
were concerned that a sentence of life imprisonment no longer sent out a strong 
message to criminals.

The State alleged that Kenny Osika Oriki, from Nigeria, who ran a foreign 
exchange agency, had heard through Mteki that Singh owned jewellery and foreign 
currency. They planned to rob her andMteki would play along during the robbery.

Mteki was sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment for her part in the robbery.

Ngongi and Abdullar were sentenced to life imprisonment.

Singh said the alarming level of crime showed that although the courts imposed 
the hash sentence of life imprisonment, criminals continued to commit crime.

Women and children were still being raped and murder was escalating, he said.

"Serious conversations about the punishment of criminals should take place. 
Criminals do not fear the law because they know that they will qualify for 
parole," he said.

Singh said hasher punishment for refugees who entered the country and committed 
serious crimes should also form part of discussions.

(source: iol.co.za)








NIGERIA:

Nigeria at 58 - Lawyers Renew Call for Abolishing Capital Punishments



Almost every day in Nigeria, someone is sentenced to death. Many are wrongly 
condemned or imprisoned due to poor legal services.

It is estimated that about 2,359 condemned prisoners are on death row across 
the country while about 650 Nigerians are on death row or facing capital 
charges in China, Pakistan, Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietman, most of them for 
drug offences.

The death penalty, according to experts, has been usually justified on two 
penological grounds, namely, that of elimination and deterrence.

The experts, made up of professors of Law who gathered recently at a round 
table on revisiting death penalty in Nigeria, organised by the Nigerian 
Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (NIALS), said African countries have been 
pursuing the easiest course, which is the elimination of the offenders from 
society.

Nonetheless, they mentioned that the pressing reality of the African situation 
must be posed squarely against the strong demands for the observance of human 
rights and the development of humane penal policies, for which pre-colonial 
Africa was well known.

As regards deterrence, the experts said empirical studies on the offences of 
murder, armed robbery and those of drugs and narcotics have demonstrated 
clearly that no efficacy could be shown for the operation of the death penalty 
for those offences.

According to Chino Obiagwu, SAN, national coordinator, Legal Defence & 
Assistance Project (LEDAP), the dangers of continued use of the death penalty 
are so grim to be ignored or avoided for political or religious reasons.

Death sentence, in his opinion, is dangerous to the society. "It wrongly 
teaches that revenge is good justice, when indeed, it promotes sinister circle 
of violence and bloodshed. There is always a high likelihood that innocent 
persons may be sentenced and executed, as indeed many who had been executed in 
the past had pleaded innocence till they were done with the hangman or the 
firing squad.

"Death sentence does not deter criminality. Severity or harshness of the 
punishment is not a solution to crime. What deters potential criminals is not 
the extreme sentence for the offence, but the possibility of being caught and 
prosecuted. This is demonstrated in many states in the South-east and 
South-south regions that introduced death sentence as punishment for the 
offence of kidnapping. Despite this severe punishment, the offence was still on 
the rise, with only a handful of the incidents were the culprits arrested and 
prosecuted," he said.

Obiagwu also said "When the government kills, it motivates citizens to belittle 
life and to wrongly pursue revenge as justice."

Some of the offences that attract the death penalty under the law presently 
are: murder, treason, treachery, giving false evidence leading to the 
conviction and execution of an innocent person, armed robbery, trial by ordeal 
resulting in death; adultery for a Muslim and allied offences such as incest or 
rape and aiding the enemy and cowardly behaviour by members of the Armed 
Forces.

Those who support the retention of the capital punishment said that evil 
deserves castigation and wrong doing deserves reparation by adequate 
deprivation and punishment for the wrongdoer.

They said a convicted murderer executed for his crime is at least silenced 
forever and his execution would have reduced the number of would be murderers 
on the streets. Once executed, he will certainly not be in a position to kill 
again.

The constitution, according to them, even as reportedly amended, sanctions the 
existence of the death penalty in our criminal justice system.

The retentionists say that the statistics being churned out to show the death 
penalty not serving as a general deterrence are not wholly accurate insofar as 
they do not address the other variables that presently exist. For instance, 
socio-economic conditions of the present may be the real explanation of why 
crimes of violence, e.g. robbery have been on the increase despite the 
existence of the death penalty for robbery since the early 1970s.

Abolition, according to them could encourage self-help. "The knowledge that a 
wanton murderer would get only a life sentence with the possibility of state 
pardon may compel an overzealous police officer or the victim of such an 
offence to seek revenge outside the law," they said.

Were the National Assembly to abolish the death penalty by merely legislating 
it away, the kind of autonomy enjoyed by the federating units in the area of 
legislation will be further withered away. In particular, this may lead to 
controversy with the majority of the states in the North seeing it as "killing" 
the Shari'a through the backdoor- i.e. doing away with the Islamic punishments 
of murder and adultery.

International trend on the imposition of death penalty reveals that currently, 
of the 192 countries, more than 140 have abolished the death penalty.

In Africa, about 18 countries still retain the death penalty and they include 
Botswana, Cameroon, Chad, Comoros, DR Congo, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, 
Ethiopia, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan, 
Uganda and Zimbabwe.

A team of lawyers under the aegis of Brotherhood International Lawyers 
Fellowship with headquarters in Calabar said sections 175 and 212 of the 1999 
Constitution as amended confer the power called Prerogative of Mercy on the 
president and the governors, whereby they grant pardon to a condemned person or 
reduce or commute the death sentence to terms of imprisonment.

According to them, by these sections of the constitution, they can help to 
decongest the prisons populated by death row prison inmates in the country if 
they regularly exercised the power positively. The "President of Nigeria and 
state governors should help exercise this power of Prerogative of Mercy to give 
hope to prisoners who are running their terms. There are instances where 
prisoners are wrongly condemned or imprisoned. These are those we must look 
again at their plight. Prerogative of Mercy can help them regain their freedom 
and self esteem," they said.

Barrister Chris Amadike, a Port Harcourt-based lawyer in his paper titled 
'Capital Punishment and the Divine Prerogative of Mercy', said no person has 
the right to take the life of another. He quoted Section 33(1) of the 1999 
Constitution, to support his assertion.

Another senior lawyer, Justice Ahiakwo Osai, insisted that capital punishment 
was outdated, maintaining that Nigeria should emulate modern societies to 
reform its laws.

(source: allafrica.com)








INDONESIA:

Alleged French 'professional drug courier' arrested in Lombok, facing charges 
carrying death penalty



A Frenchman who Indonesian police are referring to as a "professional drug 
courier" has been slapped with drug trafficking charges carrying the death 
penalty.

French national Dorfin Felix was arrested upon arrival, allegedly carrying 
IDR3.2 billion (US$212,597) worth of drugs, at Lombok's Zainuddin Abdul Madjid 
International Airport, West Nusa Tenggara (NTB) police investigators told the 
press on Monday.

NTB Regional Police Dir. Comr. Yus Fadillah says that the 35-year-old Frenchman 
has previously entered Indonesia a number of times.

"We started by inspecting his passport document. This was to trace his trail, 
showing he came to Indonesia four times," Yus said, as quoted by Antara News.

"Previously, he came to Indonesia several times by entering Bali, and Lombok 
once before this," Yus explained.

Felix, however, claims his prior trips to Indonesia were just for vacation and 
that this is his 1st time carrying drugs.

"Even though he has only admitted to bringing drugs once, we are still clearly 
looking into the information," Yus said.

For this job, in which he was busted, Dorfin told investigators he would have 
received EUR5,000.

"He claimed that he was asked to come to Lombok and immediately hand over the 
goods at a hotel in Senggigi. Who should receive it, we are still 
investigating. What is clear, is that the person is a local, Indonesian," Yus 
said.

Police are still investigating the operation and network, but Felix has already 
been detained and named as a suspect, according to Yus.

Felix is subject to 3 separate counts in violation of Law no. 35/2009 
concerning Narcotics: Article 113, paragraph 2; Article 114 paragraph 2; and 
Article 112, paragraph 2.

"Because it's import, we consider Article 113, paragraph 2," Yus said, citing 
the most severe of the 3 charges, which is drug trafficking.

2 of the charges do carry a maximum penalty of death, but it's not yet clear 
whether prosecutors will seek capital punishment.

>From his arrest at Lombok's airport, officers secured drugs with an overall 
weight of 3,194.57 grams from Felix's suitcase, in the form of crystal 
fragments, powders, and pills.

The drugs were later revealed to be MDMA, ketamine, a yellow powdered 
amphetamine, and ecstasy.

Before police detained him, the Frenchman apparently tried to flee through the 
airport exit and ditch his luggage when Customs wanted to more thoroughly 
inspect his bags.

But he was secured by airport security before he could get away, and even after 
the Frenchman was detained, he allegedly attempted suicide.

"He said, 'Better I die now than shot if sentenced to death.’ He even had the 
chance to bang his head on the examination table at the Mataram Customs Office. 
He was classified as reckless, so we have guarded him tightly," Mataram Customs 
daily acting director I Wayan Tapamuka said on Monday, as quoted by the Tribun 
network.

(source: coconuts.co)



MALAYSIA:

Jobless man gets death penalty for killing girlfriend 2 years ago



The High Court sentenced N. Sanderasegaran, 30, to death today for killing his 
17-year-old girlfriend at a house in 2016.

In delivering the verdict, Justice Datuk Che Mohd Ruzima Ghazali said the 
defence had failed to raise reasonable doubt against the prosecution.

"The accused in his defence had claimed he and the victim were robbed and the 
robbers had beaten her to death.

"This raise doubt as robbers would escape at the 1st given opportunity after 
committing a crime rather than sticking around the scene," he said.

Che Mohd Ruzima also pointed out that only 2 sets of DNA -- of the accused and 
the victim -- were present at the scene.

"There were no signs of a 3rd DNA at the scene," he said.

He noted that the victim still had jewellery on her when a post-mortem 
examination was conducted, disproving the robbery claim.

"It makes no sense for robbery but the jewellery was not taken.

"If the robbers escaped empty-handed, what was the purpose of robbing in the 
first place?" he asked.

"Hence, the court finds the defence failed to raise doubt against the 
prosecution's case and the accused is hereby convicted of the crime," he added.

Sanderasegaran's 3 relatives present in court broke out in tears as the judge 
pronounced the death sentence.

The unemployed Sanderasegaran was charged with killing S. Durga Devi at house 
number 4, Kampung Batu Besi in Ladang Sengat, Simpang Pulai between 11pm on 
February 27 and 6am on February 28, 2016.

Deputy public prosecutors How May Ling and Irwan Suainbon prosecuted while 
Ranjit Singh Sandhu appeared for defence.

The prosecution called a total of 12 witnesses while the defence called 3 
witnesses.

Ranjit said he would appeal against the decision.

Durga's aunt G. Tamal Sellvi, 37, was also present for the sentencing.

"A life for a life," she said.

She added that the family had been praying daily that the accused be given a 
sentence befitting his crime.

(source: malaymail.com)








PAKISTAN:

GB court upholds capital punishment to murderer



A division bench comprising Justice Malak Haq Nawaz and Justice Ali Baig 
Tuesday upheld the verdict of lower court in Mustaqeem murder case and 
maintained capital punishment and a fine of Rs 0.5 million on accused Jawahir 
Ali.

The bench conducted 59 hearings and announced verdict in 7 cases.

The court upheld capital punishment to an accused in murder case of Mustaqeem 
and directed that the accused will pay a compensation amount of 0.5 million 
rupees to the heirs of the diseased.

The 11 pages verdict issued with signs of Malak Haq Nawaz said the accused will 
face the capitalpunishment and pay Rs 0.5 million as compensation to the heirs 
of the diseased.

(source: urdupoint.com)

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

2 Lyari gangsters get death for murdering citizen



An anti-terrorism court on Monday handed down capital punishment to 2 men 
associated with Lyari gang war for killing a law-abiding citizen in 2011.

The court in its verdict observed that the prosecution had proved that Shah 
Nawaz and Rafique had killed Aadil in August 2011 in Preedy police station's 
area. The court further said that 18 prosecution witnesses and 2 eyewitnesses 
were heard and they confirmed the 2 were involved in the murder.

The court also imposed a fine of Rs200,000 on each convict and ordered them to 
pay the amounts to the victim's family in compensation. Meanwhile, additional 
district and sessions judge (East) Naveed Ahmed Soomro announced the death 
sentence against a man, Sohail Talib, in a murder case. A companion of the 
convict, Haroon Rasheed was awarded life term.

The court imposed a fine of Rs500,000 on each convict. The 2 had injured a 
young man, Abdullah, and his sister Aseya by opening firing upon them in the 
SITE police station area in 2013. The attack was linked to a dispute over 
possession of an apartment. Abdullah later died from his injuries.

(source: thenews.com.pk)

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

2 get death, life terms in separate murder cases



A court awarded death sentence to an accused for his involvement in a murder 
case in Shahpur. The judgment was announced by Additional Sessions Judge Javed 
Iqbal Ranjha.

The prosecution told the court that accused Qadir Bakhsh had gunned down 
Muhammad Inayat in connivance with his accomplices Muhammad Sher, Muhammad 
Khan, Mumtaz and Sikandar over a dispute in 2017.

The local police registered a case against the accused and presented the 
challan before the court. After hearing the arguments, the judge handed down 
the death sentence to Qadir Bakhsh.

However, the judge acquitted the 4 other accused on the benefit of doubt.

The court also imposed a fine of Rs0.3 million on the convict. The judge 
ordered that the convict will have to undergo an additional 5 months 
imprisonment if he fails to pay the penalty.

In another judgment, Additional Sessions Judge Chaudhry Qamaruz Zaman awarded 
life sentence to a man for killing a person in Bhalwal.

(source: tribune.com.pk)








IRAN----execution of juvenile female

Despite Pleas, Iran Executes Female Juvenile Offender----Zeinab Sekaanvand was 
convicted of killing her abusive husband, undated



1 day after a warning by Amnesty International, Iran has executed Zeinab 
Sekaanvand, a woman who was convicted for the murder of her husband at age 17.

Zeinab had married her husband at age 15, but Amnesty urged Iran not to carry 
out the death sentence also because "she was subjected to a grossly unfair 
legal process".

Regardless of the call by Amnesty and human rights activists, the death 
sentence was carried out in the northwestern city of Urmiya in the morning of 
October 2. She was 24 years old.

According to religious law, Iran considers girls as young as nine criminally 
liable and the age for boys is 15, based on a notion of when children reach 
puberty.

Amnesty International in its plea to Iran had said, "She did not see a lawyer 
until her final trial session in 2014, when she retracted 'confessions' she had 
made when she had no access to legal representation. She also says that, 
following her arrest, she was tortured by male police officers through beatings 
all over her body."

(source: Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty)

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

A female juvenile offender and 2 men were hanged in Iran



Zeynab Sekanvand, a juvenile offender who was 17 years old when arrested for 
the murder of her husband, was executed this morning at Urmia prison along with 
2 other prisoners. Despite ratifying several international covenants banning 
the death penalty for offences committed at under 18 years of age, Iran remains 
the world's biggest executioner of juvenile offenders. Iran Human Rights (IHR) 
strongly condemns the executions and calls for international condemnation of 
Iran's repeated violations of the international law and arbitrary use of the 
death penalty.

Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, the spokesperson of IHR said: "execution of Zeinab 
Sekanvand, the 5th juvenile executed in 2018, the threat of death sentence for 
striking truck drivers, and the new death sentences under the pretext of 
fighting the corruption, which lacks the minimum standards of a due process, 
must be met with international condemnations. We especially call on the 
European countries which have the dialogue with Iran to strongly condemn these 
unlawful death sentences and executions. These countries, including the members 
of the European Union and Norway, must show that they don't close their eyes on 
the serious human rights violations by the Iranian authorities while trying to 
save the nuclear deal."

Zeinab was born on June 22, 1994, and was arrested on March 1, 2012, for the 
murder of her husband. She was sentenced to death by branch 2 of Urmia's 
criminal court. Her death sentence was confirmed by branch 8 of Iran's Supreme 
Court.

Zeinab was reportedly married to a man when she was 15 years old and, according 
to sources close to her, she was abused by her husband.

Iran Human Rights has obtained parts of the text of Zeinab's court verdict. 
According to the document, Zeinab was physically abused by her husband and she 
filed a complaint with Iranian authorities. However, Iranian authorities 
reportedly did not follow up on her complaint.

Zeinab Sekaanvand spent the first 2 years of her imprisonment in Khoy Prison 
(West Azerbaijan province, northwestern Iran). However, when she was sentenced 
to death, she was transferred to the women's ward of Urmia Central Prison.

She was scheduled to be executed in October 2016 but her death sentence was 
postponed.

None of today’s executions has been announced by the Iranian authorities. But 
according to IHR sources, all the 3 prisoners were convicted of murder.

IHR has also received reports about the transfer of at least 14 prisoners in 
Rajaishahr prison to solitary confinement. These prisoners are scheduled to be 
executed on Wednesday.

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

Iran executes 5 Kurds, among them a young woman sentenced as a teenager



5 Iranian Kurds (Rojhilatis) were executed on Tuesday, among them a young woman 
who was handed the sentence as a teenager 2 years after her marriage, a rights 
group reported.

"The Iranian authorities must urgently halt their plans to execute Zeinab 
Sekaanvand," Philip Luther, Amnesty International's Research and Advocacy 
Director for the Middle East and North Africa, pleaded on Monday after the 
announcement of the regime’s plan was made.

Luther highlighted "she was arrested when she was just 17 years old and 
sentenced to death for the murder of her husband, whom she married at the age 
of 15."

"Not only was she a child at the time of the crime, she was subjected to a 
grossly unfair legal process."

Along with Sekaanvand, 4 other Kurds were executed in Urmia Prison according to 
Hengaw, a group writing on human rights issues involving Kurds in Iran.

Hengaw did not go into the details on the cases of the other detainees, only 
releasing the names of three: Changeez Irani, Mousa Jajilou, and Salman Alilou.

According to Amnesty International, among the 23 countries that carried out 
death sentences in 2017, "Iran executed at least 507 people." At least 31 of 
those executions were public, and 5 of those executed were under 18 years old. 
These numbers account for more than 1/2 of all recorded executions in 2017.

>From March through September, Iran has hanged over 40 Iranian Kurds and 
sentenced just under a dozen other activists to death, Hengaw added.

Other recent cases that garnered international attention were that of Ramin 
Hussein Panahi and 2 cousins Loghman and Zaniar Moradi who were executed on 
Sep. 08.

(source: kurdistan24.net)

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

5 Prisoners Scheduled to Be Executed at Urmia Prison



At least 5 prisoners who were charged with murder were transferred to the 
solitary confinement of Urmia Central Prison today.

According to a close source, on the morning of Monday, October 1, at least 5 
prisoners were transferred to the solitary confinement.

The prisoners were all sentenced to death on murder charges and they will be 
executed if they fail to gain the consent of the plaintiffs.

It should be noted that at least 14 prisoners have also been transferred to the 
solitary confinement at Rajai Shahr Prison to be executed.

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. There 
is a lack of a classification of murder by degree in Iran which results in 
issuing a death sentence for any kind of murder regardless of intensity and 
intent.

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

14 Prisoners Transferred to Solitary Confinement In Preparation of Execution



At least 14 prisoners, most of whom were sentenced to death on murder charges, 
were transferred to the solitary confinement of Rajai Shahr Prison.

According to a close source, on Sunday, September 30, at least 14 prisoners 
were transferred to the solitary confinement. The prisoners, most of whom were 
sentenced to death on murder charges, will be executed if they fail to gain the 
consent of the plaintiffs.

3 of the prisoners were identified as Ali Irandoust, Mehdi Danesh, and Mahmoud 
Qorbani, all from ward 1.

Executions take usually place on Wednesdays at Rajai Shahr Prison.

It should be noted that most reported executions on murder charges have been 
carried out at Rajai Shahr Prison this year.

(source for all: Iran Human Rights)








YEMEN:

Yemen rebel court 'sentences Baha'i trio to death'



3 followers of the Baha'i faith in Yemen have reportedly been sentenced to 
death by a court controlled by the rebel Houthi movement.

The Baha'i community in the UK said the unnamed individuals had been convicted 
of espionage and apostasy.

They were being tried alongside 21 other people by a judge who sentenced a 
Baha'i man to death last January.

Baha'i representative Diane Alai said they had been "falsely and maliciously 
accused under absurd pretexts".

She urged the international community to "condemn these baseless actions in the 
strongest possible terms and call for the immediate release of all detained 
Baha'is".

In a speech in March, rebel leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi denounced the Baha'i 
faith as "satanic" and claimed it was "waging a war of doctrine" against Islam.

The Baha'i faith was founded in Iran in the mid-19th Century by Mirza Husayn 
Ali, a man known as "Baha'ullah" ("Glory of God").

Baha'is believe that all the founders of the world's major religions have been 
manifestations of God and agents of a progressive divine plan for the education 
of humanity, and that Baha'ullah is the most recent manifestation of God.

Today, there are an estimated 5 million Baha'is worldwide. There are only a few 
thousand in Yemen, where 99% of the 27 million population is Muslim.

The Houthi movement has cracked down on Baha'is since its supporters drove the 
Western-backed government of President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi out of the 
capital Sanaa and seized control of much of western Yemen in 2015.

The UN has said Bahai's living in rebel territory have faced a "persistent 
pattern of persecution", including harassment and arbitrary detention.

In January, UN human rights experts urged the Houthi-led authorities to annul a 
death sentence handed down against a Baha'i man, Hamid Kamali bin Haydara, who 
was accused of "compromising the independence of the Republic of Yemen" and 
spreading the Baha'i faith in the country.

A number of trials against Mr bin Haydara, including the one during which the 
death sentence was imposed, took place without him being present, and his 
lawyer was not given the opportunity to contest the evidence presented against 
him.

The Baha'i Community of the UK said the judge who convicted Mr bin Haydara had 
also sentenced to death the 3 other Bahai's on Saturday.

They were among 24 Bahai's, including 8 women and a teenage girl, who went on 
trial last month on the charges of spying for a foreign state and apostasy.

There was no immediate confirmation from the Houthi authorities, but on 
Saturday the rebel-run Saba news agency reported that a court in Sanaa had 
sentenced 3 men to death for "collaborating with a foreign country".

It said one man was accused of seeking to recruit people to fight for Saudi 
Arabia, which is leading a coalition of Arab states supporting Yemen's 
government in its war with the Houthis, and that the other 2 allegedly provided 
military information.

(source: BBC News)