September 2
IRAN----executions
Execution of at Least 2 Prisoners at Rajai Shahr Prison
2 prisoners were executed at Rajai Shahr Prison on murder charges. One of the
prisoners was an Afghan citizen.
According to a close source, on the morning of Wednesday, August 29, at least 2
prisoners were executed at Rajai Shahr Prison. The prisoners, sentenced to
death on murder charges, were transferred to the solitary confinement on
Monday, August 27.
One of the prisoners was named Mojtaba Asadi, who was transferred to the
solitary confinement from ward 10 of Rajai Shahr Prison. The other prisoner was
an Afghan citizen who was transferred to Rajai Shahr Prison from the Alien
Section of Ghezel Hesar prison. The prisoner has not been identified so far.
A close source told IHR, “He had been in prison for murder for 22 years. He was
transferred to the solitary confinement while he was on hunger strike and had
sewn his lips.”
Another prisoner named Shamsali Abdollahi was also transferred to the solitary
confinement who returned to his cell by asking for time from the plaintiffs.
The execution of these prisoners has not been announced by the state-run media
so far.
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.
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The Unknown Fate of a Death-Row Political Prisoner’s Brother
There has been no information regarding the whereabouts of Farhad Abdollahpour.
He was arrested for investigating the condition of his brother who is a
death-row prisoner and now Farhad’s family is worried about him.
According to a close source, Farhad Abdollahpour was arrested by the agents of
the Revolutionary Guard on June 30, 2018. He is the brother of Hedayat
Abdollahpour, a political prisoner at Urmia Central Prison who was sentenced to
death on the charge of rebellion through providing a Kurdish opposition party
with food and shelter.
The father of these prisoners told IHR, “I am the father of Hedayat and Farhad
Abdollahpour. My son, Farhad, has been in custody for two months. The guards
went to the houses of my sons to find guns, which they didn’t, and they beat my
son [Farhad] and took him to an unknown place. We have no information about his
whereabouts, although we went to security institutions and the Judiciary.
On Tuesday (August 28), someone told my wife that Farhad was killed under
torture three days earlier. We went to the city governorate and told them about
the news. They supposedly called the Ministry of Intelligence of Urmia and were
told that our son was alive. They told us that his detention was over a month
ago, so why they don't send him to the court? I don't know my son is dead or
alive. If he is not alive, deliver us his body and if he is, show him to me so
that I stop worrying.”
He continued, “His uncle has gone to the court several times and they tell him
that they will bring Farhad but they don’t. If he is alive, he must be badly
injured under torture, that’s why they are not showing him to us. Twenty days
ago, the Ministry of Intelligence told us to visit Farhad but we were only
allowed to talk to him in Farsi. His mother didn’t know Farsi so she just sat
there in silence. Over the past two months, we visited him a few times. One
time, he was so badly wounded under torture that he looked like a corpse.
Visiting him was useless because we couldn’t talk in our language.”
It should be noted that there was an armed conflict between the members of the
Democratic Party of Iran's Kurdistan and the Islamic Revolutionary guards in
Oshnaviyeh on June 14, 2016. Following the conflict, a number of locals of
Oshnaviyeh were also arrested and convicted on the charges of cooperation with
the members of the Democratic Party of Iran's Kurdistan and providing them with
food.
Hedayat Abdollahpour was one of the convicts who was arrested on June 15, 2016.
He was the only one who was sentenced to death on the charge of rebellion due
to a complaint by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the verdict of
Branch 1 of the Revolutionary Court of Urmia. The verdict was rejected by
Branch 47 the Supreme Court. However, Hedayat Abdollahpour was sentenced to
death again by Branch 2 of the Revolutionary Court of Urmia and he is currently
held at Urmia central Prison waiting for his sentence to be issued.
(source for both: Iran Human Rights)
TAIWAN:
Timing of Prisoner’s Execution ahead of Elections Questioned
Taiwan’s opposition KMT party has questioned the timing of the execution of a
prisoner, after the ruling DPP broke a more than 2-year long hiatus, and
executed a man just a few months before nationwide municipal elections
scheduled for November 24.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) spokesperson Hung Meng-kai suggested that the
Tsai administration had engaged in selective law enforcement in an effort to
pander to the electorate with a show of being tough on crime.
On Friday, August 31, Lee Hung-chi was executed with a shot to the heart at a
prison in Kaohsiung City after Minister of Justice Tsai Ching-hsiang signed an
execution order Thursday.
The execution marked the 1st time the death penalty had been applied since the
Tsai administration took power more than 2 years ago.
Lee stabbed his wife to death in front of a kindergarten, then fled with his
eldest daughter who later died of carbon monoxide poisoning.
In April, 2014, 41 year-old Lee Hung-chi went to a kindergarten and attempted
to kidnap his 2 daughters. When his ex-wife intervened, he stabbed her to death
in front of horrified onlookers.
Lee then fled with 1 of his daughters, drove to a rural area in Hsinchu County
and attempted to commit a murder-suicide by burning charcoal in his car.
Police located the pair and attempted to rescue them, but the 5- year-old girl
was in a coma and died 2 months later.
Lee was at first convicted of the double murder and given a life sentence.
However, Lee showed no remorse and threatened to take revenge against the
family of his ex-wife. At a 2nd trial Lee was sentenced to death for having
killed his wife, and biological offspring, and having showed no remorse or
potential for rehabilitation.
The Execution
According to prison staff who spoke to Liberty Times Network, Lee was calm
before the execution. Lee consumed 2 or 3 dishes of braised food, drank a
mouthful of water, smoked a cigarette, and said “sorry to my family.”
At 3:37 pm, Lee refused assistance, calmly walked to the place of execution on
his own, and laid face-down.
A shot was administered to his heart from the back, and his death was confirmed
at 4:10 pm.
Wu Jiaxuan, vice president of the Abolition Alliance told reporters that Lee
was determined to die, and had refused the assistance of the Abolition
Alliance.
The fact that Lee had refused to make any appeal against the sentence may have
been a factor in the decision to select him among other candidates on death
row, according to the alliance.
The execution of Lee Hung-chi drew condemnations from the EU and Amnesty
International.
Amnesty International Taiwan’s Acting Section Director, Annie Huang, said:
“It is deeply disappointing that Taiwan has decided to resume the
implementation of a cruel punishment, especially after President Tsai Ing-wen
had stated clearly that her government aims to abolish the death penalty.”
The European Union’s External Action Service (EEAS) said,
“The execution in Taiwan of Mr Li Hung-chi ends the moratorium on the
application of the death penalty that had de-facto been in place since May
2016.”
While some politicians and human rights groups in Taiwan oppose the death
penalty, surveys show that a majority of voters support the death penalty.
Deputy Justice Minister Chen Ming-tang justified the execution, saying “His
actions were brutal and ruthless … and inflicted irreparable harms to the
victims’ families.”
Chen said the government was gradually decreasing the use of the death penalty,
but would not abolish it for now.
“Abolishing the death sentence is an international trend, and a long-term goal
for the justice ministry, but there is no consensus in our country,” Chen told
reporters at a press conference following the execution.
Lee Hung-chi was 1 of 43 prisoners on death row in Taiwan: there are now 42
prisoners awaiting execution.
Pandering for Votes?
KMT legislator Tseng, Zeng Mingzong,also questioned the timing of the execution
and alleged that the DPP had used the execution in an attempt to raise support
ahead of the year-end elections.
Hung Meng-kai pointed out that there has been a spate of high-profile murder
cases in recent months that has shaken Taiwan society, and suggested that the
Tsai administration has been ambiguous about the application of the death
penalty, evasive, and selective about its enforcement.
(source: Taiwan English News)