[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Septmeber 25



INDIA:

Yug case: Hearing on death sentence put off



The death sentence reference sent by the Sessions Judge, Shimla, for the 
confirmation of the death sentence awarded by him to the 3 accused in the Yug 
murder case was listed before the High Court on Monday. After hearing the 
matter for some time, the court adjourned the same for October 9.

During the course of hearing, the counsel for the state sought time for 
assisting the court in this matter on the ground that the entire record 
pertaining to the case was not received by him to date.

While allowing the prayer, a Division Bench comprising Justice Dharam Chand 
Chaudhary and Justice Vivek Singh Thakur deferred the hearing for October 9. 
Section 366 of the Criminal Procedure Code provides that when a Sessions Court 
passes a death sentence, the proceedings must be submitted to the High Court 
and the sentence cannot be executed unless it is confirmed by the High Court.

As per the provision, whenever such a case is submitted to the High Court, it 
may confirm the sentence or pass any other sentence warranted by law or annul 
the conviction.

Virender Singh, Session Judge, Shimla, had awarded the death penalty to 3 
persons on September 5 for kidnapping and murdering a 4-year-old boy for 
ransom.

The District and Sessions Court had held Chander Sharma, Tajender Singh and 
Vikrant Bakshi guilty under Sections 302, 347 and 201 of the Indian Penal Code.

Yug Gupta, son of businessman Vinod Gupta, was kidnapped and murdered in the 
Kelston area of Shimla 4 years ago. Yug's skeletal remains were found inside a 
water tank in the Kelston locality on August 22, 2016, leading to widespread 
protests across the town. Yug was kidnapped by the accused persons on June 14, 
2014, from Ram Bazaar. After Yug went missing, a case of abduction under 
Section 363 of the Indian Penal Code was registered on June 16, 2014, following 
which an investigation was initiated.

(source: The Tribune)








MALAYSIA:

Man nabbed over Penang drug 'factory' charged with trafficking syabu



A man was charged at the magistrate's court here today with trafficking syabu, 
2 weeks ago.

However, no plea was recorded from Lee Wooi Keong, 46, after the charge was 
read to him before Magistrate Dianne Ningrad Nor Azhar.

Lee was charged with trafficking in 27.275gm of syabu at a factory in Bukit 
Tengah's Small and Medium Industries at 3pm on Sept 12.

He was charged under Section 39B(1) (a) of the Dangerous Drug Act 1952 which 
carries mandatory death penalty upon conviction.

Dianne Ningrad set Nov 23 for mention of the case.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Nur Afiqah Zakaria prosecuted while the accused was 
unrepresented.

It was reported that the Bukit Aman's anti-narcotics team busted a drug 
processing 'factory' in Bukit Tengah and seized numerous types of drugs worth 
RM72.5 million in the raid.

The drug seizure was believed to be the biggest since 1996.

At the 'factory', the police team seized 2.13 million Erimin 5 pills, 742.6 kg 
of Erimin 5 powder, 27.3kg syabu, 5,080 ecstasy pills and 53.7kg of liquid 
chemical.

(source: nst.com.my)








SINGAPORE----execution

Indian-origin man executed in Singapore for drug trafficking



A 29-year-old Indian-origin Malaysian man was executed on Friday in Singapore 
for drugs smuggling despite calls by the UN and rights groups to halt his 
capital punishment. Prabagaran Srivijayan was sentenced to death in 2014 after 
he was caught with 22.24 grams of diamorphine while trying to enter Singapore.

Srivijayan had his death sentence carried out at Singapore's Changi Prison 
Complex, said the Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB).

He was arrested in April 2012 at Woodlands Checkpoint in the main causeway to 
southern Peninsular Malaysia.

2 packets of the drug were recovered from the vehicle he was driving, the CNB 
said in a statement.

Yesterday, Srivijayan's lawyer, Choo Zheng Xi, on instructions from 
Srivijayan's family, asked the Singapore apex court to stay his client's death 
sentence on the grounds that his appeal in Malaysia was pending.

Judges of Appeal Chao Hick Tin, Andrew Phang and Tay Yong Kwang called the 
attempt to halt Srivijayan's execution because of proceedings in another 
country "an abuse of process".

"The judiciary of each country is entitled to act in accordance with its 
Constitution and its laws," The Channel News Asia quoted Judge Chao as saying.

"No judiciary of one country interferes in the judicial process of another 
country," he said.

Srivijayan had a pending appeal before the Malaysian Court of Appeal to 
institute proceedings against Singapore in the International Court of Justice 
(ICJ).

Amnesty International had raised concerns about the fairness of the trial, 
including the alleged failure of the authorities "to follow up leads and call 
on key witnesses that would corroborate his version of events".

The United Nations Human Rights (OHCHR) South East Asia Regional office had 
called on Singapore to halt the scheduled execution of Prabagaran, and had 
urged the government to immediately reinstate a moratorium on the use of the 
death penalty.

"Drug-related offences do not fall under the threshold of 'most serious 
crimes'. Furthermore, under domestic law, the death penalty is not mandatory 
for drug-related offences," the OHCHR said.

The Misuse of Drugs Act provides for the death penalty if the amount of 
diamorphine imported is more than 15 grams.

His petition for clemency was unsuccessful.

Srivijayan was accorded full due process under the law, and he was represented 
by legal counsel throughout the process, the CNB said.

It said that 22.24 grams of diamorphine is equivalent to about 1,853 straws, 
which is sufficient to feed the addiction of about 265 abusers for a week.

Both Malaysia and Singapore execute murderers and drug traffickers by hanging, 
a system which dates back to British colonial rule.

Singapore has consistently maintained that the death penalty is an effective 
deterrent to crime and has rejected calls to abolish capital punishment.

(source: lakelandobserver.com)

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

40-year-old Singaporean woman sentenced to mandatory death penalty for drug 
trafficking



A 40-year-old Singaporean woman was sentenced to the mandatory death penalty 
earlier this month after she was caught selling heroin, methamphetamine, 
cannabis and Erimin from her HDB flat and charged with trafficking a total of 
1kg of drugs containing 30.72g of pure heroin.

The woman, Saridewi Djamani, had claimed that she was stocking up on heroin for 
her own personal use during the fasting month and had claimed she was suffering 
from persistent depressive disorder and severe substance use disorder.

High Court judge See Kee Oon, however, noted that Saridewi did not deny selling 
the drugs but tried to minimise the scale of her trafficking business, in his 
grounds of decision released last Thursday.

Saridewi was caught on 17 June 2016 when a Malaysian accomplice, 41-year-old 
Muhammad Haikal Abdullah, met her at her HDB block around 3.35pm and gave her a 
plastic bag filled with drugs, in exchange for 2 envelopes containing a total 
of $15,550.

The pair did not realise that Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) officers were 
monitoring them. Haikal was apprehended at a traffic junction while officers 
approached Saridewi’s 16th floor flat to arrest her.

The court heard that Saridewi flung the plastic bags containing the drugs out 
of her kitchen window when she heard sounds outside her door, before opening 
the door to let officers who were preparing to cut through the metal grille 
gate in.

Saridewi was charged with trafficking 30.72g of heroin. The mandatory death 
penalty applies to those convicted of trafficking more than 15g of heroin.

During trial, the Singaporean claimed that she had only been planning to sell 
11.71g of heroin since she wanted to keep 19.01g of heroin for her own personal 
use. Saridewi claimed that her drug addiction was so severe during the fasting 
month that her heroin intake would go up to 12g a day.

Justice See, however, noticed inconsistencies in Saridewi's claims.

Even though Saridewi claimed in court that she is a severe heroin addict who 
had relapsed, she had told investigators earlier that she had stopped smoking 
heroin since she was released from prison in 2014.

Further, a urine test administered after her arrest in June 2016 did not show 
any signs of heroin use. The judge said:

"Based on her account that she was consuming 1 to 2 straws every 3 days, (` of 
the drug exhibits) would have lasted Saridewi about 682 days...The need to 
stock up almost 2 years' worth of supply of (heroin) was unbelievable."

A psychiatrist from the Institute of Mental Health also found that Saridewi did 
not suffer from any mental illness or intellectual disability besides her 
longstanding history of drug abuse - contrary to her claims that she suffers 
from persistent depressive disorder.

Saridewi is presently appealing against the mandatory death penalty sentence.

Meanwhile, Haikal was charged with trafficking 28.22g of the drug. Although the 
Malaysian claimed that he thought he was delivering medical drugs, those who 
are found in possession of over 2g of heroin are presumed to be trafficking the 
drug unless proven otherwise, under Singapore law.

Haikal was sentenced to life in prison and the mandatory minimum 15 strokes of 
the cane, since he was only a courier and since he had assisted the CNB 
substantively during investigations.

According to amendments to the mandatory death penalty that were passed last 
year, meeting these 2 specific, tightly-defined conditions gives the court the 
discretion not to impose the death sentence.

(source: theindependent.sg)








AUSTRALIA:

'They'll never hang a woman': Louisa Collins thought she'd be spared



The botched execution of the last woman hanged in NSW stuck with author Janet 
Lee. Her novel imagines those last moments



It was the manner of her death that was so brutal. It was gruesome. When Louisa 
Collins became the 1st woman hanged at Darlinghurst jail and the last woman 
hanged in New South Wales, the executioner botched the job. The trap door 
didn't open, and then, after being banged with a mallet, it did open, and she 
fell through with so much force that her head was nearly severed and her 
windpipe left exposed.

It was an image, says author Janet Lee, "that stuck with me, the image of the 
woman on the scaffold. Here was this woman who had never been known to confess, 
who expected a reprieve - was that what she was thinking in those last few 
moments?"

Collins had walked calmly to her death on 8 January 1889, stoic, pitiful, 
believing her life would be spared at the last minute. "They will never hang a 
woman," she had declared in the last hours of her life.

Her death was controversial. A saga covered in salacious detail by the 
newspapers of the day, fiercely debated in parliament, heavily petitioned by 
the men and women of the colony. The 41-year-old mother of 10 children had 
endured 4 trials for the deaths of both her husbands, allegedly by arsenic 
found in rat poison; she was one of the only people in the world to be tried 4 
times for murder.

The evidence against her was circumstantial. She had nursed them both as they 
lay dying of similar violent stomach illnesses. One trial for the wilful murder 
of her first husband, Charles Andrews, and two for her 2nd husband, Michael 
Collins, had returned hung juries - all of whom were men, 36 in total. The 
crown pressed on with a 4th trial, for Michael Collins, and finally got their 
guilty verdict. The chief witness was her 11-year-old daughter May, who 
testified that she had seen a box of the poison Rough on Rats in the kitchen.

Louisa Collins represented a threat to the men of the colony, and her story was 
political. In opposition, Sir Henry Parkes had argued for mercy in a previous 
hanging case for rape. Now that he was premier he was decidedly in favour of 
the hanging of Louisa, who thundered that the alleged murder of her 2nd husband 
was "one of the most cruel, inexcusable, and frightful murders ... in the 
world's history."

Doctors who attended Michael noted that Louisa had been drinking alcohol, and 
the police reported that she was inebriated when arrested - unseemly behaviour 
for a woman. It was reported that she was "cold" in the courtroom during her 
trials. "She didn't show a lot of expression, something that might have been 
held against her," says Lee. "She wasn't typical of that era, she was not 
weeping or weak."

Even so, she begged for her life in a letter to Govenor Carrington 2 days 
before her death. "Oh my Lord. Pray have mercy and pity on me and spare my 
life. I beg and implore you to have mercy on me. I have 7 children ... spare me 
my Lord for their sake."

Lee's novel The Killing of Louisa is written in the first person, as Collins 
awaits the gallows and talks about her life to the priest.

Lee says: "In my head this is very much fiction; I have picked out little 
pieces of the story and imagined things around those. There were hundreds of 
newspaper articles, I went and revisited all the primary sources; the NSW 
archives has the judges records written in this beautiful spidery hand writing. 
I used the facts as we know them as a guide, and tried not to stray too far."

She describes how hard life was for poor, working-class women. Louisa was born 
in Belltrees, in the Hunter Valley, and was sent away at 14 to be a domestic in 
the Merriwa home of a solicitor, where she became a "country coquette", it was 
reported.

At the urging of her mother she married the local butcher, Charles Andrews, at 
18; he was 13 years older and she later said "had always been boring". She had 
children in quick succession, 2 dying in infancy, and the family moved to 
Botany. But it was a drudge feeding all those children, washing, cooking for 
the boarders the family took in; Louisa would retreat to the pub.

"They had incredibly hard lives, the clothing was so restrictive," Lee says. 
"It just would have been every single day boiling the copper, washing clothes, 
lugging the water; the day to day effort of that era would have just worn you 
down, everything was so labour intensive."

Louisa could also be overly fond of the boarders, in particular the much 
younger Michael Collins, whom Charles threw out in a fight in the street and 
who, Lee says, "was a bit of a rogue". Collins was soon back after Charles's 
death. Louisa was very eager to get Charles's will drawn up as he lay dying, 
and rushed to collect his insurance policy after his death. She did not wear 
black mourning clothes, instead throwing a party and dancing with her lover. 
She was pregnant when she married Collins 3 months later; their child, John, 
died in infancy, and 13 months after their marriage, Collins too was dead.

It is hard to see what her motive might have been for this death: a woman with 
so many children had no way of supporting herself; she needed a husband. By 
then the insurance money was gone - Michael Collins was a gambler.

Lee's book follows on from the 2014 book Last Woman Hanged: a meticulous 5-year 
investigation into Louisa's life and death by Caroline Overington. Neither 
woman will speculate on whether Collins was guilty. "I know enough to know I 
don't know," says Lee.

"I don't know if Louisa was guilty," Overington tells Guardian Australia, "but 
neither, beyond a reasonable doubt, did the 4th and final jury; nor did the 
judge who sentenced her to hang, despite the prosecution having no weapon, no 
witnesses, and no motive for the death of Michael Collins."

The women who petitioned for Louisa would go on to form the suffragette 
movement. "There was an enormous move in Australia at that time to give women 
more rights; women were starting to fight for the vote."

Louisa Collins represented a threat to the men of the colony, her story was 
political.

"How can it be," says Overington "that we know the names of the bushrangers, 
the gold diggers, the explorers, but not this fascinating story of a woman who 
faced 4 juries on a charge of murder. Our silence has allowed braying mobs to 
form around other women both in the dock (Lindy Chamberlain) and in the court 
of public opinion; it allowed the framing of women as calculating and 
manipulative to continue for another century; it encouraged the idea that a 
sexually adventurous, curious, rebellious woman - Louisa liked to drink and 
dance and be in love - is immoral, a danger to society. We must dispense with 
her at once!"

The Killing of Louisa, a novel by Janet Lee, is out through UQP; Last Woman 
Hanged by Caroline Overington (2014) is out through Harper Collins

(source: The Guardian)



SOUTH AFRICA:

Call for death penalty is hate speech



Those calling for the death sentence should be punished when the hate speech 
bill is enacted, the writer says. Bongiwe Mchunu The letter "Heart-rending 
killing of our beloved rhino leaves many unanswered questions" (The Star, 
September 11) in which the writer, Harry Sewlall, cannot resist invoking the 
death penalty, as if it has the capacity to reverse the current high levels of 
crime, including the maiming and poaching of animals, cannot go unchallenged.

Most humans are animal-lovers, and it hurts when we read of the unspeakable 
things some do to animals. However, our country has some of the harshest 
punishments for such crimes; in most cases people would be too scared to hurt 
animals as our courts will show no leniency.

This writer is a known lover of the death penalty. He is completely off his 
trolley in again reminding us that "Since we do not have the death penalty, we 
should be building prisons in the Kruger National Park". How absurd.

The letter, like all those by lovers of the death penalty, is teeming with 
half-truths, distortions, exaggerations, over-emphasising, advancing facts 
selectively and even despicable name-calling. None of this is in any way 
helpful to fight this abomination.

The way he wants to deal with it is in stark contrast to the noble efforts of 
12-year-old Hunter Mitchell of Somerset West. The boy was just as shocked as 
everybody else when he first heard of the poaching of rhinos. He started 
telling everybody and at the same time collecting funds to help in the fight. 
His efforts have already yielded more than R200 000, and is ongoing.

His parents accompanied him last year to receive a prestigious international 
award in Australia, something all of us were equally proud of.

We can all do something, however minute it might seem, to improve the lives of 
our fellow-men (and animals). What legacy will we be leaving behind?

The time has arrived for people who persistently long for the return of the 
death penalty to be called to book when the anti-hate speech bill becomes law.

(source: Letter to the Editor, Koert Meyer----iol.o.za)








UGANDA:

It's wrong time to start toying with the idea of death penalty



Lying mouths. In 2005, a case in which the State accused Kizza Besigye of rape; 
a matter that appeared like it intended to scuttle his presidential bid in the 
2006 election, the CID Director went to court and told lie after lie.

The case eventually collapsed under the weight of its own falsehoods. What if 
the lying mouths had succeeded in convincing the judge to sentence Besigye to 
death?

Countries and societies at times go through very difficult times. Currently 
many Ugandans are in fear because of the people who are killed by mysterious 
gunmen riding on motorcycles. In such times, people ask for questions and are 
desperate for answers.

The powers that be more often than not will opt for knee-jerk reactions. In 
that realm lies curfews, a covert acquiescence to mob action, detention without 
trial, torture, Operation Wembley style, shoot-on-sight, massive arrests and 
detentions, plus parading and screening suspected criminals in hasty 
identification parades (panda gari) many times devoid of logic and order.

The mother of all these measures is the death penalty. Here those in power will 
want to demonstrate to anyone intending to break the law that the wheels of 
justice will run over them to their death. When I think about the death 
penalty, I recall a wonderful book written in 2006 by celebrated author John 
Grisham titled The Innocent Man. It is a book about a real life experience in 
the USA in a county called Ada in Oakland. A man, Ronald Williamson and a 
friend named Dennis Fritz, were arrested and in 1988, tried separately and 
found guilty for the 1982 brutal killing of a local barmaid, Debbie Sue Carter.

The former was sentenced to death - he came within inches of being killed by 
the lethal injection - while the later got life imprisonment. 10 years later, 
they were acquitted. The book detailed deliberate ineptitude, malice, 
negligence and all manner of ill will by the prosecution intended to have the 
accused convicted by hook or crook for a murder they did not commit.

There was a reason that led to this travesty of justice. The county in which 
the murder had been committed had for a long time like Uganda experience 
homicides without anyone being prosecuted successfully. The residents were 
irate and petrified. So when they landed on these men, they conjured up a 
mountain of fabrications full of conjecture that passed for 'irrefutable 
evidence' and got a conviction.

Luckily, DNA evidence was used to save the men just in time. The judge, while 
acquitting Williamson, said in his life he had never seen such deliberate gross 
injustice conjured up by the State. Now that happened in one of the most 
credible and water-tight judicial systems in the world.

Look at Uganda. After the assassination of SSP Muhammad Kirumira a few weeks 
ago, the angry public felt like the biblical hungry man in Proverbs 27:7 
"...for whom bitter tastes sweet."

The politicians heard their cry and all over a sudden started serving them the 
poisonous hope of 'hanging criminals on death row.'

You have to be worried. It is something that may come to pass just to 'please' 
the angry people who are hungry for justice.

The politicians are well aware of this popular trick that hides their failings 
in the entire issue of the breakdown of the criminal justice system. In matters 
such as these, it is easier to ride on a wave of emotions and send people to 
the gallows due to public demand - a demand 'incited' by the politicians. 
Uganda is at a point where 30 years of peace and tranquillity, the police force 
has for all intents and purposes, become the military wing of the ruling NRM 
party. Yet these are the people charged with keeping law and order, arresting 
suspects and gathering evidence leading to their prosecution, among others.

The Criminal Investigations Department (CID,) Special Branch and other bodies 
have faded in as far as their vital duties are concerned. Instead, the more 
martial and violent facets of the police like the Field Force Unit, which move 
hand in glove with the military, have gained more prominence. Apparently, their 
main objective is regime maintenance. They may not shy away to frame those who 
are perceived as a threat to the State.

In 2005, a case in which the State accused Kizza Besigye of rape; a matter that 
appeared like it intended to scuttle his presidential bid in the 2006 election, 
the CID Director went to court and told lie after lie. The case eventually 
collapsed under the weight of its own falsehoods. What if the lying mouths had 
succeeded in convincing the judge to sentence Besigye to death?

If we are ever going to think about the death penalty, then we have to have a 
credible criminal investigations machinery that is independent, credible and 
not partisan. The police unlike what it is today should be solely for keeping 
law and order for citizens without bias not a device to keep the regime in 
power. The prosecuting arm of the Judiciary and the Judiciary itself should be 
well funded and devoid of corruption to ensure that justice is not only done, 
but is seen to be done.

Otherwise, in the current situation where the government may abuse State 
institutions to plant evidence, prosecute selectively, especially for political 
reasons that help perpetuate the regime, we cannot be sure how many people end 
up at the gallows but should not be there and how many don’t go there but 
should be there. That is not equity. It is not justice.

(source: Mr Nicholas Sengoba is a commentator on political and social 
issues----The Monitor)








EGYPT:

Egypt court upholds death sentence of 20 Brotherhood members over storming 
police station



An Egyptian court confirmed on Monday death sentence against 20 members of 
Muslim Brotherhood group over storming a police station and killing 14 
policemen, officials news agency MENA reported.

The Court of Cassation, Egypt's top court that gives final verdicts, upheld 
death verdicts against 20 militants, mostly loyalists and members of the 
outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group of former Islamist President Mohamed Morsi.

The defendants stormed the main police station in Kerdasa district, a 
stronghold of the Muslim Brotherhood at that time, of Giza province in 
mid-August 2013, killing 17 people including 14 policemen.

The assault, known as "Kerdasa massacre," took place more than a month 
following Morsi's military removal on July 3, 2013 and shortly after a massive 
security crackdown on 2 pro-Morsi sit-ins on Aug. 14, 2013, in Cairo and Giza, 
which left hundreds dead and thousands more arrested.

The case originally involves 188 defendants including fugitives. In February 
2015, the court sentenced 183 of them to death and a minor to 10 years in jail. 
After appeals, later in February 2016, the Court of Cassation ordered the 
retrial of 156 of them.

In April 2017, the criminal court recommended death penalty for 20 of them and 
referred their case documents to the Grand Mufti, the country's interpreter of 
religious law, to get his religious opinion on their execution. He later 
approved.

They appealed the death sentence later, but the court of cassation rejected 
their appeal on Monday.

Most Brotherhood leaders, members and supporters, including Morsi himself and 
the Brotherhood spiritual guide Mohamed Badie, are currently jailed. Many of 
them have received appealable death sentences and life imprisonments over 
various charges varying from inciting violence and murder to espionage and 
jailbreak.

Morsi is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence over inciting deadly 
clashes between his supporters and opponents in late 2012 and a 25-year jail 
term over leaking classified documents to Qatar.

(source: xinhuanet.com)








JORDAN:

3 Egyptians given death sentence for killing compatriot



3 Egyptian men were sentenced to death on Monday by the Criminal Court after 
being convicted of killing their compatriot in Amman in December 2015.

The court declared the defendants guilty of killing their colleague in late 
2015 following an argument about guard duties in Jabal Luweibdeh and handed 
them the maximum punishment.

"One of the defendants sat on the court's floor upon hearing the conviction 
verdict in disbelief while another banged on the iron bars of the cage," a 
senior judicial source said.

The source told The Jordan Times that the court decided to hand them the death 
penalty after establishing that "they plotted the murder and bought the 
knives".

Court documents said the main defendant in the case travelled to Egypt and 
asked the victim to replace him in guarding a building in Jabal Luweibdeh until 
he returned.

When the main defendant returned to Jordan, the court maintained, "the victim 
refused to leave his post and insisted to take his job, so he decided to kill 
him as a result".

"The defendant contacted the 2 other defendants, including 1 who worked in 
Irbid, and asked them to help him kill the victim," the court said.

On the day of the murder, the court added that the defendants met in downtown 
Amman and bought knives.

"The defendants returned to Jabal Luweibdeh late at night and monitored the 
building where the victim worked and when they felt that no one was around they 
entered his room, pinned him down and stabbed him to death," according to court 
transcripts.

The 3 defendants then escaped and took a taxi, the court said, but the driver 
became suspicious because they had blood on their clothes and were agitated so 
the driver contacted the police.

Criminal Court Prosecutor Ishaq Abu Awad asked the court to inflict the maximum 
punishment on the defendants.

Monday's court verdicts will automatically be reviewed by the Court of 
cassation within the next 30 days.

(source: The Jordan Times)








IRAN:

Iranian Kurdistan: Man Sentenced to Death for Alleged PDKI Connections



Mohiaddin Ebrahimi, a Kurd from the Western Azerbaijan province in Iran, was 
sentenced to death on 23 September 2018. He was accused of cooperating with 
UNPO member the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (PDKI). He had been arrested 
in November 2017 and held for 14 months in prison before being tried in August 
2018. During his trial, human rights organisations report he was denied access 
to a lawyer. UNPO joins other NGOs in condemning this violation of Mohiaddin 
Ebrahimi’s right to a fair trial and calling for his pardon and immediate 
release.

The article below was published by BasNews:

Iranian judiciary authorities issued the death penalty to a Kurdish inmate over 
political activities and alleged membership in a Kurdish party.

Mohiaddin Ebrahimi, 40, was found guilty by a court in Urmiyeh, Western 
Azarbaijan province, of cooperating with the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran 
(PDKI).

Ebrahimi was tried on 20 August, and the sentence was announced on 23 
September. He is originally from Alkawe village of Shno (Oshnaviyeh) district 
of Western Azarbaijan province.

According to Hangaw Organization for Human Rights, Ebrahimi did not have access 
to a lawyer.

He was a porter, carrying goods on the border area in November 2017 when the 
security forces injured and arrested him. He was previously in 2010 held for 14 
months in prison for alleged cooperation with the Kurdish opposition parties.

(source: unpo.org)