[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

August 12




IRAN:

Campaign Pressuring Tehran to Release 8 Environmentalists



Social media users have interacted regarding the issue of 8 environmentalists 
facing security charges in Iran, 1 week after they started a hunger strike. 2 
hashtags were launched to pressure Iran to release the activists.

Kaveh Madani, water management expert, tweeted that 564 days have passed since 
arresting the activists, and 8 days since the hunger strike. He stressed that 
their only demand is to work based on justice.

Human Rights Watch said last week that the authorities should immediately 
release all eight environmentalist experts detained for over 18 months without 
being provided with the evidence concerning their alleged crimes.

"Members of the Persian Wildlife Heritage Foundation have languished behind 
bars for over 550 days while Iranian authorities have blatantly failed to 
provide a shred of evidence about their alleged crime," said Michael Page, 
deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch.

"The authorities should take the long-overdue step of releasing these defenders 
of Iran’s endangered wildlife and end this injustice against them," Page added.

HRW quoted a reliable source as saying that the environmentalists on hunger 
strike are demanding that authorities end their legal limbo and either release 
them on bail until a verdict is issued against them or transfer them to the 
public ward of Evin prison.

They are inward 2-Alef of Evin prison, which is under the supervision of the 
IRGC’s Intelligence Organization, the source added.

Their trial in Branch 15 of Tehran’s revolutionary court was halted before 
March, then resumed at the beginning of August. The court reportedly did not 
allow lawyers to review the evidence before the trial opened on January 30.

Article 48 of Iran’s 2014 criminal procedure law says that detainees charged 
with various offenses, including national or international security crimes, 
political, and media crimes, must select their lawyer from a pre-approved pool 
selected by Iran’s judiciary during the investigation.

Defendants had been under psycho-social torture and were coerced into making 
false confessions, experts said.

On February 10, 2018, a few weeks after their arrests, family members of Kavous 
Seyed Emami, a Canadian-Iranian professor and environmentalist arrested with 
the other members of the group, reported that he had died in detention under 
suspicious circumstances.

Iranian authorities claimed that he committed suicide, but they have not 
conducted an impartial investigation into his death.

Several senior Iranian government officials have said that they did not find 
any evidence to suggest that the detained activists are spies.

On May 22, 2018, Issa Kalantari, the head of Iran’s Environmental institution, 
said that the government had formed a committee consisting of the ministers of 
intelligence, interior, and justice and the president’s legal deputy, and that 
they had concluded there was no evidence to suggest those detained are spies.

Kalantari added that the committee said the environmentalists should be 
released.

On February 3, Mahmoud Sadeghi, a member of parliament from Tehran, tweeted 
that according to the information he has received, the National Security 
Council headed by President Hassan Rouhani also did not deem the activities of 
their detained conservation activists to be spying.

On October 24, 2018, Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi, the Tehran prosecutor, said that 
the prosecutor’s office had elevated the charges against four of the detainees 
to "sowing corruption on earth," which includes the risk of the death penalty.

Dolatabadi claimed that the activists were "seeking proximity to military sites 
with the cover of environmental projects and obtaining military information 
from them."

(source: aawsat.com)








CHINA:

China Clarifies Inmate Rights in Death Penalty Cases



In an effort to improve the protection of death row inmates’ rights and 
welfare, China’s Supreme People’s Court released a new guideline on August 9 to 
clarify and control capital punishment "review and execution procedures," 
according to China Daily.

Set to take effect on September 1, the guideline is composed of 13 articles and 
states, among other things, that inmates nearing the date of their execution 
are only able to meet with close family members - including spouses and 
children. More distant relatives, as well as friends, are also allowed to meet 
with a death row inmate ":subject to reason."

The guideline goes on to state that courts are responsible for informing 
convicts on death row that they have the right to meet with family, and, if a 
person refuses an invitation to visit an inmate, the incarcerated individual 
must also be notified. Meetings with children or family members under 18 years 
of age require parental approval; video calls can be arranged after review if 
it is concluded that an in-person meeting may harm a child’s psychological 
wellbeing.

In addition to noting that condemned individuals’ last words can be recorded in 
audio or video format, the China Daily article states that the Supreme People’s 
Court is "reviewing the death penalty itself," although no further details are 
provided.

In China, it is not uncommon for lower level, local courts to sentence 
criminals to death, although all sentences involving capital punishment must be 
submitted for approval to the nation’s top court.

This review process began in 2007, when, for the 1st time in more than 20 
years, China decreed that all death sentences must be submitted to the Supreme 
People’s Court for final approval. The intention was to bring consistency to 
the assignment of life-ending punishments and reduce the number of executions.

While most of the people handed the death penalty in China are convicted of 
murder or drug crimes, China’s top court announced last month that those 
involved in "extremely vile" sexual assault against children will be sentenced 
to death.

On the same day as the announcement, convicted rapist He Long was executed in 
Shandong province. He was found guilty of raping girls under 14 years of age 
and forcing them into prostitution, according to Xinhua.

Statistics on the number of executions carried out in China each year are not 
released by the Central Government in Beijing.

(source: thatsmags.com)