[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

January 26




THAILAND:

Woman who laundered drug money gets death penalty



The Criminal Court has handed down a death sentence to a Myanmar woman for 
laundering dirty money and her connection with the methamphetamine trade.

The court passed sentence on Myint Thein Aye, 43, after finding her guilty of 
several counts including laundering money from meth that she possessed, 
trafficked and financed.

She was arrested in November 2017 when Narcotics Suppression Bureau officers 
intercepted her van in Bangkok. Investigators had been tracking the gangs she 
led for years.

She claimed she had travelled from Myanmar for medical treatment in Bangkok and 
ran a foreign-exchange business in Thailand and her country.

However, police believed Myint Thein Aye was a key figure in a drug gang, 
handling the money from the meth trade.

Her name had been on the wanted list after NSB officers busted a gang in Mae 
Sai district in Chiang Rai in 2016 by posing as drug buyers. They agreed on a 
price of 13.5 million baht and were told to transfer the money into a bank 
account under the woman’s name in Mae Sai.

The money was laundered to open jewellery and gold shops, as well as a hotel 
business in the 2 countries, according to the NSB.

Police also cracked down other members of the gang when they raided a house in 
Samut Prakan in December 2017.

(source: Bangkok Post)








CHINA:

Fatal bus attacker convicted of homicide, given death penalty



A court in northwest China's Shaanxi Province sentenced a man to death Friday 
after it found him guilty of homicide for starting a deadly bus attack in June 
2018.

The ruling was handed down by the Intermediate People's Court of Xi'an, capital 
of Shaanxi Province, in a first-instance trial.

The court heard that Xin Haiping, 40, who claimed that he had been infected 
with a serious disease after being stabbed by someone with a needle while 
traveling on a bus, harbored a grudge against members of the public and started 
an attack with a preempted knife against passengers on an east-bound bus for 
Line 302 in the city of Xi'an on June 22, killing 4 people and leaving 7 others 
slightly injured. The court said out of revenge against members of the public, 
Xin launched the fatal bus attack, causing multiple deaths and injuries, and 
committed a crime, posing "extremely great threat" to the people.

The court decided that Xin should be sentenced to death for the crime of 
homicide and be deprived of political rights for life.

Xin said at the court that he would file an appeal.

(source: xinhuanet.com)








IRAN----execution

Man hanged at Tabas Prison



A prisoner was hanged yesterday at the prison of Tabas, South Khorasan 
Province, Iran.

According to Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA), on the morning of Thursday, 
January 24, at Tabas central prison. He was arrested in the summer of 2017 for 
murdering 2 people.

Ebrahim Ramezani, the judge of South Khorasan first branch criminal court, 
said: “the man was a young worker who killed the employer and his wife.” 
However, the identity of the executed prisoner was not revealed in the report.

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.

(source: Iran Human Rights)