[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

June 15




KUWAIT:

Police officer accused of raping Filipina maid may face death penalty — envoy



Kuwait's envoy to Manila on Friday assured Philippine officials that his 
government is exerting all efforts to arrest the police officer who allegedly 
raped a Filipino maid, noting he could face death penalty under Kuwaiti laws.

Ambassador Musaed Saleh Ahmad Althwaikh told the Department of Foreign Affairs 
that "an all-points bulletin" has been issued to police and immigration posts 
in Kuwait and other Gulf Cooperation Council member states to alert them that 
Fayed Naser Hamad Alajmy, a 22-year-old Kuwaiti police officer, is facing 
criminal charges for rape.

Foreign Affairs Undersecretary for Migrant Workers' Affairs Sarah Lou Arriola 
met with Althwaikh Friday to convey the Philippine government's concern on the 
incident.

Althwaikh said the suspect has been charged with rape under Article 186 of 
Kuwait Penal Law No. 16/1960, which states that: "Anyone having sexual 
intercourse with a woman without her consent, through the use of force, threats 
or deception, shall be liable to the death penalty or life imprisonment.

The law further states: "If the offender is an ascendant of the victim or one 
of the persons entrusted with her upbringing or welfare or vested with 
authority over her, or a servant or a servant of any of the above-mentioned 
persons, he shall be liable to the death penalty.”

Alajmy was the one who assisted the Filipina for finger scanning registration 
at the airport upon her arrival in Kuwait on June 4.

Later on, Alajmy reportedly kidnapped and assaulted the worker, according to 
the Philippine Embassy.

Quoting Althwaikh, a Department of Foreign Affairs statement said: "The Kuwaiti 
government is exerting all efforts for the speedy arrest of the suspect."

The DFA said the Philippine Embassy will continue to provide legal and other 
necessary assistance to the victim, who started working for her employer in 
Kuwait. She is working in the same household with three other Filipina domestic 
helpers.

According to the DFA, the employer of the Filipina is also cooperating with the 
embassy and local authorities on the case.

(source: gmanetwork.com)








IRAN----execution

Man Hanged at Gorgan Prison



A man hanged at Gorgan prison for murder charges last Sunday.

According to HRANA, on the early morning of June 9, Hashem Amiri, 47, was 
executed at the northern Iranian city of Gorgan’s prison. He was a father of 3 
kids.

“Hashem Amiri was a worker at a shopping centre 4 years ago. At that time, he 
fought with a shop owner and hit his head with a rod. The shop owner was killed 
and Hashem was sentenced to death,” a well-informed source said.

The aforementioned execution has not been announced by Iranian authorities or 
media so far.

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)








SAUDI ARABIA:

Fate of Saudi Religious Scholars on Death Row



Last month, the London-based Middle East Eye reported that 3 Saudi religious 
scholars—Sheikh Salman al-Awdah, Awad al-Qarni, and Ali al-Omari—were going to 
receive the death penalty after the end of Ramadan. The report cited two 
sources in the Saudi government and one of the detained Islamic scholar’s 
relatives.

Currently, Awdah, Qarni, and Omari are charged with terrorism and awaiting 
trial at the kingdom’s Criminal Special Court in Riyadh. The arrest of these 
three “moderate” clerics in September 2017 triggered a chorus of condemnation 
from abroad, including from the United Nations and numerous human rights 
organizations like Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. Their 
detention occurred two months before the Ritz Carlton saga in which Crown 
Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MbS) ordered the arrest of scores of wealthy and 
prominent Saudi royals, merchants, and billionaire moguls during the infamous 
“anti-corruption drive.”

Adwah, Qarni, and Omari have been tied to the Muslim Brotherhood-inspired Sahwa 
movement. Since the crown prince’s ascendancy, his fears of revolutionary 
activism in the region spreading into Saudi Arabia have prompted the 
authorities in Riyadh to wage a campaign of repression against Sahwa-affiliated 
Islamists in the kingdom. From MbS’s perspective, the potential for the 
movement to compete with him for power while operating outside of his control 
represents an unacceptable threat not only to the Saudi monarchy’s Islamic 
legitimacy but also to its survival.

Awdah was punished for tweeting that he hoped for a resolution to the Qatar 
crisis shortly after MbS had a telephone conversation with the emir of Qatar on 
September 8, 2017. This cleric spent half of the 1990s behind bars because he 
advocated political change in the kingdom. Awdah has delivered hundreds of 
lectures and produced hundreds of articles that mainly address Islamic law. He 
is known for promoting “moderate” and “democratic” values. Awdah is the 
assistant secretary-general of the International Union of Muslim Scholars 
(IUMS), a Qatar-based institution understood to be affiliated with the Muslim 
Brotherhood, which the Saudi government recognizes as a terrorist entity. The 
kingdom’s public prosecutor has leveled 37 charges against him.

Qarni also landed in trouble after pushing for a rapprochement between Riyadh 
and Doha. He is a preacher, academic, and author who had 2.2 million Twitter 
followers at the time of his arrest. Omari, a popular broadcaster who has 
enjoyed much popularity with younger Saudis, has earned a reputation for being 
relatively progressive on gender issues and for condemning violent extremism. 
Omari has also been a member of the IUMS. Following his arrest, Saudi Arabia’s 
public prosecutor charged Omari with “forming a youth organization to carry out 
the objectives of a terrorist group inside the kingdom” along with at least 29 
other crimes, recommending capital punishment.

These executions would further demonstrate that MbS is ignoring outside 
pressure regarding the kingdom’s record on human rights. The execution of 37 
(mostly Shi’a) Saudi citizens in April was arguably about testing the waters to 
see how the international community, especially the United States, would 
respond. Considering the lack of any significant pressure on Saudi leadership 
from the White House throughout the Jamal Khashoggi affair, MbS likely feels 
emboldened to take actions without fearing any consequence in terms of a 
backlash from the Trump administration. If Awdah, Qarni, and/or Omari receive 
the death penalty, their executions could only reinforce this notion that 
America’s current leadership is indifferent to Riyadh’s human rights record or 
the Saudi government’s targeting of dissidents abroad, such as Iyad el-Baghdadi 
in Norway.

There are important geopolitical dimensions to these three scholars’ files. 
Odah, Qarni, and Omari are not dissidents or revolutionaries. None of them 
called for the royal family to step down from power. For most of their careers, 
they avoided criticizing Al Saud royals. Yet when MbS began changing Saudi 
conduct on the international stage in major ways, the crown prince did not 
receive their support. Given that all three expressed sympathy for Qatar, or at 
least support for a Saudi-Qatari rapprochement, their executions would be 
strong evidence of Riyadh’s refusal to soften its tone when it comes to Doha.

The fate of these three Islamic scholars will likely have major ramifications 
for Saudi-Turkey relations too. On May 27, Yeni Safak published an open letter 
to King Salman written by Yasin Aktay, an advisor to Turkish President Recep 
Tayyip Erdogan. Aktay warned the Saudi monarch against executing Odah, Qarni, 
and Omari. In his words: “That which will bring disaster to you is executing 
Islamic scholars, which was recently announced. Scholars are the inheritors of 
prophets, and each scholar is a world on their own. The death of a scholar is 
like the death of the world. The killing of a scholar is like the killing of 
the world.”

Erdogan’s advisor also argued that the fate of these 3 Saudi scholars is not 
merely a domestic issue for Saudi Arabia. “The matter of Islamic scholars is 
not an internal affair. The scholars in question are assets who are 
acknowledged and revered by the whole Muslim community. They are not your 
subjects; they are our common treasures, whose advice we heed, and who are 
beacons of light with their knowledge and stance. The sin of detaining them 
even an hour in the dungeon, let alone executing them, is enough to destroy an 
entire life.” Aktay called on King Salman to use his country’s riches to 
alleviate problems across the Islamic world and to support Turkey’s quest to 
pursue justice in the case of Jamal Khashoggi, assassinated by Saudi agents in 
Istanbul last year.

The advisor’s letter displayed respect to King Salman but did not addressing 
MbS. Erdogan’s circle is attempting to make distinctions between King Salman 
and MbS, for instance by emphasizing early in the Khashoggi case that King 
Salman was not implicated or when Erdogan exchanged Eid greetings with King 
Salman in June. By asking King Salman to spare Awdah, Qarni, and Omari from 
executions, Erdogan is attempting to use his relationship with the Saudi 
monarch to prevent what many in the Sunni Muslim world consider a major 
injustice.

Turkey may want to buy more goodwill from the Saudi king at a time when Saudi 
media outlets are calling for a boycott of Turkish goods. Nervous about how 
Saudi Arabia could hurt Turkey economically by pulling out its investments from 
the country, officials in Ankara are keen to prevent a further deterioration of 
bilateral ties that could severely harm Turkey financially. If King Salman 
intervenes to spare these 3 Islamic scholars from the death penalty, such a 
development could possibly reduce tensions in the kingdom’s relationship with 
Turkey. If not, Ankara and Riyadh could see a sharp increase in friction.

(source: Kristian Coates Ulrichsen is a Fellow for the Middle East at Rice 
University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy----lobelog.com)








SOUTH KOREA:

S. Korea Declines Advice to Join Int'l Protocol Renouncing Death Penalty



The South Korean government has rejected a recommendation by its human rights 
commission to join an international protocol aimed at abolishing the death 
penalty.

The National Human Rights Commission(NHRC) said on Thursday it received 
official replies in February from the foreign and justice ministries, among 
others, explaining that at present they could not accept the recommendation.

The commission advised last September that South Korea accede to the Second 
Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, 
which renounces the use of the death penalty.

According to the commission, the ministries notified that the recommendation 
should be reviewed in the mid to long-term and approached comprehensively, 
taking into account public opinion and sentiment on capital punishment.

The commission said it is considering making another recommendation on formal 
abolition and introduction of alternative punishments.

South Korea has not carried out an execution since December 1997, however, it 
has yet to officially abolish the death penalty.

(saource: kbs.co.kr)








PAKISTAN:

Court sets hearing date for Christian couple sentenced to death on blasphemy 
charges 5 years ago----A Punjab court convicted Shagufta Kausar and Shafqat 
Masih in April 2014. She is in Multan Prison, in the same cell that lodged Asia 
Bibi. The couple was punished for a dispute between children.



After 5 years of waiting, the Lahore High Court has set a date to hear the 
appeal of a Christian couple sentenced to death on blasphemy charges. Judge 
Qasim Muhammad Khan will take up the matter on 25 June.

The Christian couple’s defence lawyer is Saif-ul Malook, who represented Asia 
Bibi, a Christian woman acquitted of blasphemy charges after spending nine 
years in prison. For Christians, the High Court decision comes as a relief.

On 4 April 2014, the District Court in Toba Tek Singh, Punjab, sentenced 
Shagufta Kausar and Shafqat Masih to the death under Section 295-C of the 
Pakistani Penal Code, commonly referred to as the “blasphemy law” ", which 
punishes the “Use of derogatory remarks, etc., in respect of the Holy Prophet”, 
i.e. Muhammad, with the death penalty.

Their accuser, a Gojra resident called Muhammad Hussain, says that on 18 July 
2013 he received a text message with blasphemous remarks on his mobile phone 
whilst praying in the mosque.

As a result of the accusations made against them, the couple was convicted and 
sentenced to death, but filed an appeal for release claiming that the evidence 
presented against them was insufficient.

The defendants say that the blasphemy charge was made to punish them over a 
dispute eight months earlier between their children and those of their 
neighbours.

The latter developed a grudge against the couple, and are believed to have 
obtained a copy of the wife’s national identity card from her place of work, 
which was used to buy a phone card to send the incriminating text messages.

The defendants’ lawyer, Saif-ul Malook, filed a request for revision before the 
High Court. To do so, he returned to Pakistan after fleeing to Europe following 
death threats from Islamic radicals for defending Asia Bibi. In Europe he 
received offers of citizenships.

Malook met Kausar in Multan prison and said that she is in the same cell that 
lodged Asia Bibi before the Supreme Court acquitted her.

"We are optimistic," says Paul Bhatti as Rimsha Masih's bail hearing postponed 
to Friday.

(source: Asia News)








INDIA:

17 sentenced to death languishing in Kerala jails----‘All the 3 central prisons 
in Kerala are overcrowded, with 1 of them functioning at 186% of sanctioned 
capacity’



The topic of prisoners’ human rights has always been a contentious one. Even as 
frequent outcries are heard to ensure their rights, 17 prisoners sentenced to 
capital punishment have been languishing in the 3 central prisons - at 
Thiruvananthapuram, Kannur and Viyyur - for long, 1 of whom has been here for 
10 years.

All the 3 central prisons of Kerala are overcrowded, with one of them now 
functioning at 186% of its sanctioned capacity, says information obtained under 
the Right To Information Act. While the Thiruvananthapuram Central Prison and 
Correctional Home has a capacity of 727, it has more than double the capacity 
accommodated here - 1,355.

Similarly, the Viyyur prison has 822 inmates, against a sanctioned strength of 
520. The Kannur Central prison can accommodate a maximum of 840 prisoners, 
while as on April 1, the number of prisoners here is 981, says the information 
collected by M K Haridas of The Proper Channel.

As per the info, the Poojappura Central Jail has a total of 9 prisoners 
sentenced to death. One of them, now aged 51, was given the punishment in 2009. 
The remaining, most of them now in their late 30s or mid-40s, have been 
awaiting death for at least a couple of years.

In Kannur jail, there are 3 prisoners - 1 of them aged 51 and 2 others 54 now - 
waiting for the death awarded in 2013, 2012 and 2015. In Viyyur jail, there are 
5 prisoners who were sentenced to capital punishment. One of them was given 
death sentence at the age of 23 in 2017. Though there have been debates and 
demands opposing capital punishment, the prisoners’ human rights are often 
neglected, Haridas says.

“Going to bed and waking up with menacing thoughts of impending death would be 
painful for anyone. Wouldn’t that fall under the purview of human rights? 
Shouldn’t the common principle of ‘justice delayed is justice denied’ be 
applicable to these prisoners too, who have been waiting for death for long,” 
asks Haridas.

However former jail DGP Alexander Jacob begs to differ. Capital punishment is 
awarded only in the ‘rarest of the rare’ cases, wherein pre-meditated murder 
has been proved. Of around 335-350 murders that are reported every year, only 
very few are awarded capital punishment.

Seeking exemption for them before the judicial process is completed would not 
be appropriate, he said.

“As per the Supreme Court directive, exemptions are given to those who have 
been serving sentence for over 20 years. We should let the judicial process 
reach completion, what with appeals before the SC, mercy petitions before the 
President and so on. It’s inappropriate to talk about their human rights, even 
before the judicial process is over,” he said.

(source: New Indian Express)

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

Capital punishment can only be effective if policing is strong



We thought that after the Centre amended the Protection of Children from Sexual 
Offences Act last year making the rape of girl children below 12 punishable 
with the death penalty, there would be sharp decline in such cases. But with 5 
cases reported in the last few days, 3 in UP and 2 in MP, we can see that the 
situation remains as sorry as before for children (“Life term for mastermind, 2 
others in Kathua rape-murder case,” June 11, Gulf Today).

With the Punjab court awarding life terms to 3 accused and imprisonment to 3 
others, some semblance of justice seems to be delivered in the rape of murder 
of the 8-year-old Kathua case, but stricter punishment has failed to deter 
would be perpetrators from committing such heinous crimes.

Capital punishment can only be effective if the policing machinery is strong. 
The other lacuna is the long delay in disposing cases. Only when cases of such 
nature are fast tracked and the guilty punished will the message reach the 
perverted minds of the to-be rapist.

(source: Opinion; Sheetal Chaturvedi, Gulf Today)