[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

June 18




BELARUS:

PACE 'Strongly Condemns' Secret Execution In Belarus



The Parliamentary assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) has "strongly 
condemned" the reported secret execution of a Belarusian while his case was 
still under consideration by the United Nations Human Rights Committee (UNHCR).

PACE’s general rapporteur on the abolition of the death penalty, Titus 
Corlatean, said in a statement on June 17 that by executing Alyaksandr 
Zhylnikau in recent days "Belarus has once again shown that it does not fully 
subscribe to basic European standards, and its use of the death penalty 
continues to prevent the development of deeper relations with the Council of 
Europe."

"I reiterate my call on the Belarusian authorities to introduce a moratorium on 
the death penalty, as a matter of urgency, and as a first step towards its full 
abolition. It is the only way forward,” Corlatean said.

The Minsk-based human rights center Vyasna (Spring) quoted Zhylnikau's 
relatives on June 13 as saying that his death penalty verdict had been 
implemented.

It remains unclear if the 2nd convicted person in the case, Vyachaslau 
Sukharka, was also executed.

Sukharka and Zhylnikau were convicted of murdering 3 people and sentenced to 
life in prison in December 2015.

In July 2017, the Supreme Court upheld an appeal by prosecutors and the case 
was sent for retrial, where the 2 men were sentenced to death.

At the same time, Zhylnikau filed a complaint with the UNHCR, which had 
subsequently asked Belarusian authorities to take "urgent measures and to avoid 
carrying out the death sentence" prior to the consideration of the convict's 
complaint by the committee.

Andrej Paluda, coordinator of the campaign Human Rights Defenders Against Death 
Penalty in Belarus, said the case shows that Belarus "does not share the human 
rights values and remains the last country in Europe and the former Soviet 
Union where people are executed by shooting."

Belarus is the only country in Europe and Central Asia to carry out the death 
penalty.

According to rights organizations, more than 400 people have been sentenced to 
death in Belarus since it gained independence after the collapse of the Soviet 
Union in 1991.

2 convicts were reportedly executed in November and 2 in May last year.

(source: Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty)

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

Foreign citizen who may face death penalty in Iran allowed to reside in Belarus



The Belarusian Interior Ministry has allowed Iranian Merhdat Jamshidiyan to 
stay in the country.

When reached by belsat.eu, his wife Alena confirmed the news.

The ministry will also grant the corresponding status to him for ‘humanitarian 
reasons’, RFE/RL quotes Alyaksei Byahun, Head of the Citizenship and Migration 
Department.

Merhdat Jamshidiyan has been living in Belarus for more than 20 years and, with 
the exception of the last two years, he had had registration. But for the last 
7 years Iran has been asking to give out the man, because the state suspects of 
murdering his mother and brother (for the record, he was an opposition 
activist) in September, 2012. It should be noted that Merhdat was staying in 
Belarus at that moment. Even if a man is found not guilty in his homeland, he 
may still be executed; in Belarus, he converted to Christianity, which is 
considered as apostasy.

For the year to date, 902 Belarusians have signed an appeal to the authorities 
asking ‘not to send Merhdat to his doom’.

(source: belsat.eu)








FRANCE:

80 years since Versailles execution stopped public guillotine spectacles



80 years ago on Monday, a crowd gathered to watch what was to become the last 
public execution by guillotine in France — a grim spectacle that was captured 
on film.

Onlookers lined up for hours to be in the front row to see the blade fall on 
the neck of convicted murderer Eugen Weidmann.

His execution took place in front of the doors of the Saint-Pierre prison, in 
the centre of Versailles, on June 17, 1939.

Executions were supposed to take place before sunrise, but dealing with the 
crowd delayed preparations and reporters were able to take photos and even film 
the event.

The shocking images and the behaviour of the baying crowd led France to banish 
the use of guillotines to within prison walls until their final use, in 1977.

Weidmann, a 31-year-old German with a string of previous criminal convictions, 
was sentenced to death for six murders committed in France with 3 accomplices. 
Among their victims was an American dancer who had come to Paris to visit the 
1937 World's Fair.

The condemned man was led out with his hands tied behind his back and white 
shirt turned down to keep his neck clear.

Among those watching was the future Dracula actor Christopher Lee, who was then 
17. He was attending with a friend of his family who was a journalist.

In his autobiography, he described the "powerful wave of howling and shrieking" 
that greeted Weidmann’s appearance on the street.

He said he could not bring himself to watch Weidmann’s execution. "I turned my 
head, but I heard," he told a documentary in 1998.

Lee recalled how spectators "rushed to the corpse” and some “did not hesitate 
to soak handkerchiefs and scarves in the blood spread on the pavement, as a 
souvenir.”

Another witness, Marcel, who was 15 at the time, described similar scenes in an 
interview with AFP in 2001.

The guillotine was “quickly dismantled, the pavement quickly washed with 
water," and life resumed its course "with the passage of the first tram and the 
reopening of the 2 neighbouring cafes.”

But French leaders were concerned that the images and descriptions circulated 
overseas gave a poor image of France and President Albert Lebrun moved to end 
public executions.

In a decree on 24 June, 1939, future executions were limited to “the premises 
of the penitentiary establishment" and would be witnessed only by officials 
including magistrates, doctors, police and a priest.

But it was many decades before guillotines were outlawed altogether. The last 
bladed execution of a death row inmate in France was on September 10, 1977, 
when Hamida Djandoubi was guillotined in the Baumettes prison in Marseille. The 
death penalty was definitively abolished in 1981.

(source: euronews.com)








SRI LANKA:

The Solution to Drug Trafficking must have Human Rights at its Core



Maru Sira (his real name being D.J. Siripala) died at Bogambara Prison in 
Kandy, on August 7 1975. He was executed by hanging, on the direction of the 
State. He had been convicted, in absentia, of the crime of murder. Controversy 
surrounded his execution: he was unconscious when he was taken to the gallows, 
he was laid on a stretcher across the trapdoor, with the noose around his neck. 
His slumped position and the shorter fall of just two feet and two inches, when 
the usual distance of the fall is six feet, reportedly caused death by 
asphyxiation as a result of a slow strangulation. If he had been standing, his 
death would have been instantaneous. It is reported that it took 18 minutes for 
him to die due to the manner in which his execution was conducted.

The horror of this execution has given Maru Sira much more publicity and 
status, perhaps, than if he had continued to live. His execution has assured 
for him a place in folk history, in art and in film, for the brutal way in 
which his life was taken away from him, under the aegis of the law.

Indeed, Sri Lanka has not executed anyone since 1976 and has been an 
abolitionist in practice. In this, Sri Lanka follows a global trend of shifting 
away from this cruel punishment. By the end of 2018, 106 countries in the world 
had fully abolished the death penalty in national legislation and 142 countries 
are now abolitionist in law and practice. There was a 31% decrease in known 
executions year-on-year in 2018; the lowest total Amnesty International 
recorded in the last decade. This excludes the thousands of executions that we 
believe continued to be carried out in China.

However, despite Sri Lanka’s history of not executing people, since July 2018 
President Maithripala Sirisena has publicly expressed his resolve to resume 
executions in Sri Lanka after 43 years.

This announcement has been succeeded by a number of alarming actions with the 
intention of undertaking executions in the past six months. Quite apart from 
the departure from State practice for over 4 decades, the criteria for resuming 
executions in Sri Lanka, remains deeply problematic.

President Sirisena has stated from time to time that the 1st to be executed 
will be those who are (a) under sentence of death for drug-related offences; 
(b) engaging in drug trafficking from within prison and (c) are Sri Lankan 
nationals (this last criteria being included after it was discovered that four 
Pakistani nationals are convicted of drug-related offences but would not be 
included in the list). The Ministry of Justice is reported to have sent a list 
of 13 names to the President, on his request. It still remains unclear whether 
the unfortunate souls whose names are on the “death list” have been informed of 
the fact, or whether they are prepared for the fate that now appears to await 
them.

To add to this uncertainty, how the President will determine which death row 
prisoners have engaged in drug trafficking from within prison (which is a 
separate crime for which there should be a separate judicial determination) is 
also unclear. In order to ensure that the right to a fair trial is guaranteed, 
the determination of whether a person did indeed commit a crime cannot be by 
the prison authorities or by the Ministry of Justice, but by a court of law.

These are well-established principles, both in domestic law and in 
international law. Much ambiguity clouds the manner in which the 13 persons 
were selected for execution. As of February 2019, 48 persons on death row were 
sentenced on drug related offences, despite the fact that drug-related offences 
do not meet the threshold of the “most serious crimes” to which the death 
penalty must be restricted under international law in countries where this 
punishment has not yet been abolished. Moreover, at least six new death 
sentences were handed down in 2018 for drug related offenses.

Like most countries, the criminal justice system in Sri Lanka is far from 
perfect and torture and other abuses in custody are rampant. This has been 
highlighted by the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka in its report to the 
Committee against Torture in 2016, when it submitted as follows:

“torture is routinely used in all parts of the country regardless of the nature 
of the suspected offence for which the person is arrested. For instance, those 
arrested on suspicion of robbery, possession of drugs, assault, treasure 
hunting, dispute with family/spouse, have been subjected to torture. The 
prevailing culture of impunity where those accused of torture is concerned is 
also a contributing factor to the routine use of torture as a means of 
interrogation and investigation.” Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka, 2016

In addition, both the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka and the UN Special 
Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers, have highlighted other 
problems within the criminal justice system, which point to a possibility that 
due process safeguards and the right to a fair trial may be violated in Sri 
Lanka. Studies from different countries also show that people from less 
advantaged economic backgrounds, and those belonging to racial, ethnic or 
religious minorities disproportionately carry the weight of the death penalty. 
The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has similarly 
warned that the death penalty disproportionately affects those living in 
poverty.

But an additional problem arises when one considers whether drug-related crime 
would be resolved by executing anyone. There is no evidence to show that death 
penalty has a unique effect in reduction of crime. In fact, there is evidence 
that other countries are coming to such a realisation. In Iran, for example, 
the use of the death penalty for drug related crimes was reduced in January 
2018, in an acknowledgment that the death penalty does not deter drug offences- 
by a State which has a trend of high numbers of executions for a variety of 
crimes.

In relation to offenses related to drugs, not only is the death penalty in 
violation of international law and standards, it also will have little effect 
on the very issue it seeks to resolve.

Answers to address problems associated with drug trafficking must be sought 
elsewhere. The UN Office on Drugs and Crime has illustrated how, despite heavy 
penal laws, drug trafficking is a booming business while human rights 
violations have become widespread in the so-called “war on drugs”. Despite 
heavy penalties, including the death penalty, punitive drug policies have been 
recognised by UN bodies as ineffective in reducing drug trafficking or in 
addressing problems associated with the use, production and sale of drugs, “and 
continue to undermine the human rights and well-being of persons who use drugs, 
as well as of their families and communities.”

A crucial element to find real and lasting solutions to the problems posed by 
drug trafficking lies in addressing the root causes of the problem. Governments 
should pay particular attention to the underlying socio-economic factors that 
are leading people to engage in the drug trade, including ill-health, denial of 
education, unemployment, lack of housing, poverty and discrimination. By 
putting the protection of public health and human rights at the centre of drug 
policies, governments could also be in a much better position to address other 
long-standing concerns, such as ensuring equality and non-discrimination, and 
avoiding the violence associated with illicit drug markets.

It is equally important to address the deep-rooted injustices in criminal 
justice systems that are leading to disproportionate impacts on marginalised 
groups. In this sense, a decisive step is to end the death penalty for drug 
related offenses as a first step towards the full abolition of this cruel 
punishment. Moreover, governments should also look into amending its criminal 
laws and consider implementing alternatives to the criminalisation of minor and 
non-violent drug offences that are mostly affecting people from marginalised 
groups, often women and people from racial, ethnic or other minorities.

Certainly, the illicit drug market has provided enormous corrupting power to 
organised criminal gangs that need to be addressed. But as long as governments 
fail to invest in policies that truly put the protection of health and human 
rights at the centre, the blanket prohibition of drugs will continue to be a 
war on people affecting particularly the poorest and most marginalised sectors 
of society.

To bring back executions would not only be an indictment on our society- it 
would also be a dark moment in the history of Sri Lanka, one that we would be 
loath to explain to future generations. Instead of focusing on punitive and 
repressive responses to tackle the problems associated with drugs, the 
Government should explore new regulatory models that truly put the protection 
of health and human rights at the centre of State policy.

(source: groundviews.org)








PAKISTAN:

Pakistan Halts Execution Of Mentally Ill Man



Pakistan's Supreme Court says it has halted the execution of a mentally ill 
prisoner who has spent more than 13 years on death row following pressure by 
human rights activists.

The court has suspended the execution of Ghulam Abbas "till further orders," 
spokesman Shahid Kambohyo said on June 17.

Abbas, 36, was scheduled to be hanged on June 18 for stabbing a neighbor in 
2006.

Justice Project Pakistan (JPP), which campaigns against the death penalty, has 
filed an application to stay the execution after Abbas was denied medical 
attention by an independent psychiatrist and 2 government doctors.

Abbas has evidence of psychotic illness with hallucinations and behavior 
disturbances, Justice Project Pakistan said in a statement on June 16.

Pakistan is a signatory to the international Convention on the Rights of 
Persons with Disabilities (CPRD), which guarantees the dignity of individuals 
with disabilities.

Pakistan lifted a 7-year unofficial moratorium on the death penalty after 
Islamist militants killed more than 150 people, mostly children, at a school in 
the northwestern city of Peshawar in December 2014.

Pakistan has since executed 508 prisoners, according to the JPP.

There are over 2 dozen death penalty offences, including blasphemy, under 
Pakistani law.

According to an estimate, over 4,600 prisoners are on death row.

(source: Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty)








BANGLADESH:

SC starts appeal hearing of war criminal Azhar



Supreme Court has begun appeal hearing against death penalty of convicted war 
criminal and former Jamaat-e-Islami leader ATM Azharul Islam.

A four-member bench of the Appellate Division headed by Chief Justice Syed 
Mahmud Hossain began the hearing this morning.

At the start, lawyer Advocate Joynal Abedin Tuhin read out from the paper book 
of the case.

International Crimes Tribunal 1 on December 30, 2014 sentenced Azharul, 
assistant secretary general of Jamaat, to death for committing crimes against 
humanity during the Liberation War.

Later on, Azharul filed an appeal with the SC challenging the verdict.

In the appeal, he prayed to the Appellate Division to acquit him of the charges 
claiming that he is innocent.

(source: The Daily Star)




SAUDI ARABIA:

Using Saudi death penalty vs. children is barbaric [Adam Coogle is the senior 
Middle East researcher at Human Rights Watch who follows developments in Saudi 
Arabia. The opinions expressed in this commentary are his own. View more 
opinion articles on CNN.]

The shameful ledger of Saudi human rights abuses accrues by the day. Since 
Mohammad bin Salman became the Kingdom's crown prince in 2017, the list 
includes the jailing and alleged torture of prominent Saudi women's rights 
activists, a mass execution in April of largely Shia citizens convicted in 
unfair trials and the murder of the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The Saudi 
government has denied the crown prince's involvement in the murder.

And the capital trial of Murtaja Qureiris, an 18-year-old who was facing the 
death penalty for offenses he allegedly committed when he was just 10 or 11 
years old, would have been another example of the Saudi's human rights abuses.

But on Saturday, in what could ostensibly be the result of international 
pressure, it was reported that Qureiris will not be executed and could be 
released by 2022.

Although this is promising news, the fact that the Saudi government even 
considered the execution of Qureiris is troubling.

Saudi Arabia is one of only a handful of countries that impose the death 
penalty against children, which flies in the face of its international 
obligations.

Its public prosecutor's office, which since 2017 has operated under the royal 
court where Mohammad bin Salman holds sway, sought the death penalty against 
Qureiris, a member of Saudi Arabia's Shia community. Prosecutors allege that 
Qureiris' crimes were committed in association with a protest movement in Saudi 
Arabia's Eastern Province by Shia citizens between 2010 and 2014. He is accused 
of attacking the police with Molotov cocktails, attacking a German diplomatic 
car, illegal possession of a firearm, and participation in protests and being a 
member of a "terrorist organization." Qureiris has denied these charges.

According to the European Saudi Organization for Human Rights, he was arrested 
in September 2014, when he was just 13, and has been in pretrial detention ever 
since.

Saudi women's rights activist is being tortured in 'palace of terror,' brother 
says

No child offender should ever face the death penalty, much less someone like 
Qurairis who allegedly committed offenses at such a young age. Saudi Arabia 
should enact legal reforms to halt all executions of offenders without 
exception.

Perhaps in view of this criticism, in mid-2018 the authorities sought to 
bolster the country's reputation by adopting a "Juvenile's Act" that provides 
new protections for children involved in the criminal justice system. Saudi 
Arabia trumpeted this reform in its 2018 report to the UN Human Rights Council 
during its comprehensive review of the country's human rights record. But what 
Saudi Arabia failed to mention is that the new Juvenile's Act does not apply to 
certain offenses known as "hudud," or serious crimes defined under Saudi 
Arabia's interpretation of Islamic Law that carry specific penalties.

Because prosecutors charged Qureiris with one of these offenses, he had 
remained subject to the death penalty. The evidence cited in the charge sheet 
against Qureiris includes his confession, which he says authorities extracted 
through coersion, as well as confessions of four others charged for similar 
offenses in other cases.

2 of the other confessions cited as evidence are from Ali al-Nimr and Dawood 
al-Marhoun, both of whom were teenagers at the time of their alleged offenses 
and both of whom have been on death row awaiting execution since 2014.

Unfair trials of Shia citizens for protest-related offenses are all too common. 
Human Rights Watch obtained and analyzed 10 separate trial judgments that the 
Specialized Criminal Court handed down in 2013 and 2016 against men and boys -- 
including al-Nimr and al-Marhoun -- accused of protest-related crimes. In 
nearly all these trial judgments, defendants had repudiated their confessions, 
saying they were coerced, including by beatings and prolonged solitary 
confinement.

When detainees repudiated their confessions in court saying they were extracted 
through torture, the court rejected their allegations out of hand in all cases. 
The court also refused requests to show video footage of interrogations and 
summon interrogators for questioning.

These blatantly unfair trials have resulted in the execution of dozens of Saudi 
Shia in recent years, including many of the 37 executed on April 23. One of the 
37, Abdulkareem al-Hawaj, was a teenager at the time of his alleged offenses.

(source: CNN)

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

Will The Saudis Execute The 3 Detained Clerics?



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 2 
sources in the Saudi government and 1 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 3 "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 recognises 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.

"These executions would further demonstrate that MbS is ignoring outside 
pressure regarding the kingdom’s record on human rights."

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 3 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 three 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.

"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."

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: albawaba.com)






IRAN:

5 to 10 Prisoners Scheduled to Be Executed at Rajai-Shahr Prison



At least 5 death-row prisoners were transferred to the solitary confinement of 
Rajai-Shahr Prison on Sunday. Some sources say the real number of the 
transferred prisoners is 2 times more.

According to IHR sources, on the morning of Sunday, June 16, at least 5 
prisoners were transferred to the solitary confinement of Rajai-Shahr prison in 
the Iranian city of Karaj.

Most of the prisoners are sentenced to death for murder charges. If they fail 
to win the plaintiffs’ consent, they will be executed on Wednesday. According 
to the Iranian Islamic Penal Code (IPC) murder is punishable by qisas which 
means “retribution in kind” or retaliation. In this way, the State effectively 
puts the responsibility of the death sentence for murder on the shoulders of 
the victim’s family. In qisas cases, the plaintiff has the possibility to 
forgive or demand diya (blood money).

2 of the prisoners are identified as Shahin Sheykhan and Ali Davari, from ward 
1 of the prison. IHR could not yet confirm the identity of the rest.

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

Iran's Regime Is Murdering Prisoners



The Iranian regime’s President Hassan Rouhani tries to paint himself as a human 
rights defender but the actual evidence discredits this notion, according to 
political scientist Dr Majid Rafizadeh who has been writing about the 
suspicious deaths of political prisoners in Iran’s prisons.

Last week, political prisoner Alireza Shirmohammadali was stabbed to death in 
the Greater Tehran Central Penitentiary, dying before the guards even got to 
the scene.

Shirmohammadali, 21, was on a hunger strike to protest prison conditions when 
he died, shedding light on an important situation that the regime would rather 
keep hidden, and it appears that the regime orchestrated his murder by removing 
guards from the ward, bribing prisoners to attack him, and cutting telephone 
lines.

In a letter, Shirmohammadali wrote: “We went on a hunger strike because of the 
lack of facilities and threats to personal safety inside the prison… The safety 
of our lives is of no concern to the prison authorities… Just yesterday, Reza 
Haghverdi, one of the prison officers, told us very directly that our hunger 
strike is going to end with death certificates… We have asked the authorities 
to look into our requests many times but they have not done so.”

Shirmohammadali was arrested in July 2018 on vague charges of “insulting sacred 
religious beliefs,” “insulting the supreme leader” and “propaganda against the 
state” for comments he posted on social media. These charges carry the death 
penalty in an attempt to stop people from criticising the Regime.

Under Iranian law, prisoners of different categories are supposed to be house 
separately, so that political prisoners aren’t housed with murderers, but this 
did not happen for Shirmohammadali and he is far from the only one.

During the widespread anti-regime protests last year, thousands of Iranians 
were arrested, including Vahid Heydari and Sina Ghanbari. Heydari, 22, and 
Ghanbari, 23, died shortly afterwards in police custody, with authorities 
claiming that both men killed themselves. The regime could provide no credible 
evidence that the men would do this, but brushing off suspicious deaths as 
suicides is something that the mullahs are used to.

They are still trying to claim that Iranian-Canadian Environmentalist Professor 
Kavous Seyed-Emami committed suicide after being arrested for “spying” when he 
was actually monitoring rare animals with the permission of the regime.

And these are just some of the deaths reported by the Regime. The actual number 
of deaths is likely much more.

Dr Majid Rafizadeh wrote: “In a nutshell, more and more people are being killed 
in Iran’s prisons. This should cause alarm in the international community and 
particularly the UN Human Rights Council, whose duty it is to prevent such 
atrocities and promote human rights. Instead of appeasing the Iranian regime, 
the EU must also hold Tehran accountable.”

(source for both: Iran Human Rights)








ISRAEL:

PM: Full severity of the law must be exhausted----Right-wing MKs call for 
execution of Palestinian charged with raping 7-year-old; Lawmakers allege that 
suspect was nationalistically motivated, but police say it appears to have been 
criminal in nature



Several right-wing lawmakers demanded that a Palestinian man accused of raping 
a 7-year-old Israeli girl be put to death, though police believe that the crime 
was likely not nationalistically motivated, as several politicians have 
alleged.

On Sunday, police indicted a 54-year-old Palestinian custodian from the central 
West Bank village of Dir Kadis for the kidnap and rape of a 7-year-old girl in 
a nearby settlement.

A growing list of right-wing lawmakers on Monday were demanding the death 
penalty for the suspect.

Yisrael Beytenu head Avigdor Liberman, who has pushed legislation to make it 
easier for courts to impose the death penalty in certain terror cases, called 
the incident “a well-planned attack on a small, innocent and helpless girl.”

“This is not pedophilia. This is pure terror — one of the worst kinds I have 
heard in recent years,” he said in a statement.

“This is exactly the type of case in which I would not hesitate, and demand the 
court to sentence the despicable terrorist to death,” Liberman added, accusing 
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of having blocked the legislation.

Liberman has proposed a law which would allow a death penalty conviction in 
cases of murder, but not rape.

“The vile person who committed this terrible act has no right to exist in this 
world — he and all those who helped him,” said Union of Right-Wing Parties 
chairman Rafi Peretz.

Peretz’s No. 2 Bezalel Smotrich tweeted, “If death could only be imposed on 
this scum. Nothing less. Such a monster does not deserve to breathe air in our 
world.”

The suspect, who has not been named, was charged Sunday with rape in aggravated 
circumstances, assault, and kidnapping.

According to the indictment, the defendant began working earlier this year as a 
maintenance staff member at a school in the central West Bank. There, he 
established a connection with the victim by giving her candy. He then brought 
the girl to a building near the school that was under construction, forcibly 
held her there, raped her, then released her.

A police official said they were treating the incident as a criminally, and not 
nationalistically, motivated attack.

The official said authorities were searching for an additional 2 suspects who — 
according to the victim’s testimony — pinned her down and laughed while the 
defendant raped her.

Netanyahu condemned the attack in a tweet but stopped short of explicitly 
calling for the death penalty. “The courts must exhaust the severity of the law 
with everyone responsible for this terrible act,” he wrote.

Labor MK Shelly Yachimovich accused the right-wing lawmakers of only speaking 
out against rape when there are suspicions that the act was nationalistically 
motivated.

They are “cynically and nationalistically dancing on the blood of a girl who 
was the victim of a shocking rape,” she said.

An attorney for the parents of the girl, Haim Bleicher from the Honenu legal 
aid organization, also issued a statement claiming that the crime had been 
nationalistically motivated.

According to the attorney, the attackers had told the victim that she had 
“deserved” what had happened to her.

The indictment followed a 3-month investigation carried out by the police. The 
defendant had denied all charges during the investigation, putting his word 
against the girl’s testimony.

The West Bank settlement where the defendant was employed was not named in the 
charge sheet and the girl’s parents have obtained a gag order on the identity 
of their daughter.

(source: The Times of Israel)