[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

June 19




IRAN----execution

Man Executed at Ahvaz Prison



A prisoner was hanged for murder charges at Ahvaz (Ahwaz) Central Prison last 
Saturday.

According to IHR sources, on Saturday, June 15, prisoner Mohammad Shekaf was 
hanged at the Iranian southern city of Ahvaz’s central prison. He was arrested 
on January 29, 2015, and charged with murder.

His execution is not announced by Iranian authorities or media so far.

According to the Iran Human Rights statistic department, at least 273 people 
were executed in Iran in 2018. At least 188 of them executed for 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)

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

Iran Regime Hangs Three Prisoners at Dawn in Bandar Abbas



3 prisoners were hanged at dawn on Wednesday, June 19, in Bandar Abbas, 
southern Iran.

The state-run Fars News Agency quoted the regime’s top judiciary official in 
Hormozgan Province, Ali Salehi, as saying the trio were hanged in the city’s 
central prison.

The victims’ names were not given.

Iran is the world’s number 1 executioner per capita.

On June 10, political prisoner Ali Reza Shir-Mohammad-Ali, 21, was stabbed to 
death at the Fashafouyeh Prison (Central Prison of Greater Tehran) in a 
premeditated criminal plot by the mullahs’ regime.

2 of the regime's mercenaries who attacked him were among dangerous criminals. 
Shir-Mohammad-Ali was arrested last year and sentenced to eight years in prison 
on bogus charges such as insulting Khomeini and Khamenei and propaganda against 
the regime.

He had gone on hunger strike from March 14 to April 16, 2019 in protest to lack 
of separation of political prisoners from ordinary and dangerous criminals and 
insecurity, and in protest to the dire health and living conditions in the 
prison.

Following his murder, the Iranian Resistance once again called for condemnation 
of the crimes of the clerical regime against political prisoners by the United 
Nations Security Council and the Member States, the European Union, the UN 
Human Rights Council and the High Commissioner for Human Rights, and relevant 
rapporteurs and other international human rights organizations. It once again 
insisted on the call of Maryam Rajavi for the establishment of an international 
delegation to visit prisons and political prisoners in Iran.

(source: ncr-iran.org)

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

Halt Execution of Teenager (Iran: UA 83.19)



   Urgent Action

   Danial Zeinolabedini, an 18-year-old imprisoned in Mahabad prison, West 
Azerbaijan province, is at risk of execution. He was sentenced to death in June 
2018 after an unfair trial in which he was convicted of a murder that took 
place when he was 17 years old. His execution would be a grave violation of 
international law.

Write a letter in your own words or using the sample below as a guide to one or 
both government officials listed. You can also email, fax, call or Tweet them.

Head of the Judiciary Ebrahim Raisi

C/o Permanent Mission of Iran to the UN

Chemin du Petit-Saconnex 28

1209 Geneva, Switzerland



H.E. Majid Takht Ravanchi

Permanent Mission of the Islamic Republic of Iran

622 Third Avenue, 34th Floor

New York, NY 10017

Phone: 212 687-2020 // Fax: 212 867 7086

Email: iran at un.int

Twitter: @Iran_UN

Salutation: Dear Ambassador

Dear Mr Raisi,

Iranian teenager Danial Zeinolabedini is at risk of execution in Mahabad prison 
for a crime that took place when he was 17 years old. International law 
prohibits without exception the use of the death penalty against persons who 
were below 18 years of age at the time of the crime. Iran would be in violation 
of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the International Covenant on 
Civil and Political Rights, to which it is a state party, if it executes him.

Danial Zeinolabedini, now aged 18, was sentenced to death on 3 June 2018 after 
a juvenile criminal court in the city of Mahabad, West Azerbaijan province, 
found him guilty of participating, along with four other young men, in the 
murder of a man. The court rejected his lawyer’s request that Danial 
Zeinolabedini should be issued an alternative sentence to the death penalty on 
grounds that he had not yet attained full maturity. The court reasoned that 
even though “he is younger than the other defendants [all of whom were aged 
between 18 and 20 and years old at the time of the crime], the way he speaks, 
argues and defends himself shows that his level of mental maturity is higher 
than them.” The death sentence was upheld on 27 October 2018 by the Supreme, 
Court and the request for a judicial review has been rejected. The legal 
proceedings that led to Danial Zeinolabedini’s conviction were unfair and 
flagrantly violated the principles of juvenile justice; he was not allowed 
access to a lawyer during the entire period of his pre-trial detention and 
statements he had made without a lawyer present were used against him in court.

While I accept that the Iranian authorities have a duty to bring to justice the 
perpetrators of violent crimes such as the murder in this case, I urge you to 
immediately halt any plans to execute Danial Zeinolabedini, quash his 
conviction and death sentence and grant him a fair retrial in accordance with 
the principles of juvenile justice, without resort to the death penalty and 
excluding statements obtained in the absence of a lawyer. Please ensure that he 
has access to a lawyer of his choosing. More broadly, I call on you to 
immediately establish an official moratorium on executions and stop the use of 
the death penalty against all juvenile offenders and commute their death 
sentences without delay. I further call on you to initiate a legislative effort 
to amend Article 91 of the 2013 Islamic Penal Code to completely abolish, 
without any discretion by the courts or other exceptions, the use of the death 
penalty for crimes committed by people below the age of 18, in line with Iran’s 
obligations under international law.

Yours sincerely,

(source:  Amnesty International USA)








PAKISTAN:

Man convicted of murder, rape to be hanged today



A convict, who was sentenced to death for raping and murdering his 
sister-in-law, would be hanged to death at the Haripur Central Prison on 
Wednesday morning, police and jail sources said on Tuesday.

According to the prosecution record, one Chanzeb hailing from Peshawar was 
arrested on charges of murdering his minor sister-in-law (wife’s sister) after 
raping her on February 10, 1996. After a trial of 2 years, the district and 
sessions court in Peshawar had awarded him 25 years imprisonment on May 19, 
1998. After exhausting the lower courts forum, the convict challenged his 
conviction in the Federal Shariat Court. However, after 8 years the Federal 
Shariat Court announced its judgment on the appeal on January 31, 2006, wherein 
the convict’s life term was changed into the death penalty. The convict filed 
an appeal with the Supreme Court but his death penalty was upheld. He finally 
prayed for clemency before the President of Pakistan through a petition, who 
according to record, also turned down his appeal. The Home Department Khyber 
Pakhtunkhwa issued his black warrant last week. The convict was allowed to have 
the last meeting with his family on Tuesday as he would be sent to the gallows 
at Haripur jail today (Wednesday) after the Fajr prayers, official sources 
said.

(source: thenews.com.pk)








CHINA:

2nd Canadian sentenced to death for drug smuggling in China



A court in China has sentenced Fan Wei to death for producing and trafficking 
methamphetamine. Wei is the 2nd Canadian sentenced to death this year, and his 
verdict was announced amid escalating tensions between Canada and China over 
the arrest of a Huawei executive, Meng Wanzhou, in December 2018.

According to the statement released by the court in Guangdong province, a total 
of 11 people were sentenced, including 1 American and 4 Mexican citizens. 
Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, 2 other Canadian citizens, have also been 
detained and accused of espionage-related offences. However, neither of them 
has been formally charged. In January, another Canadian, Robert Lloyd 
Schellenberg, was sentenced to death after having originally been given a 
15-year jail term.

The court had accused Fan Wei of playing a leadership role in “extraordinarily 
serious transnational trafficking and manufacturing of narcotics.” According to 
the court, the group had manufactured 63.83 kilograms of methamphetamine and 
365.9 grams of dimethylamphetamine between July and November, 2012.

In response to the verdict, Canada has requested clemency for Mr. Fan and 
accused Beijing of arbitrarily applying the death penalty. Foreign Affairs 
Minister Chrystia Freeland had condemned the use of the death penalty as “a 
cruel and inhumane punishment which should not be used in any country.” In an 
interview with journalists, on Parliament Hill, she said, “We’re very concerned 
by this sentence. Canada stands firmly opposed to the use of the death penalty 
everywhere around the world… We are obviously particularly concerned when it is 
applied to Canadians.”

Drug-dealing is punishable by death in China, and other foreigners had been 
executed for drug-related offences, with many currently on death row.

In her interview with The Globe and Mail, Doriane Lau, China researcher at 
Amnesty International, said: “The secrecy around China’s death-penalty system 
contributes to why people will be questioning the motives behind this death 
sentence… At the same time, the Chinese government has long seen the use of 
death penalty as taking tough action against drug-related crimes. The 
authorities continue to execute a significant number of individuals for 
drug-related and other offences, which do not meet the ‘most serious crimes’ 
threshold to which the use of the death penalty must be restricted under 
international law.”

According to a statement released by Global Affairs Canada, the country “has 
raised our firm opposition to the death penalty with China, and will continue 
to do so.”

(source: datac.ca)








PORTUGAL:

Extradition agreement between Macau and Portugal revealed



The full extradition agreement between Macau SAR and Portugal has been 
published at the latest Official Gazette on Monday, with criminal fugitive 
offenders the 2 jurisdictions to be handed over to the requested party in 
accordance with the agreement’s provisions.

The delivery may take place for the purpose of criminal prosecution or for the 
execution of a prison sentence in respect to court rulings within the 
jurisdiction of the requesting party.

According to the agreement, fugitives that have committed or attempted crimes 
punishable by the law of both parties with one year or more of detention are 
allowed to be surrendered.

Meanwhile, if the purpose of the extradition request is solely for detention, 
the prison sentence remaining to carried out should be no less than 6 months.

Portugal reserves the right to refuse hand over national fugitives requested by 
Macau authorities in Portugal; while the Macau SAR can refuse to surrender 
Chinese nationals, permanent residents of the Macau SAR but not Portuguese 
permanent residents.

Crimes of apolitical nature or punishable with the death penalty – enforced in 
the People’s Republic of China – can not lead to an extradition.

In addition, the agreement allows the requested party to reject extradition 
application under several situations, such as the request is contrary to the 
sovereignty, security or public order, or the request involves political or 
military crime, or due to race, sexuality, religion, etc., or crimes which will 
be punished by death penalty or irreversible damage, or the request exceeds the 
time limit for the requested party.

The central authorities which are responsible for receiving and sending 
applications concerning the surrender of fugitive offenders are the Portuguese 
Attorney General’s Office and Macau’s Public Prosecutor Office (MP).

This Agreement shall enter into force with 30 days after all the internal 
processes in both parties are completed and the official notifications are 
done.

This agreement was signed by the Portuguese Ministry of Justice Francisca Van 
Dunem and the Secretary for Administration and Justice of Macau, Sonia Chan Hoi 
Fan in May 15 at Lisbon.

(source: macaubusiness.com)