[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Oct. 6



BOSNIA:

Constitutional Court of BiH abolished Death Sentence



Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) abolished death sentence 
in Republika Srpska (RS) entity! Considering the appeal of the Bosniak Club to 
the RS Council for the Constitutional Review of Article 11 paragraph 2 of the 
RS Constitution, the BiH Constitutional Court decided that such a norm could no 
longer exist in the RS Constitution.

Namely, the Constitutional Court stated that with the entry into force of 
Protocol No. 13 to the European Convention, the death penalty was abolished in 
all circumstances, and that the said Protocol constitutes a legally binding act 
for all levels of government in Bosnia and Herzegovina, including its entities.

In a statement to the RTRS, the President of the Constitutional Court of BiH, 
Zlatko Knezevic, said that the RS institutions have three months to delete that 
provision, which virtually ceased to exist today with the Constitutional 
Court’s decision.

Currently, only Belarus still enforces the death penalty, and Russia has 
imposed a moratorium on its execution since 1999, Radio Sarajevo reports.

(source: Sarajevo Times)








LEBANON:

Lebanon Hails Court Verdict on 1999 Killing of 4 Judges



Lebanese officials hailed on Saturday a court verdict indicting the accused in 
the 1999 assassination of 4 judges in the southern city of Sidon.

President Michel Aoun said: “Justice has been served even if it is late,” said 
Aoun, as he called for amendments in the Code of Criminal Procedure in order to 
prevent any delay in future proceedings.

In 1999, four judges were assassinated inside the South Lebanon Criminal Court 
at the old Justice Palace in Sidon.

“Justice is served even after a while. A salute to the Judicial Council which 
issued its verdict in the assassination case of the 4 judges. Our sincere 
solidarity today is with the families of the martyrs,” said Prime Minister Saad 
Hariri in a tweet.

Justice Minister Albert Serhan said: “Justice is taking its course... the 
decision of the Judicial Council is good news for all, judges and citizens.”

On Friday, the Judicial Council led by Judge Jean Fahed inflicted the death 
penalty on Ahmed Abdulkarim aka Abu Mehjen. 5 of his companions were sentenced 
to death in absentia for hiding in the southern Palestinian camp of Ain 
al-Hilweh camp, the National News Agency said.

Wissam Hussein Tuhaibesh, Palestinian, was acquitted for insufficient evidence 
and released immediately unless convicted of another crime, NNA added.

(source: naharnet.com)








IRAN:

New Signs of Expanded Reliance on the Death Penalty in Iran



Authorities in the northern Iranian city of Rasht carried out the latest in a 
long line of public executions on Wednesday, hanging a man who had allegedly 
killed a security agent.

The incident took place on the same day that four others were put to death in 
Rajai Shahr Prison alone, signifying a probable acceleration of the 
implementation of capital punishment throughout the country.

The apparent increase in executions only serves to further safeguard Iran’s 
status as the nation with the highest per-capita rate of executions in the 
world. No other country exceeds the Islamic Republic in terms of the raw number 
of death sentences carried out each year. Iran also leads the world in terms of 
death sentences meted out and implemented for persons who were under the age of 
18 at the time of their crimes.

As a signatory to both the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the 
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Iran is formally barred 
from this practice under all circumstances, but the Iranian judiciary routinely 
dismisses that provision by saying that it conflicts with the religiously-based 
laws of the Islamic Republic. The same international agreements also 
technically bar Iran from other activities that nonetheless remain commonplace, 
including the execution of supposed criminals whose offenses do not rise to an 
international standard for the “most serious crimes.”

Wednesday’s executions may have included at least two offenses of this type. Of 
the 4 men hanged at Rajai Shahr, 2 had been convicted of murder, while the 
other 2 had been accused of “enmity against God.” This vague, political charged 
was originally established so as to apply only to armed insurrection against 
the Iranian regime. But in practice, the charge is known in Farsi as 
“Mohabareh” has been applied to a wide range of individuals deemed to be a 
threat to the theocratic system. This includes supporters of the leading 
Iranian opposition group, the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI, 
Mujahedin-e Khalq or MEK) – even those whose support is limited to financial 
donations.

It is unclear what, if any, actual activities were undertaken by the two men 
executed on Wednesday which justified their death sentence. And Iran’s state 
media is little help since it often fails to report not only the details of 
capital cases but also the very fact that an execution has taken place. As 
such, various human rights advocates have taken it upon themselves to gather 
information about executed prisoners, relying on fellow inmates and other 
witnesses to the killings.

Uncertain Figures

But this still leaves an incomplete picture of the regime’s record when it 
comes to executions, and many of the relevant human rights defenders have 
warned that the figures for the past several months could still grow, or may 
never be known in their entirety. Even the figures for 2018 may be incomplete, 
but it is known that the judiciary carried out at least 285 capital sentences 
during that 12-month period. Respective to Iran’s population, this represents 
the highest rate of executions in the world.

Looking at the entire period since Hassan Rouhani assumed the presidency in 
2013, at least 3,800 people have been put to death, for an annual average of 
around 630 per year.

Although Tehran has taken no measures to halt politically motivated executions 
or the execution of juvenile offenders, non-violent drug offenders comprised 
such a large proportion of the total number of executions that a change in 
sentencing policy was seen as a relatively easy way to shift the narrative 
concerning the regime’s human rights record.

No Mitigating Factors

In the last week of September, at least 11 individuals were executed in the 
course of just 2 days. Of these, 8 were identified as drug offenders. 4 of 
those men were also put to death en masse in Rajai Shahr Prison, along with 2 
men who had been convicted of murder. One of the 11 individuals was also 
female, having been sentenced to death for allegedly killing her husband.

Leila Zarafshan was reportedly the 95th woman to be executed in the Rouhani 
era. Her case may also be indicative of the Iranian judiciary’s categorical 
disregard for all mitigating factors in the presence of murder accusations. 
Iran Human Rights Monitor raised some questions about the circumstances 
surrounding her crime when it pointed out that, statistically, most Iranian 
women who murder their husbands are victims of abuse.

According to Iran Human Rights, Zarafshan was suffering from a mental 
disability. Sources close to Zarafshan indicate that this may have affected her 
decision-making and behavior, thereby diminishing her responsibility in the 
eyes of any other modern legal system.

But under Iran’s system, Zarafshan was never given a forensic medical exam, 
even though she had previously been hospitalized for mental illness. This is 
reminiscent of the legal neglect that is on display in many cases that lead to 
the execution of juvenile offenders.

The Iranian penal code allows for boys to be held legally responsible and thus 
executed at as young as 13. For girls, the limit is only 9.

In recent years, numerous juvenile death penalties have been sent back to court 
for review on the basis of claims of diminished responsibility, often in 
response to an international outcry. But in virtually all such cases, the 
original death sentences have been upheld after judges insisted that the 
defendant had been sufficiently mature to be eligible for the death penalty.

In many such cases, the sentence is questionable according to international 
standards, regardless of the age of the defendant. This is partly because 
criticism of juvenile execution often overlaps with criticism of a chronic lack 
of due process in Iranian court proceedings. And it is partly because a large 
proportion of the murder charges levied against juveniles involve young people 
who were killed as part of a fight that may have included numerous 
participants.

Under other modern legal systems, these types of cases might be expected to 
lead to charges of second or third-degree murder, or to charges of 
manslaughter. But Iran’s criminal justice system does not acknowledge different 
degrees of murder, and so every crime that leads to a victim’s death is treated 
as a capital case, with the potential for a single principle perpetrator to be 
executed.

Part of a Larger Trend

In March of this year, a cleric by the name of Ebrahim Raisi was selected to 
take over as the head of Judiciary, despite protests from those who were away 
of his long history of human rights violations, including his prominent role in 
the execution of 30,000 political prisoners in the summer of 1988. Many of the 
critics warned that his appointment would signify increased repression and 
violence by law enforcement and prosecutors. And subsequent executions have 
only been part of the evidence supporting this view.

Other signs include the hostage-taking of dual and foreign nationals, the 
harassment of persons who are related to activists living outside the Islamic 
Republic, and systematic violence against protests and organizers inside the 
country.

Meanwhile, the Iranian-British dual national Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe wrote 
her own letter pleading for early release from a five-year prison sentence she 
was given after being accused, in April 2016, of being “one of the leaders” of 
an “infiltration network” that Tehran has long alleged to be operating 
throughout Iranian society. No evidence has been presented to support that 
allegation.

The 40-year-old charity worker’s letter coincides with the news that her 
daughter Gabriella, whose passport was confiscated when the pair were trying to 
return to Britain at the time of the arrest, will soon leave to begin 
kindergarten in her home country. “I have no hope or motivation after my baby 
goes. There is no measure to my pain,” Zaghari-Ratcliffe wrote as part of a 
message that also called attention to how she had been put “on-sale” by the 
Iranian regime by being held as a sort of bargaining chip as Tehran pursues the 
repayment of old debts and other concessions from the West.

At least 17 dual and foreign nationals are known to be held in the Islamic 
Republic today.

(source: irannewsupdate.com)








BANGLADESH:

Court postpones verdict in Dhaka schoolgirl Risha murder case



A Dhaka court has deferred the verdict in the murder case of Willes Little 
Flower School student Suraiya Akter Risha after police failed to produce the 
accused.

Metropolitan Sessions Court Judge KM Imrul Kayes has fixed Oct 10 to deliver 
its judgment in the case.

Earlier, the judge announced that he would announce a verdict on Oct 6 after 
hearing the arguments of both sides.

However, police informed the court on Sunday morning that the lone suspect 
Obayedul Khan could not be brought in as the members of the law enforcement 
were engaged in security assignments during the Durga Puja festival.

Suraiya was allegedly stabbed by Obayedul, a worker of a tailoring shop in 
Elephant Road area, on a footbridge outside her school on Aug 24, 2016. She 
died 4 days later.

Her mother started a case against Obayedul after the attack, saying he had 
sexually harassed the girl.

Police arrested him in Nilphamari 8 days after the attack amid protests by 
students of the institution.

During interrogation, Obayedul confessed to killing Suraiya as she had rejected 
his romantic advances.

Risha's father Hossain demanded death penalty for Obayedul. "We want exemplary 
punishment for the accused. This type of crime will recur if the perpetrators 
are not brought to justice. We have been waiting for justice for three years. 
Our only demand is the execution of Obayedul.”

"If fair justice is delivered, no one will dare to commit such crime again. And 
if he (Obayedul) is freed, such incident can happen again. My two children are 
still scared."

Tapas Kumar Paul, additional pubic prosecutor, also said he expected maximum 
punishment for Obayedul. "The suspect has knifed a girl to death in broad 
daylight. He should be punished in such a way that no one else will dare to do 
such an appalling thing in future.”

Defence lawyer Faruq Ahmed claimed his client was innocent.

“Police have forcibly taken confessional statements by detaining and torturing 
his sister and brother-in-law. I hope he will be freed.”

(soure: bdnews24.com)








SOUTH AFRICA:

'Death penalty would not reduce violence in SA,' says Dennis Davis



Judge Dennis Davis shared his thoughts on calls for the death penalty to be 
reinstated in South Africa.

A petition started on 2 September calling for the death penalty to be 
reinstated in South Africa has so far garnered more than 70,000 signatures.

However, on Wednesday the Justice Department issued a statement dismissing 
calls for a referendum on bringing back capital punishment.

With emotions running high in the country following the recent brutal murderers 
of several women, including University of Cape Town student Uyinene Mrwetyana, 
many people believe the return of the death penalty will curb the increasing 
violence.

However, Judge Dennis Davis says that's not the case.

“Even if we bought back the death penalty, it is not highly unlikely, it is 
absolutely improbable that the sort of violence we see engulfing South Africa 
right now would be reduced in any measurable form.”----Judge Dennis Davis

Davis says while petitions like the one started on Monday, may point towards a 
tide of feeling in the country, he adds that the point of the Bill of Rights is 
that certain issues are put beyond the reach of the transient majority.

“Of course, I understand this notion of 'the people say so', but the answer is, 
that isn't the model we have. Just look at what a referendum did to 
England...it utterly and completely destroyed that society.”----Judge Dennis 
Davis

Capital punishment was abolished in South Africa in 1995 by the Constitutional 
Court in the landmark case of S v Makwanyane and Another.

(source: capetalk.co.za)